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D'Espice · May 10, 2002, 08:52 PM

Guys, even I didn't believe it: I found my old LC II. I thought, I lost it when I moved last time, but it turns out, the LC II was in the attic the whole time (I'm living here now for more than seven years now!!!).
I was looking for something in the attic today, and instead I found my good, old LC II. I can't tell you how happy I am right now. Even though it's a really old computer, it still rulez! All the memories... this was my first Macintosh, and it was my last before I bought a Intel 486 computer. It has OS 7.1 installed, Word 5.1 and more apps. What do you think can I do with it? I'm gonna start tomorrow by replacing the 80MB harddrive with a 2GB harddrive, and also replace OS 7.1 with 7.5.3
Unfortunately, I don't have more RAM, the LC II has 8MB right now (That was a huge amount of RAM back when I still used to work with this machine). So what do you think can I do with it? I realized, that it's still great for wordprocessing and stuff, but will it be capable to play MP3 or Audio-CD? I don't have time to try it, so I'm asking, before I start something I'll regret afterwards. What do you think?

[ 05-10-2002: Message edited by: D'Espice ]

dreilly1 · May 10, 2002, 09:35 PM

Congratulations on your discovery!

If you're not acquainted yet with Low End Mac, Now's a good time to start -- here and here.

Lateralus · May 10, 2002, 09:50 PM

I just got through souping up my LCIII (My first Mac also... Found it in 1999. )

I took out the 160MB IBM Hard Drive, and popped in a 1.1GB Conner that I yoiked out of my PowerCurve 120. I also upgraded to 32MB from 16MB and put in a network card, then installed 7.5.3.

BTW, I restored the machine to MINT condition not long after I found it.

MacMonster · May 11, 2002, 06:40 AM

Originally posted by D'Espice:
<STRONG>So what do you think can I do with it? I realized, that it's still great for wordprocessing and stuff, but will it be capable to play MP3 or Audio-CD? I don't have time to try it, so I'm asking, before I start something I'll regret afterwards. What do you think?

[ 05-10-2002: Message edited by: D'Espice ]</STRONG>

It cannot play MP3, but you can convert your MP3s in your PowerMac to AIFF format, then transfer the songs to your LCII.

Mac Zealot · May 11, 2002, 06:48 AM

there are super-LCIII upgrade kits around that you can add CD drives with and such, but they're ridiculously priced and don't really look good anyway.

D'Espice · May 11, 2002, 07:35 AM

Well, I'm not planning to spend any money on this computer, It's just something to play with I guess.

[ 05-11-2002: Message edited by: D'Espice ]

DrBoar · May 13, 2002, 01:41 PM

Well My LCII was usable for Cricket Graph, Word 5.1a and Hellcats!
It was a road apple form the start as it was no improvement over the LC it replaced. The LCIII was what the LCII should have been!
With a Extreme Impact 32 MHz 030 upgrade it got up to LCIII performance, silky smoth Hellcats and Wolfenstein and almost playable Marathon (with all settings on minimum) those were the days :-)

But for uses now?
Perhaps use it as a backup unit over appletalk network?
Those expension chassis for the LC cost more than a what you can get a 7300/200 for at ebay. If you for some old games want decent performance get a LC475 motherboard from ebay for 30 dollar or so, that increase both performance and max RAM.

Even with the 32 MHz accelerator "demanding" applications such as Graphic Converter is painfully slow opening a small 100 kB JPEG file is a long wait.

So utside text (Word 5 or Word Perfect 3.5) and vector graphics like Cricket Graph III and some old games it is basically a useless box. Surfing the net back in 92-95 was slow on that LCII and just imagine what the Java and Flash stuff would do to it.....

Lateralus · May 13, 2002, 08:20 PM

I remember having to watch streaming video through Netscape 3 on LCII's, back when I was in 6th grade... Oh, much fun!

[ 05-13-2002: Message edited by: PowerMacMan ]

superlarry · May 14, 2002, 12:25 AM

i bet you could find an old external SCSI cd-rom drive somewhere. those can play audio cd's and they usually have stereo RCA jacks on the back so you can hook them up to a stereo :c) i have a 2x drive that i can use on my LC and IIsi. they should all work fine in system 7.5+, i believe, because you'll have the Apple CDROM extension.

D'Espice · May 15, 2002, 10:00 AM

Thanks for all the replies so far, but as said before, I won't spend even one single Cent for this computer. I guess I'll just place it in my showcase, where it'll look nice.
This way, I'll always have an emergency-computer to work with if my PowerMac is defective in some way.

Paco500 · May 15, 2002, 10:59 AM

Originally posted by D'Espice:
<STRONG>Thanks for all the replies so far, but as said before, I won't spend even one single Cent for this computer. I guess I'll just place it in my showcase, where it'll look nice.
This way, I'll always have an emergency-computer to work with if my PowerMac is defective in some way.</STRONG>

I have a suggestion that would not require you to spend a cent on the LC, but would require the purchase of other cool toys. Two suggestions, actually.

Home Automation!

go to http://www.shed.com

X-10 is cool, and the LC would make a fine controller. You could also look into the Zephir, http://www.thezephir.com/ and make yourself a kick-a$$ universal remote control. And you could use the two in tandem for a really kickin system.

Paco