Table of Contents for this issue:
Re: OS for 128K Mac
Classic Accelerators
Re: Classic Macs Post
Which version of the OS is best?
Re: Classic II Replacements
Re: Classic Macs Posts 11.13.2
Re: Which Macs had 68020
Re: Old Mac Systems
Upgrading my Mac SE
Re: StyleWriter 2500 on 68000 Mac
Mac512 Mormom geneology application
Re: MacPlus
Re: MacIIvx
Re: Classic Macs Posts
Re: Classic Posts 11.13.2
Re: Mac II RAM problem
32Mhz '030?
Re: Can't Throw Out the Trash
SIMMS
Re: Mac Plus // Upgrades

One of my friends give me a very challenging question. He has a Mac 128K model but don't have the software to make it works. How can I get the System Disks for ths machine? Can anyone tell me?

Sun Remarketing (800) 821-3221
sales@sunrem.com
System 3.2 Part #411-100 ($15)

I was thinking of getting the Color Classic Accelerator from Sonnet, but I'm a little spooked by these reports of incompatibility problems after installing accelerators. I live pretty far away from California, so I'd really rather not have to return anything I ordered!

Does anyone have any experience with the Sonnet Color Classic accelerator? It's a '030 33 mhz with a 16k cache and FPU.

Thanks

I have an 80 mb hard drive from my Centris 610. Could she use that? I also have a US Robotics14.4 modem that I could send her as well.

Both work fine in a Classic. You must have the appropriate handshaking cable to attach modem to port to achieve 14.4 throughput. Also must have special TORX wrench to get inside the Classic's case.

Also, what would be the optimum System OS to run with the Mac SE?

Definitely System 7.0 w/7-up or 7.0.1 for the SE. Best balance of System 7 features with greatest stability on a 68000. Add on MenuChoice or HAM, SuperClock!, The Tilery and INITPicker (or similar Ext manager like ConflictCatcher) and you're got the best of all worlds. The additional features of 7.5 cannot justify their expense on your available RAM and performance.

Typically cannot easily install greater than 7.0 w/ 7-up on an SE due to the 800k drive limitation. Does anyone know of 7.0.1 or 7.1 on 800k disks? I'd still say that you're unnecessarily pushing the envelope and spending too much RAM for anything beyond 7.0.1.

Check with TechWorks for best deals on PowerBook RAM.

TechWorks
4030 West Barker Lane
Austin, TX USA 78759-5319
http://www.techwrks.com
800 794-0189

First, Can I replace the battery on a Classic II or must this be done by a dealer. Are there any workarounds?

You can do it. You need:

1. Case Splitter to get Classic II apart.
2. Torx 15 Screw driver with a long neck to get the screws out of the top and the back.
3. The battery, which you can get at any store.

The battery is on the mother board, which is easily accessible wonce the case is opened.

Second, is the (40Mg) drive replacable?

Yes. Again, an easy job. Contact a vendor to supply a new SCSI hard drive (I have a 340MB in my Classic II). The hard drive is held in a bracket with four screws connecting the bracket to the hard drive body, and two more connecting the backet to the machine frame. Take your time, and be certain to reinstall the termination bars on the hard drive. These are the two small multi-pinned bars inserted into the row of wholes at the point that the SCSI cable connects to the hard drive from the mother board. (Hard to describe, but clear once you see it).

Thanks in advance

The Torx 15 and the case splitter are vital parts that any onwer of an all-in-one Mac should own.

Al

I know there are plenty of accelerators available for the venerable IIci, but is there anything out there to speed up a IIcx, short of a motherboard upgrade?

Radius used to produce a NuBus accelerator board (three flavours: 68040 at either 25MHz (with or without FPU), or 33MHz), which I used on my IIcx for a few years -- the Rocket... -- which (in its last incarnation) came with RocketWare and RocketShare, which let you actually use the two separate processors (the 16MHz on the IIcx, and the 68040 on the Rocket) work as two separate computers -- handy for processing renders, etc. in the background...

[Pretty innovative for 1992! IIRC, at the time, there were even plans to build a black box -- "SkyLab"??? -- to plug in to any(?) Mac, which would hold four or eight Rockets, to provide MP power you could only _dream_ of at the time! (Long live DayStar's Genesis!!!)]

