Wonderfully, my mind hasn't degraded beyond the point of hope in the past 15 years...
...yesterday I was about the business I had to do on E-Bay and there it was...
...prolly took several seconds, and then I recognized it as the 68000-based system I had been about drooling over when they were giving the old 6809-based cc3 the Big axe. So'ze I thought, yah, ten bucks!
No keyboard/mouse. Plug it up, see if it works. (At this point I must protest that the older macs' keyboard power-on switches didn't work... (c'mon, trying to save face! :P)) Charge it up, see if it works. No sparks. No screen either. Nah! Of course not... but the screen made noise, sounds ok. Hmmm... I dun hear a hard drive spinning either.
Look at the back of the case. Yah, there is the magic door behind which the motherboard rests. Open the door; nice catching mechanism! 
There's the motherboard! OMG, look at the spider-butt dust everywhere. I wonder what the electrical conduction characteristics of spider-butt dust is... (grimace) (grimace) It should just slide right out. (bit of resistance) Nah, I won't force it, it needs cleaning. I'll open the case for an exacting inspection of the mechanism...
Pulled off the outer casing. (metallic bouncing sound) 'Was that a screw?!' 'Hmmm, maybe it was one of those damnable spring-loaded contact implements that is now going to torture me for having tinkered with the case...' '!'
Dust everywhere; my god... schools are filthy!' (cough choke) (cough) 'Beh, this is terrible.'
Wow, look at all of the dust and dust bunnies! Inspecting the case strongly suggests to me that the motherboard is anchored in slides and the interfacing slots would be, naturally, at the back of the slides. Just tug it. Tug. Yah, there it goes... omg, it is covered in... dust! (Way in the back of my mind, my mind said- '(metallic bouncing sound)' Oo I Know it is down in there. It wasn't one of the... no, it wasn't one of the casing screws...
The motherboard. (grimace thinking about metallic object shorting leads) ('Hmmm. The carwash sprayer would REALLY clean it off! No! Electrical... Want to! No! Electrical!!! (mumble)' The analog board. (grimace thinking about metallic object shorting leads) ('Hmmm. The carwash sprayer would REALLY clean it off! No! Electrical... Want to! No! Electrical!!! (mumble)' (mumble clean) I need a paintbrush... (blow... cloud of dust bunnies) (blow... cloud of dust bunnies) (dust bunnies on me) (swat swat) (blow... cloud of dust bunnies) (etc...) Better. Aha, a dustbrush! (brush brush brush) Now shake the case around trying to work out whatever part I am going to manage to loose when I find it. Wait... it stopped making the metallic sound. It fell out, but where... Aha! A nickel! ... !?!?!??! Kids...
Ok, I know its a longshot, but, maybe... all of the dust was making a bad contact (grimace thinking about metallic object shorting leads)? Plug the motherboard back in and try it now. Nada. ... Unplug it. Pull out the motherboard.
'Hmmm...' Geeez, the harddrive didn't even spin up... Mebbe the motherboard is bad? Try the power with no motherboard. Yah! Hard drive spins up! It even walks through initialization! Mebbe the analog board is ok cause the harddisk is getting power! Contact resistance on the motherboard contacts? Scrape, scrape, scrape. Plug it in. Test. Zip. Zero. Nada.
Drole. Ok, don't loose it. You have a 575 motherboard coming so'ze you can try that nifty upgrade anyway. Don't panic! Don't... Panic! Ok, do research on the internet...
1.1.2 — My CC won't start. Why not?
There are three common problems that are the source of this symptom:
The two most common are failure to turn on the power switch in the back and failure to press the power button on a known-good, connected ADB keyboard once the switch is powered on. (OMG, I'M A TOTAL IDIOT!) Make sure your keyboard and cable are good, because if they aren't, it won't work. (For what it's worth, the same symptoms can occur on a 5xx-series Mac you might be considering as a parts source, so "dead" Macs often aren't.)
The third is a dead — NOT simply missing — PRAM battery. If the PRAM battery on an original CC mobo is dead, the CC will fail to output a video signal and boot up. (I got a perfectly good CC for $26 on eBay because the PRAM battery had died and the seller thought it was broken.) If you remove the dead battery, the CC will boot fine. (YAH, YAH, GOTTA DO THAT, GOTTA DO THAT!) If you replace the dead battery with a good one (this should be done), it will boot fine. If you need a PRAM battery, read this.
