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My latest resuscitation project

nex

Experienced Member
Joined
Jan 17, 2011
Messages
77
Location
Texas
Here's a neat little guy that will be receiving some much needed TLC soon:

uniqueq.jpg


From the other pictures that I've seen, there's no telling what it has been through the past few decades. If I'm lucky, it will only need a gentle bath! (fingers crossed)
 
Fortunately, the only rare part of that computer is the metal base pan and the top cover logo. The rest of the parts are dirt common. The IIgs logic board isn't any different than the ROM1 boards used in normal machines, except that *some* normal ROM1's never had the keyboard header installed. About half of them seem to have it though, and it's trivial to add if you need to. You can't, however, use a ROM3 board in there, since it lacks the keyboard connector and the support hardware for it.

Also, it's an Apple II. Of course it works :)

Just needs a good cleaning. Nice find!

-Ian
 
Oftentimes, when a board is this dirty, the layer of dust acts as a shield against other contaminants. And a good washing will make that sucka shine like the sun!
 
By gentle bath I mean "soap and warm water on a small sponge, toothbrush, or a cotton swab." Maybe follow up with denatured alcohol in a few spots. I'm not as brave as some of you!

I believe the only unique parts are the metal sticker, the base pan, keyboard header, baseboard, and the //e power connector. Not much "value" in it other than being an interesting item for discussion. :)
 
By gentle bath I mean "soap and warm water on a small sponge, toothbrush, or a cotton swab." Maybe follow up with denatured alcohol in a few spots. I'm not as brave as some of you!
I usually mean "desolder the battery and chuck it in the dishwasher". :D

I believe the only unique parts are the metal sticker, the base pan, keyboard header, baseboard, and the //e power connector.
Pretty much. Even the ROM1 motherboard with the extra parts isn't unique, I've found many of them with the ports installed in standard IIgses. And there's nothing stopping you from installing the connectors on ROM1 boards without them.

-Ian
 
If the board ends up being bad, let me know I got a stack of ROM 01s with the appropriate connectors on it. 10 bucks you can have a whole machine..
 
Also, one thing interesting to note is that the keyboard in this machine is from an early IIe.[1] One of two possible ways this could have happened - someone used the (much nicer, IMHO) keyboard from an early IIe to replace the one in there, or when the original owner upgraded from the early rev IIe, they bought the replacement top case too. It was available as a part as part of the upgrade process through Apple, since the new IIgs base pan won't fit on the early IIe top casing.

For a while, many years ago, when the IIgs was somewhat current, at least one reseller had their own "kits" to upgrade IIe's to IIgses using ROM1 motherboards bought as Apple spare parts. They made their own bottom housings out of simple folded/punched aluminum and sold them with the kit. The resulting machine would not have an identifying sticker on the bottom or the logo on the case lid, and the inexpensive unpainted aluminum base pan would be easy to spot. The holes weren't *quite* right, but it was good enough to work for most people, and it was cheaper than the real kit.

-Ian

[1] The earliest Apple IIe's had the keyboard with the white letters, and rough textured keytops. The switches were slightly different feeling. Later IIe's had smoother keytops with black letters. The casing of the early IIe was made of a thicker foam-type plastic, like the II+ case. It had the same giant-velcro latching system to hold the top on - the plastic was not flexible. Bottom pan was aluminum. Later IIe's are the most common, having thinner, slightly flexible plastic cases, with the snap on latch mechanism in the back. Bottom pan was steel.

-Ian
 
Per UPS, the system is now sitting on my porch...so it's time to head home and see it in person. Hopefully the Apple II gods will be with me when I do the inspection and testing!
 
After a short bath, the system actually looks a lot better than I expected. The only "blemish" is some rust spots on the base pan. Here are a few pics:

appleiigsupgrade_3.jpgappleiigsupgrade_1.jpgappleiigsupgrade_2.jpgappleiigsupgrade_6.jpgappleiigsupgrade_5.jpg

So fortunately/unfortunately, this system didn't need much done to it! I still need to put a meter on the PSU before powering it up, but Keatah is right on about the layer of dust shielding the system from other nasty things.
 
Nice looking machine Nex. There is nothing quite an handsome as a clean classic computer. Little sign of yellowing which is a bonus.

Good luck with the switch on.

Tez
 
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