Rescuing my Childhood Mac LC575 (And Upgrading the BEJEEZUS out of it!) Part 1 

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Man, you took me down memory lane. I had this Mac when I was a child. It kicked the bucket 1 year ago until the keyboard died and finding replacements here in Chile is damned near impossible. Worked FLAWELESSLY for over 26 years.

I've heard of people using these boards to upgrade the Color Classic, glad to see an LC575 being restored and appreciated for what it is!

I love seeing your reflection in the screen at the start. Really happy it's all working as well as it is!

Get an electric heat gun; either at Amazon or Harbor Freight. They don’t get hot enough to set fire to the heat-shrink or melt the insulation, but it will very nicely shrink the tubing. I think I spent all of $9.99 for mine.

On holiday at the lake, this and a coffee is a perfect way to start the day!

I'm glad you're going to able to get some use out of the board, and I can't wait to see what kind of upgrades you have planned! Edit: I see a few people trickling over to my channel. Please know that I'm not as active as I used to be, but do post some cool old computer content occasionally. Thanks!

The LC575 was the exact model I grew up with when I bought it for $10 from a mate when I was 10. I played Glider Pro and learnt HTML and Applescript!

LC575, one of the best compact macs Apple ever made, also one of the best LC's they made. I found my 575 on a scrap pallet at the Salvation Army in Mechanicsburg. I saw it sitting there, so I took it. The Color Classic was a piece of crap machine. It was underpowered, the screen had a dumb resolution (which has to be modded to work with the Mystic upgrade), and is generally slow. The Color Classic II was the better machine, but those are rare in the US. Glad you are giving your 575 some love! I will love mine again once I get my board back from Steve, so likely around 2023! Im not planning on upgrading mine as you did, but I do want to put a 68040 on it in place of the LC040.

What a nostalgia trip, my elementary school was full of these and other 90s 68k Macs. I was preoccupied with the iMacs they were starting to put in the classrooms. I remember when the library got 10 indigo iMacs and seeing them all stacked in those huge boxes and being so excited 😆

“you could do a brain transplant on this mac without even using a screwdriver” … “also mine is missing all the screws”

Now you're making me sad about some of the vintage hardware I gave up many many years ago.

I still have a Macintosh plus, my dad used it for over 20 years

Idea for a scsi2sd mount thing: make it hold a ribbon cable sd card extension flush with the back panel to make the card easy to swap?

Finally, a good lc757 video!!! Just picked one up and nobody has a good video on it!!! LOVE YOU

I think it would be more appropriate to have disassembled and checked the power supply visually for bloated or leaky capacitors, rather than simply plugging it into the outlet.

I remember using these Mac's in elementary school in the 1990s. My school used a mix of these and newer all in one power Macintoshes into the early 2000s...

Love to see the love you give old machines ❤️

I've always liked these machines, even though my only experience with them was at middle school (and by then they were embarrassingly slow). Nice to see one fixed up a bit.

This was one of the first true multimedia computers with the stereo speakers and controls on the front. I got this from my dad in high-school and it completely changed everything. Learned photoshop 1 on this machine. Used to buy the MacAddict just for the CD and install every demo on the disc and nerd out for days on end. Those were the days. Mine was Labeled the Performa 575 and had a sticker on the upper left that said "Power PC upgradable"

This was fun, thanks! I had no idea these options were or are available.

