Bought another ThinkPad 380D that is in great shape that also has the power supply for it (so now I'll have 3 of them).

Few code errors, but it has 80MB RAM installed (roughly).
161 and 163 - CMOS battery low - CMOS settings reset to default
301 - Key stuck or not responding
8611 - System bus error (could also be keyboard related)

Fortunately, I have a spare motherboard and keyboard/ThinkPoint from another ThinkPad 380D that's in rough shape (swapped the display to the functioning one back in December, 2019), plus a CR1220 battery. One thing I need to learn is how to remove the motherboard from the chassis, but once I remove it, then it'll be easy swaps.

Seller's photo:

Intel486dx33 wrote on 2020-05-28, 01:46:

This website has some good resources and you can access it from your color classic with Netscape 3.1 web browser. http://obsolet […]
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CrFr wrote on 2020-05-27, 20:04:

Got this macintosh Color Classic today. Seller said the condition is unknown. Usually when I see that said, I assume the seller […]
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Got this macintosh Color Classic today. Seller said the condition is unknown. Usually when I see that said, I assume the seller knows it's broken. So I sent him a real low offer, and to my surprise he accepted. This time it was nice exception, it booted right up.

Seems quite dirty, but everything is intact. No cracked plastics or anything, no big scratches, no burn in. It isn't even yellowed. Some sticker glue residue in couple of places. I think after good cleaning this will look really nice. Now only if I had mouse and keyboard for this 😒

IMG_0900_DxO.jpg

I like this plug and play motherboard, slides right out of the case.
IMG_0901_DxO.jpg

Screen has slightly darker area in the upper right corner. Other than that, it is really sharp and good looking. Seeing that it has finnish language operating system is nice.
IMG_0906_DxO.jpg

This website has some good resources and you can access it from your color classic with Netscape 3.1 web browser.
http://obsolete.macfixer.com/vintage-software/

You can download to a mac computer and then burn to a CD.
But you will need a CDROM drive for your Macintosh.

I would upgrade your Color classic with a 500gb hard-drive at least first. And add more RAM. I think it take up to 16mb.
( Apple Quantum Fireball SCSI 500mb hard drive )
All you need is 8mb to use Netscape and go online.
Also get a network card. They are cheap.
System 7.1 is light on the CPU. ( if you only have 8mb ram ) ( I think you have to install from floppy disks ).
System 7.5 used al little more resources. ( if you have 16mb ram )
Don’t put anything higher than System 7.5.1
Also get an Apple SCSI CDROM drive. You can build your own SCSI CDROM drive using the Apple CD300i or CD600i drive.
Replace the battery.
OWC computers NO longer supports this computer as it is too old. But you can find parts on eBay.

Specs

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_classi … lorclassic.html

See my Posts:
Macintosh Color Classic ( Extreme )

Thanks for the tips everyone!

Upgrades and fixes planned:
- Complete disassembly and cleaning. Now that it was mentioned, I think I will replace the capacitors just in case. They look good at the moment, but who knows when they decide to go bad. I've had bit of bad luck replacing this kind of SMD caps before, so I'm a bit hesitant about it. Tried one time to replace leaked caps on PS/2 floppy drive, and PCB traces started to come off.
- New battery coming in mail hopefully this week
- Hard drive... I think I will keep the original for now. I'm interested to see what kind of software it has on it. That finnish OS is also probably something I won't be finding online. I have couple of spares, which I could use. 2GB drive that sounds a bit sick, loud spinning noise. Or brand new in box ~100GB SCSI drive.
- 2x4MB RAM sticks coming. It is the maximum this supports.
- Math co-processor coming. I don't know if this is useful or not, but empty sockets bother me 😀
- External SCSI CD-ROM would be nice. I'd have use for it in my IBM PS/2 P70 too. I only have one stupid Pioneer 6CD changer which only reads 650MB burned discs, which are almost impossible to source nowadays. And I doubt it would work on mac anyways.
- Paid more for the keyboard and mouse than what I paid for this computer. They are on their way.

This 50€ machine is starting to get expensive 😁

bjwil1991 wrote on 2020-05-28, 04:53:

Bought another ThinkPad 380D that is in great shape that also has the power supply for it (so now I'll have 3 of them). […]
Show full quote

Bought another ThinkPad 380D that is in great shape that also has the power supply for it (so now I'll have 3 of them).

Few code errors, but it has 80MB RAM installed (roughly).
161 and 163 - CMOS battery low - CMOS settings reset to default
301 - Key stuck or not responding
8611 - System bus error (could also be keyboard related)

Fortunately, I have a spare motherboard and keyboard/ThinkPoint from another ThinkPad 380D that's in rough shape (swapped the display to the functioning one back in December, 2019), plus a CR1220 battery. One thing I need to learn is how to remove the motherboard from the chassis, but once I remove it, then it'll be easy swaps.

