Last Monday I bought a Macintosh LC and other various 1990's Apple products off an ad I saw on Craigslist.
The list of things mentioned are as follows.
-Macintosh LC computer
-Apple 12" display
-ADB Keyboard
-ADB mouse
-personal 56K Modem (Serial)
-Apple StyleWriter Printer
-System 7 floppy discs
-various Mac OS games
Interested in the listing, and all of the products, I offered the guy $90 for everything mentioned. He took the offer. After asking the seller (and him confirming) if the computer was fully functional, we agreed to meet up to buy/sell the items.
After meeting, I brought the devices home and began to plug them in. First plugging in the computer and display, I scrambled around to find the keyboard cable. Turns out, the guy didn't include it, or mention it's absence. Not a big deal, so I ordered one online and waited until it arrived (today) to continue configuring the LC.
Once the cable arrived, I plugged the keyboard into the LC, plugged the mouse into the keyboard, and booted up the machine. After a few seconds, a flashing floppy disk with a question mark on it appeared on my display. No worries (or so I thought), I assumed the seller would wipe the OS and personal data off the machine before selling. So I grabbed the System 7 floppies and tried to figure out which one to try and boot the machine with to install the OS. With my inexperience in Classic OS use/installation (other than Mac OS 9), I couldn't ever figure out which floppy disk to use. So I tried them all. One by one.
Here are the ones I tried/had to choose from regarding System 7:
-Disk Tools
-Install 1
-Install 2
-Tidbits
-StyleWriter Installation Disk (knew it was a useless attempt, but bear with me)
-Printing (knew it was a useless attempt as well, but kept on trying)
-HyperCard Program
-Macintosh Printing Tools (frustration really was kicking in)
-Macintosh TrueType Fonts (remember I tried every single floppy)
-(Floppy Disk with missing tape label)
None of the System 7 floppy disks booted my machine. After the LC tried to read each disk, an image of a floppy disk with an X flashed on my display. A few times the machine actually ejected the floppies quickly after booting.
Wondering if I'd been really screwed over, I put some of the floppy disks in a USB floppy drive I had lying around with another machine and it turns out the floppy disks were just fine. So it must be the computer that has issues. Maybe a non-functional floppy disk drive?
Is there anything I've done wrong that is keeping me from using this machine? Am I missing a floppy disk?
Based on my endeavor of trying to use this old Mac, I've come to the conclusion that either the floppy disk drive is broken, or I'm missing a floppy disk to boot the system.
Any input on the matter would be highly appreciated, and thank you for taking the time to read my post.
-Alex
The list of things mentioned are as follows.
-Macintosh LC computer
-Apple 12" display
-ADB Keyboard
-ADB mouse
-personal 56K Modem (Serial)
-Apple StyleWriter Printer
-System 7 floppy discs
-various Mac OS games
Interested in the listing, and all of the products, I offered the guy $90 for everything mentioned. He took the offer. After asking the seller (and him confirming) if the computer was fully functional, we agreed to meet up to buy/sell the items.
After meeting, I brought the devices home and began to plug them in. First plugging in the computer and display, I scrambled around to find the keyboard cable. Turns out, the guy didn't include it, or mention it's absence. Not a big deal, so I ordered one online and waited until it arrived (today) to continue configuring the LC.
Once the cable arrived, I plugged the keyboard into the LC, plugged the mouse into the keyboard, and booted up the machine. After a few seconds, a flashing floppy disk with a question mark on it appeared on my display. No worries (or so I thought), I assumed the seller would wipe the OS and personal data off the machine before selling. So I grabbed the System 7 floppies and tried to figure out which one to try and boot the machine with to install the OS. With my inexperience in Classic OS use/installation (other than Mac OS 9), I couldn't ever figure out which floppy disk to use. So I tried them all. One by one.
Here are the ones I tried/had to choose from regarding System 7:
-Disk Tools
-Install 1
-Install 2
-Tidbits
-StyleWriter Installation Disk (knew it was a useless attempt, but bear with me)
-Printing (knew it was a useless attempt as well, but kept on trying)
-HyperCard Program
-Macintosh Printing Tools (frustration really was kicking in)
-Macintosh TrueType Fonts (remember I tried every single floppy)
-(Floppy Disk with missing tape label)
None of the System 7 floppy disks booted my machine. After the LC tried to read each disk, an image of a floppy disk with an X flashed on my display. A few times the machine actually ejected the floppies quickly after booting.
Wondering if I'd been really screwed over, I put some of the floppy disks in a USB floppy drive I had lying around with another machine and it turns out the floppy disks were just fine. So it must be the computer that has issues. Maybe a non-functional floppy disk drive?
Is there anything I've done wrong that is keeping me from using this machine? Am I missing a floppy disk?
Based on my endeavor of trying to use this old Mac, I've come to the conclusion that either the floppy disk drive is broken, or I'm missing a floppy disk to boot the system.
Any input on the matter would be highly appreciated, and thank you for taking the time to read my post.
-Alex