As I catch up in this blog on what I have i unearthed and started to test from my collection, some oddities surfaced the other night that are very interesting. I always knew that I had one of these things, but didn’t really take it too seriously, until now – and there are two of them!
What are these things, you ask? The Macintosh LC. However, not just a standard LC. They are both definitely prototypes! These units have identical board layouts, but one holds true “Apple Confidential” markings on its ROM chips. Both logic boards look very much like the production models, but retain the reset button on the board from the earlier prototype boards that can be found on the Internet. There is also a honking resistor or capacitor thing on the board that neither the earlier prototypes nor the production models had.
So, I have two of these babies. Let have a look at them – front and bottom, as the rest of the case is pretty standard, I think. Let’s look at the first one…
So, that was the unit that had its battery blow up. There certainly was some indication of it on the case and the board. Despite that, with a working power supply, it powers on and goes to the flashing ?. Maybe a little TLC and it will be a good as new! More on that to come in a future post – stay tuned…
The next unit is in much better shape, and boots properly. Maybe it has production ROM’s on the proto board?
So, the mystery unfolds – two LC prototypes. One clearly with early pre-release ROM’s. What about the other unit? At any rate, they will both be up for sale soon. I purchased replacement power supplies for each of them off eBay and the restoration begins. The second one I don’t have to do anything to, really. Maybe a floppy grease job.
The first one, however….. explosion corrosion cleanup at ROM 3!
Stay tuned for that in a later post…