I practically grew up being surrounded by LC 500 series computers and loved it. If I got my hands on a working one I'd restore it in a heartbeat; if I got a broken one with a goner motherboard I'd probably try modding it to work as a sleeper gaming PC.

thanks for the PTSD, those old POS mac's from that era... most of the mac's of that era that schools got made the official(at the time) "road apples" page... because they had, as the page said "peformance and reliablility issues" having to reinstall them regularly was... a chore... a teacher of mine took a "mac kill disk" for the powerpc model that evolved from these, and older, she stared at it for all of 15sec walked over to a mac, and, booted it, installed the plugin, rebooted it... and watched it burn itself out... like... totally dead... the district mac guy, tried to fix it and had to replace the board... she did this till he let her sell the macs in the lab to the music dept.... whos teacher loved them even though he knew they were even worse then the win9x pc's the school had... that were...pretty bad honstly... she hated those things, no network support, the a-hole installed on-guard that locked out saving and printing so one teacher spent HOURS on a document for class only for us to have to bring the principle down, to see the mess, to call the guy who refused to give us the password or let people use the disk drive, save to the hdd or print... for security.... yeah... the principle told me to just get it working properly again and the software wouldnt return, do the same for all teachers systems...

Thanks for sharing! I recently acquired a Performa 575 myself and broke the same tab on the front bezel. Somehow it magically stays in place when I push it back up and in. I ended up using a ribbon extension cable to extend the the edge adapter to the SCSI2SD without soldering. Also, I've personally had success with adding a 128MB stick of RAM. I'll look forward to any future videos that include this machine!

Regret is actually what got me into vintage computers. My college was giving away old hardware including an original form factor Mac (I don’t know which). I didn’t have space to pack it to drive it home, so some friends and I smashed the screen and threw it out. My dad was mortified, like “that’s a piece of computing history!” That phrase rang in my head and it’s why I asked a friend to help me find an SE to buy to atone for my mistake.

I applaud your passion to bring this machine back to life. I will second Goo Gone for removing stickers. I had two 15" Studio Display monitors with very old and crusty stickers plastered on them. I dripped some Goo Gone on them and let them sit overnight. They slid right off the next morning.

This was my childhood mac i got from dad, and i spent countless time messing around with simcity2000. I vividly remember how i had to get its memory upgraded from its original 8 mb ram, to then massive 20mb edo ram by buying a 16mb module to replace the original 4mb, JUST so my cities still rendered properly without horrible slowdown when the cities became full.

Love those old AIOs. Great design.

This is the exact model computer I learned to type on in middle school in the 90's. I bought a working one a few years ago off Ebay and put it away to hopefully do something with it in the future. About a year earlier I plugged it in and it wouldn't turn on anymore. The caps probably needed changing years ago but I didn't have the skills to do it myself. I ended up selling it in non-working condition. It was crushing 😔

I gave my Performa away to my sister for her kids back in like 2003. I totally regret it! Today, that thing would have a whole corner devoted to it......So you have that over some of us. I have a working Mac Classic in the attic, though.

Tanner’s! I used to go there with my Nana when I was a kid. That brings back some memories.

I love these! The computer lab for my 6th grade was LC575's, on the internet in 1997! We would do research and play games like Oregon Trail and The Incredible Machine! I've been on the search for one, but for now I've settled with an LC475. The Power Macintosh 5x00 Series was the successor of the LC5x0 line and also very cool machines, especially the ones with TV/Video In. I regret letting go of mine.

I'm really liking your collection of jaz drives. Also happy 23.7K subs :D

21:41 I love the googly eyes on the ZIP drive lol. Awesome video. You have a new subscriber!

Love your videos and what you do keep up the good work!!!

Man, my family's first computer was a performa 550, so very similar to this machine...I totally feel you on this!

As a kid, my parents had a Black Mac, otherwise known as the Macintosh TV, that used this same shell but in black. They seem to be quite rare these days, so I’m sad we ever got rid of it.

I can’t wait to watch this later!!!

My favorite thing about my LC575 &520? Lifting them out of the closet gingerly in one piece at the expense of my back health.

THIS video made me subscribe and I'm lookimg for more of this computer.