I still use the IIcx (mainly for Internet connections, etc.), but the Rocket is wrapped up waiting for the day I get a Power Mac (and can use the IIcx as some sort of (accelerated) internal server...) at home, because the software (I think) conflicts (somehow...?) with the serial ports, slowing my modem down to a crawl.... Apart from that, it was pretty robust, and made a very noticeable difference -- especially as it accelerates QuickDraw in conjunction with other Radius video cards. Highly recommended... -- if you can get hold of one...!?

The Rocket has eight 30-pin SIMM slots (to be filled four at a time) on it, which, in non-MP mode, are the only available memory. In MP mode, the memory on the Rocket is used by the 68040, and the motherboard SIMMS are used by the IIcx...

A SCSI-2 daughterboard was also available, I believe...

- $.

I doubt that this will end the confusion, but the ONLY machine that Apple ever made that had a 68020 was the original Mac II. All others had 68000, 68030, 68040 or various PowerPCs.

I have been offered a MacPlus...1meg Ram and no hard drive. I'm not sure that the fellow giving me the machine can find his OS disks so my question is:

1. Can you get a copy of pre 7.1 OS?

Yes (here I go again with my Sun Remarketing plug), Sun Remarketing has all the MacOS systems since System 3.2 up to System 7.5. Sun's phone number is: 1-800-821-3221. Email them at: sales@sunrem.com.

I've found that Sun is a indispensible companion to my IIcx, they have most of the software and perephial I need. (I was just looking through their catalog, and I didn't see one item for a Power Mac). I live just down the road from Sun, so I usually visit them about once a month or so. (They even have a resident "expert" on the Lisa/Mac XL).

Kris Lander

Ok, after reading this list for a few weeks it's clear that if I want more oomph out of my SE/800K, then my best bet is to swap in an SE/30 logic board. But I have a few questions about the process.

1) How can I tell if my memory is fast enough to support an SE/30?

2) Are there any other hardware changes I need to turn my SE into a true SE/30? I know I need SuperDrives, anything else?

3) What system software works best? I have 4mb RAM but am willing to upgrage if necessary. My choices seem to be between 7.0.x and 7.5.5, since I can't buy anything in between.

As an aside, can anyone tell me what an analog board is, and what is does? I've seen them advertised on web pages as being the same for SE's and SE/30's so I wanted to make sure.

Thanks all!

Christopher Currie

The driver probably requires color Quickdraw. Possibly you may be able to get the printer to work with Chuck's Printer Driver (search for it on http://www.shareware.com/).

I doubt CPD would work; it's good for Epson and similar dot-matrix printers but as I remember it's not designed for printers which already have Apple drivers, and the SW2500 is probably too recent anyway. You might try installing the Stylewriter 2500 driver on a newer (68020) Mac, then copying the driver from the Extensions folder onto your Mac Classic. If the problem is Colour Quickdraw you're out of luck but if not, this might work. Please let us know if it does!

HTH

Hello

A friend with a 512k would like a copy of the no-longer-available Mormom geneology application for early Macs.

Any help, please?

Ned Eacker is not on the net, is at 704-862-3650 in Brevard, NC. I can relay any info to him.

Thanks!

I have been offered a MacPlus...1meg Ram and no hard drive. I'm not sure that the fellow giving me the machine can find his OS disks so my question is twofold.
1. Can you get a copy of pre 7.1 OS?

You can actually get full, legal copies of System 6.0.3, 6.0.5, 6.0.8 and System 7.0 and 7.0.1 directly from Apple.

To obtain the system software from Apple, you can go to http://www.info.apple.com/ and select Browse the Archives, US, Macintosh, System, and then Older System. Or you can do it directly through FTP at the following URL.

ftp://ftp.info.apple.com/Apple.Support.Area/Apple_SW_Updates/US/Macintosh/System/Older_System/

(You can replace ftp.info.apple.com with ftp2.info.apple.com, ftp3.info.apple.com, ftp.support.apple.com, ftptoo.support.apple.com, or mirror.apple.com if it's busy.) 2. Can you run the MacPlus from a Zip drive?

Maybe. According to iomega's web site http://www.iomega.com/, the Zip drive requires Macintosh System 6.0.7 (System 7 or greater is required for full functionality) and a "ASPI-compatible SCSI adapter". On the other hand, later on they say that you need "Macintosh with a supported operating system, 4MB RAM, Mac SE or greater." Dunno what the SE has that the Plus doesn't though.

Anyone out there actually gotten a Mac Plus and Zip drive to co-exist?

Andy

I want to purchase a used IIvx to do digital audio production. So ...