Seller's photo:

thinkpad-380d.jpg

I have a few of these IBM 380 Thinkpads. I thought they only support 48mb ram max. ( 16mb onboard plus a 32mn SIMM)
I would replace the battery first. That will fix most of your problems.
Also these use proprietary IBM hard drives. ( 3bg and 5gb ) 5gb is the largest drive supported in bios.
3com 3CCFE575BT PCMCIA Ethernet card is plug and play with Win95.

Well, not really a retro hardware, but whenever I score a decent retro hardware scrap pile I find myself lacking a dozen of these, so I bought some..

You can never have enough standoffs

MAZter wrote on 2020-05-28, 02:13:

Nice, what are these memory modules called? Are they have part numbers?

Pictures of the ram modules i have:

The 8M module:

The parts number for the 4MB kit:
KST-NB425/4
501255-001
KTV425SE/4
FR-PCP4M-AD
DACK42RB403 2MB module

For the 16MB kit:
KST-NB425/16
501255-002
KTV425SE/16
FR-PCP4M-AE
TS16MDEC4SE
DACK48RB401 8MB module

appiah4 wrote on 2020-05-28, 16:01:

Well, not really a retro hardware, but whenever I score a decent retro hardware scrap pile I find myself lacking a dozen of thes […]
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Well, not really a retro hardware, but whenever I score a decent retro hardware scrap pile I find myself lacking a dozen of these, so I bought some..

I actually bought a box of plastic standoffs some time ago, which plastic screws etc. Not sure yet how I feel about it.

But, yeah, I actually had to get a bag of jumpers the other day as well... 😀

These are not for use as motherboard standoffs, they are for fixing brackets to things like graphics cards (VGA connectors) and Sound Cards (Joystick Ports), etc. For some reason, whenever I find a working decent card for next to nothing in a scrap pile, it has one or more of these missing..

Indeed they are my bad. I know what you mean about them always being missing.

Not exactly today, bit a nice find anyway. Sometimes I get some mystery boxes with war other people call old computer junk, knowing it may or may not contain some interesting stuff. Often I don't go thru all stuff at once, off I find something interesting I'll get that running first.

One of these boxes had a few envelopes, marked "geheugen" ("memory" in English). I expected SDRAM or even DDR.

Opened it up and out came these two nice little AIMM modules.

Both look ok, but I haven't tested them yet...
I think my IBM Netvista P3 may have a i815 chipset to test it. Never seen these in real life before 😁

Those Aimm modules are quite the find. I've read about them and even seen articles on review sites but have never seen them in the wild.

mpe wrote on 2020-05-23, 08:37:

Bought a motheboard based on rather uncommon Socket 5 chipset - VLSI SuperCore. […]
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Bought a motheboard based on rather uncommon Socket 5 chipset - VLSI SuperCore.

Soon to be added to my Early Pentium Chipsets survey. As soon as I figure out the power connector pinout.

Is it not a standard 20-pin ATX connector? Looks like that to me. Shouldn't be too hard to find.

debs3759 wrote on 2020-05-28, 23:04:

mpe wrote on 2020-05-23, 08:37:

Bought a motheboard based on rather uncommon Socket 5 chipset - VLSI SuperCore. […]
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Bought a motheboard based on rather uncommon Socket 5 chipset - VLSI SuperCore.

Soon to be added to my Early Pentium Chipsets survey. As soon as I figure out the power connector pinout.

Is it not a standard 20-pin ATX connector? Looks like that to me. Shouldn't be too hard to find.

Given that it's a Dell mobo, I'd be not surprised if it uses Dell's weird-ass pinout that uses a standard ATX connector but with a different pinout, so if you use a standard ATX on this mobo, you either risk frying the bord or shorting the PSU.

Just a little retro thang for my modern pc

For $6 shipped, I found a Targus carrying case and foldable keyboard for my iPAQ. This should make playing Doom a little easier.

Over the past week, I acquired not one, but two Compaq Presarios 460. One at local auction site, heavily used, lacking floppy drive and screen burned-in and second by a stoke of luck bumping into a very, very obscure ad in local classifieds in comparatively great condition

wiretap wrote on 2020-05-29, 03:02:

For $6 shipped, I found a Targus carrying case and foldable keyboard for my iPAQ. This should make playing Doom a little easier.

I actually had the USB version of that exact keyboard for a project PC back in 2006 (probably exactly the same but mine came with a cable and had no COMPAQ branding). Neat little thing, but the USB cable is incredibly fragile. It stopped working after only a couple years of use.

Bought one of those black Startech Socket 370 coolers. Hopefully the fan is not too loud, but even if it is, I have a spare Noctua low-noise adapter to tame it.

Acquired this WD Paradise Bali32 which some claim is the ultimate VL Bus card for DOS. Can't wait to test it for my VLB VGA review project.

Beautiful card and great project! I look forward to hearing how it goes - big fan of the WDC chipsets for DOS here.