I think the "Power Mac G3 All-In-One" (molar mac) is a more true final version of the all in one mac

Glad To See Your Child Hood computer Working again Did Not Know You Could Upgrade That With the G4 Very Cool Sean

You should see if pcb way can print a replacement front cover

we had a bunch of these in our Tech class in the mid 90s, cool machines

Good Luck on the Build man. Hope we can meet again in the future

My first Mac was a Performa 580CD - love that machine and I still regret selling it years ago. Those all-in-one LCs and Performas didn’t get enough love - true, they were kinda odd-looking, but the slide-out logic board, the sharp Trintron CRT, CDROM… made for a useful, accessible fun machine.

literally just picked one of these up today!

So excited to see a Tanner Bros. Farm bag! I grew up not far from there. I used to go there with my parents in the summer for their homemade ice cream and to watch the cows graze!

I had one of these when I was maybe 11 or 12. Bought it at a flea market for like 50 bucks back in 1998 or 99. Didn’t have an OS and I never used a Mac before this so I had to figure out how to make it work. My mom found a guy locally that had a bunch of Mac stuff and helped me get it working. I played a ton of Warcraft II on it and learned how to use Macs pretty well. Loved that machine. I sold it a few years after that for a fraction of what I paid for it. Should have held on to it!

Our family first computer was a mac, Performa 577. It was the same form factor as that one!

Thanks for the review. Can similar SD-adapter work for Apple Powerbook?

It is a beautiful beast.

I wanted one of these so hard when they came out

Part 2, please.

Very awesome retro mac.

Epic video thanks :) I had a LC 580 with a 5260/120 Mobo in it, great computer, started my programming career :)

I have broken so many older plastic items... I have used everything from the superglue/baking soda to a good piece of tape. :) It's one of those things I say "I'm going to be more careful" but it's the plastic... not me (or you). Great video, btw! (Classic Apple engineering is always fun to watch how they made things work/fit so well).

That form factor brings back memories. My family's first computer was the Macintosh Performa 520 that my grandmother bought new for my mother. I spend hours playing Monopoly and Kid Pix , and Mahjong on that thing. Edit - What really comes to my mind when I remember that old 520 was that the CD drive used the old CD Caddy loading system. We had and used that computer up to 2001ish. When My mom got a new computer - another preforma ( one of the flat ones with a separate monitor) the 520 became my sisters computer and when she got and Emac I got it for a time and it worked for basic word processing and we had a style writer II printer ...

I suggest a disk formatting tool called Lido. I have had the same problem you have demonstrated and it always gets the job done.

iv been waiting for you to work on this computer :D

Yaaay! Look at that heat sink 😍

I really miss the shenanigans we got up to on the Applefritter board. That place was really fun.

I love learning more about programming in Python so I'm going to actually poke around datacamp. Can't say I'l buy it but I'l definitely take their sampler and see what kind of info I can gain from it.

that's the first non apple II I had!!! later got the PPC upgrade board but it broke still have it need to fix traces one day :(

When you 3D print something for the SD Card adapter, I too suggest to buy a ribbon extension so you can easily eject, swap and backup your SD cards.

I had an LC520. I was envious of LC575 owners, but then, after working hours I had access to my Dad's Quadra 840AV so I wasn't really hurting. I used to be able to play Marathon 2 in the absolute lowest quality settings, interlaced, in a tiny window. Haha.

At school we used Macintosh Performa 580CD which used the same case as the 575

You just made me drag out my Vintage Beige G3 Power Mac Gosimer with a 400 mhz Processor, to play with. Keep up the Videos and if you can get Adelie Linux installed on one I will definitely be watching. Thank You and Be Safe.

I used to like these LC575s, and I still do! I bought a lot of LC575s and LC580s from schools and sold many. In fact, I had so many of them I had to strip the logic boards, hard drives, CD-ROMs and floppy drives out of them, and then dump the rest. Fortunately, I still have the logic boards and are part of my first unboxing video.