If the first three aren't the problem, you likely have a dead motherboard [CRINGE] or a bad connection in your wiring harness. Double-check both and report to the Forum (Yah, yah.) to await further instructions
So, here I am... I've been in love with Motorola for ages, having grown up on the 6809. Even had the 'white manual' for the 6809 (exorcisor distribution). When I began college, the 8088/386 was the predominant technology in the labs (that and a nifty 370! so fun!), so'ze I started writing an emulator for my 512K CC3 to run IBM software, coze I could read the disks with my 1773! Then they AXED the cc3 (about 6 months after I FINALLY got disk edtasm), my hardware consequently died of a brain annurism, or stroke, or something, and then i cried a lot. It was over, and the 6809 was doomed. But now reincarnated as the dietous 68030-based Macintosh Color Computer Classic (drool)!
So ok, any suggestions? What next?
everyone may be able to appreciate your enthusiasm, as I'm sure most of us here share similar feelings for this antiquated hardware... but I dunno if people articularly care about story telling
Long story short, you got a Color Classic for like dirt cheap, right? (punk, I shelled out about 90 bucks for the one I butchered
)
First and foremost, figure out what you CAN do to it, then decide what you WANT to do.
Screen upgrade, do the 60hz one, not the 67hz.
Motherboard upgrade, you can go faster/more powerful 030 board, stronger 040 board, or hit up a powermac board, perehaps even with a G3 upgrade... if you're feeling particularly entrepreneurial, you can even milk two PCI slots out of the higher-end powermac boards.
What you do with it from this point is simply an adventure
You have the ability to mold this machine into a fairly powerful Mac for classic applications and games, and have a lot of fun in the process.
I don't know how busy this board is anymore. I started the brunt of the work on MY color classic about five years ago; there was a lot of interest back then but it seems like most everyone who was going to do anything CC-related has since done it. You can still get help from time to time, though. Get crackin'
If you need assorted parts, check the sale/trade forums here... I might have a spare powermac board floating around too, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to part with it yet or not.
Good luck..maybe get a digital camera and take pics of your progress?
Gotta hate those security-type barcode stickers that fragment into bits when you try to peel them off. I dreaded every moment of the razor blade being so close to the case's finish... no scratches. But the ever-present case yellowing again! Very light, but there all the same...
I've never tried bleach and a toothbrush, and hesitate to. Other suggestions that I have read include painting the case, acetone (lol), gritty scrubbing pads, etc. destructive chemical/abrasive methods. Has anyone tried oven cleaner? This is just Really strong soap...
...then I thought- what about some water-based paint, very lightly applied, just to even the color? Has anyone tried this? I am attributing the yellowing to ultraviolet degradation of the material...
...still awaiting a keyboard to power-on test the hardware. Noticed the 575 motherboard I have acquired doesn't fit in case with ethernet card in slot... there is some sort of plastic catch on right, upper side of slot near HD cable... ?! Please wish luck!
YOu're gonna need to test with the stock motherboard first, because the 575 board requires the 640x480 mod I believe... as far as the ethernet card, what kind is it? an LC-PDS one or a Comm-slot one? YOu should be able to crack open the case and cut away some plastic inside to make it fit (I'd check mine, but nearly all the internal plastic has been gutted so I don't even know where the drive used to go XD )
As far as the Yellowing goes, I've never treated any of my yellow macs... I think it gives them character XD Coloring seems too extreme, too... I never thought macs looked better than when they were beige. But I recall reading something on either www.danamania.com or www.danaquarium.com about submerging the case in a bleach solution to get rid of yellowing; google may also turn up some insight.
To remove stickers and avoid left-over sticky crap, just peel the thing off normally, then buy a little bit of "Goo Gone" and the sticky stuff will wipe right off.
I haven't tried this, but apparently, the 'best kept secret' in old Mac restoration is very fine grit (80-100+) sand paper and water.
Ok, mb and floppy in system are fried, everthing else is ok. 575 tries to start up- no system on hard drive. Have acquired second cc1. Loaded with french OS... grrrr. Downloaded 7.5.3 network boot. Booted french system to english 7.5.3. Switched mb, thus detected dead mb (pram out). Have ground to halt after copying 19 7.5.3 full install files from pc to mac and getting type -39 when trying to start the SMI file. Any suggestions? What's all this business about data and resource forks? Tried 7.5.3 with 575 - bus error - suggestions?.
Has anyone tried airbrushing their cases with a water-solvent paint? What about clothing dyes?
After being confronted with the French OS that was installed, I decided to skip the hdsc in lieu of attempting the 7.5.3 network startup from floppy... it worked, and i proceeded to hack out the french brain, replacing it with the 753 network brain... this worked surprisingly well... just popped the system files into the system folder and viola.
Then I FINALLY found an image of stuffit on mac geek and got stuffit installed... this didn't help much, though... as you will see.
