Something "new" to explore on the workbench today: a 1995 #Apple#Macintosh#Performa 630 in the "DOS Compatible" variant. It’s a bit of an oddball machine from Apple‘s otherwise quite bland (in my opinion) beige era. It has both a regular 68040 Mac and a full 486/DX2-66 PC inside. Should even be capable of running Windows 95 alongside MacOS 8! Thanks to a very generous donation from @markuspooch I’m going to get to play with it. Thank you! #InTheLabDoingStuff#RetroComputing#VintageComputing
@janbeta@markuspooch The first generation PowerMacs which would have been predecessors to this also had an option for an expansion card that was a full blown PC on a card running Windows (3.something if memory serves).
The one we had was for a while the fastest Windows machine in the house.
@pitrh I read about those! Probably super impressive at the time (honestly, still impressive to me these days). Can’t wait to tinker with it but I’m definitely going to take my time with the capacitors etc before I try it proper.
Initial research suggests that I’m going to have to do some recapping, both on the logic board and in the power supply. There are plenty of forum posts I found where the PSU had blown up capacitors. The logic board has some SMD electrolytic caps. Probably not quite as bad as the slightly earlier Amiga models where they all leak but they still need to be replaced asap, I guess. It does power on fine (we tested that when I picked it up) but needs some work to be safe(r) to use.
@janbeta think I have the original install media for this model around somewhere if it'd help you. I have a 630CD it came with, but should be the same discs
@modulusshift Oh, thanks for the offer! As far as I can tell at this point, I’m fine in regards to install media. I got a complete box of MacOS 8 install media with the required DOS/Windows drivers that came with the Performa. If something doesn’t work, I’ll let you know! 😊
@janbeta that's good, my set is System 7.1.2P, for reference. I'm not sure if I've got the DOS drivers that match, tbf, though I think I have TV tuner drivers lol, not that they're much use anymore after we switched to digital TV
@modulusshift I think that’s what mine probably came with originally, too (minus the TV thingy). I read that there was a variant with a TV tuner and a remote control. I think the TV tuner wouldn’t even fit in my variant because the PC stuff takes up most of the expansion slots. 😅
@janbeta there is actually a slot specifically for the TV tuner! Apple went slot crazy on this model, it also has a Comm Slot II which will take a fairly rare Ethernet card if you can find it. I kinda love this model tbh, my fave after my SE/30 and IIcx. Wish I had the DOS stuff, though, hope you enjoy!
@modulusshift Oh, neat! Would be great to have a TV tuner to play with (although absolutely obsolete these days, of course). I saw the network card in some video, too. Both probably very rare these days but we’ll see. Definitely lots of fun things to try with the machine. The DOS part was available separately at some point, too, it seems. At least for the predecessor Mac models. It’s a deep deep rabbit hole for sure… 😅
Add comment