I'd love to see a video of all your Macs in one place! I don't know if you've done it before though 🤷🏻‍♂️

Who else was half expecting a 575 motherboard from PCBWaaaaaaaayyyy? Wait, that's Preifractic's schtick. I mean, if someone can source the parts, they'd totally make the board for you. 😁 Also, the Color Classic is the PENultimate (last but one) all-in-one classic Mac, because the LC575 is the ultimate all-in-one classic Mac. 😛 ETA: Yoke rotation and alignment… Seriously wanna see it done with this machine, but … also want to see you be safe Sean. If you don't know how, get in touch with Adrian or someone who does this kind of work and make sure they explain what you need, how to do it, and what to not touch while doing it.

I'm not sure what exact model of Mac I (or more specifically, my dad) had. It was a System 7 on that closely resembled an LC 575. The difference is it had a very unique CD drive where you had a floppy-like cassette/caddy that you put the CD into, and the caddy was inserted into the CD drive. It had a long metal door where it opened just like you'd open a floppy to see the actual disk. I've never seen another caddy or drive like it. I think it may have been a Performa model from either 1993 or 1994.

Just gorilla glue 2 small neodymium magnets to the cover.

Did something similar to my childhood Playstation 2. I added a hard drive, FreeMcBoot and just recently a quieter Noctua fan.

I remember our school had these Macs when I was in 2nd grade. Then they upgraded to the new bondi blue iMacs😄

My first Apple Mac was an SE30. I bought it 1994 for the price of £500. The machine was cute and easy to carry.

I am running 128 MB of RAM on my LC 575 board, installed in my Mystic Color Classic of course 😁

Indeed an iconic machine. I was very aware of it back in the day and considered it unobtanium. Preferred it over the Color classic actually.

is part 2 available? I can't find it

you can acutally use the same color of marker to remove writing, just write over the top of the existing letters and then wipe off while wet using cleaner

What will be the best way to back up the information saved in this model? In my case I dont have CD but I see an eternet port

When I was a kid one of the only computers I had access to was a very poor shape Performa 475, which actually did manage to work for a while before it started acting funny and eventually I took it apart and either broke pieces or lost them, I don't remember. In retrospect it was probably very fixable and just needed a power supply but when I was probably 12 I had no idea.

my grandparents had the performa, 2 years later they replaced it with the first iMac and it did not impress me a bit, I went downstairs and kept using the performa.

I have the Macintosh TV, and it too is missing the screws, where can I get some replacements?

I cant wait for the next saturday

I have one of those, and it's one of the few that I didn't stupidly throw out.

Subscribed!!

reminds me of when i got a old 90's powerdell thing but ripped it apart to use the case for something worse end ended up ruining it all

LC575 was the first mac I ever used (that I can recall). I believe it was 5th grade? They were all new and shiny then. Countless hours of dying of dysentery on the old oregon trail.

5:20 look at the reflection in the yellow mac (professional description )

Someone needs to M1 a Color Classic

Hey Sean, you may want to try plastic epoxy on those broken tabs for a stronger bond. I've had some luck epoxying back broken tabs and other pieces of plastic on old Mac and Amiga cases. My weapon of choice is Devcon 22045 Plastic Welder. Just a suggestion. :)

Don’t forget that hard drive has a caddy attached to the bottom of it, you may be able to repurpose that to mount the SD adaptor

Sean, sorry for the deluge of comments, but watching to the end of the video I have one more pro tip: Check the speed rating of the DRAM chips on those VRAM sticks before testing them in your machine. I found out the hard way that 100ns is too slow for a 33Mhz 68040. Silicon Insider helped me work through troubleshooting and replacing the sticks I bought from him with 80ns parts (yet to arrive in my mailbox.)

Your hand over the top hand gestures used to annoy me, but now I need them.

I had an LC575 that was given to me years ago. I ended up storing it in my mother-in-law's garage and I think it ended up getting donated or sold at a garage sale. Regret not keeping it in the house and adding it to my retro collection. It was in terrific condition, too. :/

I agree 100%, this was a WAY BETTER MACHINE

Great video as always. But am I missing something, or did part 2 never come out? 🤔

I miss using the old pre MAC OS X systems.

You are so underated