All this time I was booting the hack and slashed 753 from my hard drive. So, I thought, it'd be better and neat to get 7.1 installed and running instead of the bulky 753. Soze in went the install disks... CRASH. The welcome screen box says hello (in french- bienvenue- lol!) then just flickers. Soze I figured its the hardware (or mebbe a nightmare from the brain surgery- french brain seeking revenge?) and dig out the 3.0 update. Same deal- CRASH. Suggestions? Anyone have experience with custom 7.1 installs on the color classic?
WAHOO! The scsi ZIP drive I ordered is here! Ok, ok, whatta I do!? Whatta I gotta install?!
a tutorial on how to install system 7.1 on a color classic (with minimum friction) follows... (i wish i could have found this on the internet - woulda saveda lotta time!
So you have just acquired an old macintosh color classic (or most any other newer, 680x0-based mac for that matter) and everything works! ...but there is no operating system.
Download the following:
Network Access Disk from apple- ftp://ftp.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/English-North_American/Macintosh/Utilities/Network_Access_Disk_7.5.sea.bin
StuffIt for Windows- ftp://ftp.ucalgary.ca/pub/micros/win95/util/ALEX511.EXE
WinImage- http://www.winimage.com/download.htm
System 3.0 Update- where did it go, can't find it, it's been 3 hours... this is ridiculous...
Sys_Update3.0_1.sea.hqx
Sys_Update3.0_2.sea.hqx
...cause the dang files from the apple site require lots more disk swapping...
http://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/English-North_American/Macintosh/System/Older_System/For_System_7.1.x/System_Update_3.0_1.4MB.sea.bin
System Enabler 401
http://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/English-North_American/Macintosh/System/Older_System/System_Enablers/System_Enabler_401_1.0.5.sea.bin
Install StuffIt and WinImage. Use StuffIt to Uncompress the .bin file. Then us StuffIt to uncompress the resulting .sea file. Rename the resulting .image file.extension to .img. Then double-click the .img file to use WinImage to make an image of the network access disk- you'll need a 3 1/2" disk. Eject the disk, put it in your mac, and the mac should boot up!
Now you have a problem, though. There is still no operation system on the mac. You could use the system on the disk, though to make one. Open the network access disk, select all of the contents and drag them to the system folder on your hard drive. If there isn't a system folder, you'll have to make one. Just try dragging the System Folder on the floppy to the hard drive. If that dun work, i dunno, unless you have a system 7.1+ boot disk... at least the system is up.
If you have a System 7.1 install disk (these were proliferously distributed across the US), I would suggest going ahead with the System 7.1 install, using the Network Access disk as an operationg system (this takes a LOT of disk swapping - select eject disk, then select eject disk AGAIN, then select eject disk YET AGAIN, then insert System 7.1 install). Finally, after installing 7.1, you will have to do another install for the System 3.0 Update- same disk-swapping technique. Start the installation, select custom, then select only the option for "color classic".
Now you have another problem... I swear I am plagued by a nagging little boy that clings to my leg and manages to pee on everything I do, cause I just managed to get the required images of the System Update 3.0 disks and now can't find the link. Those .sea compressed files for the System Update 3.0 won't decompress with the StuffIt utility on a PC, so you'll have to move them to the mac to decompress... but the system update 3.0 sea from apple is larger tham 1.44 mb?!?! So what are we supposed to do there, eh? So hack the system enabler (which is smaller than 1.7mb into the system folder may work- i dunno) We may NEED the system update 3.0 to install the system enabler 401 for the color classic... ?
Finally, here is the uber link you need to install StuffIt on your mac- http://www.macgeek.org/downloads/PC_Mac.zip
You will need System Enabler 401 on the boot disk for the color classic to boot system 7.1. You can use the Windows-based StuffIt to uncompress the .bin. It goes somewhere- either the root or the system folder. Then boot system 7.1 and install.
Using HD SC can't be a crime if there isn't data on the drive, right?
after a bit of seek and destroy a la internet, i have acquired an antiquated version of iomegaware that is no longer distributed by iomega, and having popped for $35 worth of 3 zip carts, i am glad i did... I hate companies dropping software support! If even a few people knew how powerful 16MHz was... and a color screen, eh!
Oh yes, the driver was, guess, 1.5mb. Just enough to Not fit on my transfer floppy... omg. Found a shareware unzipper and got it down to 1.1mb on my pc, then viola, the shareware unzipper did the rest...
Bingo! found a copy of stuffit express. may come in handy!
Installed the software, no problems. LOL (my hd is 80mb, the zipdrive is 100)! access to the zip drive just like that. Am going to try to run hd sc and get a formatted zip cartridge up. Just having the storage is more than enough. can do all sorts of stuff from the second volume...
Now to interface my 68384-based palm! Nah, just kidding... Anyone else do assembler for the color classic?