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Demo Unit vs Standard Unit

explorerzach

Member
Joined
May 25, 2023
Messages
12
I saw this eBay listing for a pretty good and cheap price, and was wondering what the difference between this and a normal Preforma 410 is.


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Demo units usually have extra software to run in a kiosk mode, which the orange sticker on the box seems to insinuate.

They're also usually in poor condition from having been hammered on by the careless public, so expect scuffing, scratching and dented/cracked plastics. Not that you didn't already have to worry about that, Apple plastics in the mid to late 90s was absolute garbage. Just touching some of them today turns them to dust.

The more concerning bit is this:
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All of the capacitors on the logic board have leaked severely. And you can bet the capacitors inside the power supply are in the same state. To replace all of those capacitors, you're going to spend as much or more than the seller is selling the machine for in parts in labor. I wouldn't pay more than $20 for that machine. It's based on a Macintosh LC II, which is a "compromised" Mac, Apple crippled the machine in the worst ways possible to try and make a low cost Mac. The 68030 is a 32 bit processor, but it's put on a 16 bit bus in the LC II. Apple also made a hard limit of 10 MB of RAM, so even if you install more, the machine will only see that 10 MB.

I'm honestly surprised that machine even boots with that severe capacitor leakage, it shouldn't be working at all, and it's guaranteed it won't work soon. The electrolyte is both corrosive and conductive. When the machine is powered on, the electrolyte will cause electrolysis damage and eat into the traces on the logic board rapidly.

If you can't talk the seller down to 40-50 plus shipping, don't buy it.
 
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