Yo compacters everywhere, Storytime here.
I was in the RE-PC computer junk, 'er, recycling store picking up a used power supply for a dead 8500 Mac donated to the senior center. On the way to the check-out sitting on the dusty floor was a forlorn SE. Up where the crates of keyboards and puny SCSI drives sit next to stacks of Quadras and Centris also sit several compact Macs with a $10 price on them along with a tag of how much RAM and those sorts of numbers. No, this forlorn SE was not among these big ticket compacts. For $10, you get a compact that works - or at least boots with no apparent issue. In the recycling business, you don't put any real bench time into a $10 compact. If it boots it is considered as working and will cost you $10. If it pukes out its boot floppy or shows any other grief, "$1 as is" is all it gets scrawled on it. At a buck, who cares if it has any RAM? Oh, and it gets placed back in the as-is department along with a bazillion ImageWriters broken mostly from being thrown onto the as-is pile. As-is is a diversity kind of place. There are x86 peecees stacked higher than the ImageWriters along with drives and every other component known to computerdom. At least at one time they were known. Most of this stuff is unidentifiable being long forgotten by the most venerable computer literate among us. As-is is but one step through a wet door on a rainy day from the dumpster. And it is a very, very big dumpster goi! ng away very full each and every day. This $1 SE deserved a better end. Even to use a few parts on my bench would be better than another minute with the smell of the dumpster ringing steel in one's nose. I mean, for cryin' out loud. Its case was decent. It's foot pads were all there. And, what is this? It is a two floppy SE but it is HEAVY. After picking up hundreds of compacts thousands of times, you get to know what they ought to weigh. This one was notably heavier than a two-floppy SE ought to be. Heavier even than a hard drive SE ought to be. Hmm... And there is nothing in the expansion slot port either. Hmm... Home at last, our dollar special goes to the bench. The case is indeed clean. After the crud is cleaned off, it is not at all yellowed. The Apple logo and foot pads are intact. The floppy slots are clear of dust bunnies. The joint between case and bezel is unscarred. Expecting to scrap this SE for parts, I will open it before I put power to it. The two upper screws are missing speeds the opening. The cover followed by the RF shield, both in decent shape, slide off exposing a clean charcoal interior with the signatures of Steve Jobs and all those other people hinting I might make lots of money on eBay with this one as a rare collectible. Do you really think so? Naw. Probably not. It looks to be an early SE with the one piece hard to navigate about frame. It has the earlier squirrel cage fan and a couple of 51W 800k floppy drives. And, well, hey? What have we down here? Through that slot in the chassis behind the drives I can see pins. Yes, pins. More pins than there ought to be where there shouldn't be any pins at all. Hey folks. There is a card down here. Let us go have a look shall we. These early chassis' with a card down there make doing anything with your fingers to release that 'tween-the-boards cable a bit of a chore. But the motherboard does yield. Well, well, well. What have we here? (Stay tuned compacters, same forum, next post) part 1 of 2 -- Compact Macs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/>. Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> Compact Macs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/compact.shtml> The FAQ: <http://macfaq.org/> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive:<http://www.mail-archive.com/compact.macs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
