I recently rearranged the computer room a bit to bring the NeXTstation Turbo Color (which I picked up from a refurb outfit in Frederick, MD back in 2000) to the fore, having spent a good bit of time with NEXTSTEP on my HP 712/100 over the past few weeks. I swapped out the 21-inch NeXT MegaPixel Color Display for a 19-inch LCD (hanging off of a 13W3 to VGA adapter), and with that 75 lb CRT out of the way, I took the opportunity to change the ancient motherboard battery.
I have undertaken more exciting projects in my time, but I filmed it. And here it is. Enjoy, if you can.
I took “Turbo Color” to be right-associative rather than left, and was wondering how a battery could be turbo, and what difference its color might make.
The guided tour of the innards was interesting, not least in bringing back memories of the days when 128 MB was a lot of RAM. Still, apart from the ROM bit, the most complicated part of the project may have been wrangling the case off and on, which you didn’t show.
Ahh, marketing terms – “Turbo” being the fast(er) 68040 33MHz chip vs. the prior product’s 25MHz chips, and “Color” denoting the non-grayscale video & monitor option. Removing the case on the NeXTstation is super easy, remove a screw from the rear (center top position) and the cover hinges from the front :-)
Why would a lithium battery leak? Isn’t that the domain of Alkaline? (it wasn’t a rechargeable so it wasn’t going to bulge or explode either by design).