Welcome to the IIvi, IIvx, Performa 600, Performa 600CD FAMILY of computers. I do not know what distinguishes the IIvi from the others, so shall not mention it further other than to suggest you seek the whole family. I have what was sold as a Performa 600CD. The CD postfix on the original Apple configuration implied that it not only had a 2xCD ROM drive, but was also shipped with a fully loaded 1MB VRAM enabling 640x480 VGA resolution at 16bits color. It came with 5MB RAM, 4MB soldered to the motherboard, and the 4 SIMM slots which eat 80ns 30pin SIMMs in sets of 4 was stuffed with 4 256Kbyte SIMMs, upgradable all the way to 16MB SIMMs for a total of 68MB Max. The VRAM is 1MB fully loaded and was only half filled at 512K on the Performa 600. I don't know how the IIvx was typically configured, except that it was normally shipped WITH an FPU, while the slot on the Performa 600's and 600CD's was left empty (I upgraded with a $69 68882 FPU). I haven't been able to confirm this, but I understand that the one difference betwen the IIvx motherboard and the Performa motherboard was that the IIvx came with a 32KByte Data Cache for the 68030, and therefore you can, except for this difference, turn any of these configurations into another. This series uses 32MHz 68030's running 2x the buss speed of 16MHz. There is a PDS (Processor Direct Slot) which allows upgrade to a 68040 with the Turbo040, or to a 601PPC at 66Mhz or 100MHz with the Turbo601 from Daystar Digital.

1. How many NuBus slots does IIvx have?

3 Nubus, 1 PDS.

4. What is your opinion about the model in general (I'd love to hear ANY)?

I've had Color Classic and I know the new baby should have the same processor (twice clock speed ?), more expansion slots and a co-proc.

At the 5MB RAM shipping configuration and with the then current system software and applications software versions, the system, as with all performas, performed. It didn't take long for the SYSTEM itself to want all 5MBs of RAM (I'm running System 7.5.5 which actually takes LESS RAM than 7.5.3 did, for a change), leaving the system thrashing virtual memory to run anything. I've been overdue for an upgrade to RAM for, well yes, basically the whole life of the machine. It's finally down to about $120 to get (4) 4MB 80ns 30pin SIMMs to upgrade to 20MB total RAM, which will run most apps, but you should really load up all 68MB for Video.

This series does 8bit mono sound, so when buying video hardware, choose something which does 16bit stereo sound.

The bottom line is I've wanted to KILL this machine most of the time I've had it, because with only 5MB RAM I can't run without Virtual Memory, which means EVERYTHING runs at disk speed, not at RAM speed. It is a universal axiom that the single most influential factor in overall system speed is HAVING ENOUGH RAM. Well, actually, beyond that, the bottom line is, having enough $ to buy enough RAM. At this point ANY 68K Mac should be plumped up to 12 to 20 MB of RAM to run all the latest software. I run back-reved versions of ClarisWorks and FileMakerPro because they WILL run incredibly slowly with 13MB virtual memory in 5MB real RAM. The latest versions wouldn't run. There are some audio and/or video software out there which require 20MB to run when they have the machine all to themself. If you can afford it, go for 68MB. You'll be glad you did.

Reverend Angela Kirsten, All Rights Reserved, =A91984-1996. =

The IIvx got a bad rap since apple brought out the Quadra 610(?) just a few months later at a similiar price. The IIvx is a fine machine otherwise (as always, depending on what you pay, of course). The only quirk is that even though it has a 32bit bus, input/output operations are 16bit.

Since you are doing audio production I assume you're going to use third party hardware since this model is mono sound built-in.

3 Nubus

1 PDS slot

4 SIMM slots (may be able to use one of the piggyback systems to effectively double the 68 meg max)

4meg on board (don't know if it originally shipped with any additional)

512k VRAM stock will allow you 256 colors at 640x480 on any compatible monitor regardless of screen size.

1meg VRAM max will give you 32000 colors at 640x480. If you need higher res a nubus board will be necessary.

Terry Meehan

I've got an LCII running 7.5.1; I have 3 items that I was able to drag to the trash but can't empty because the items are "in use."

I've tried "option-emptying" and I've rebooted with the original systems disk but no change. When I use the Finder to find the originals, the originals "can't be found" or my internal or external drives.

Try this, make a folder on your hard drive and name it 'trash stuff' (doesn't matter). Drag the stubborn files out of the trash into this folder. If the items are 'folders', create new folders somewhere else on your hard drive and name them the exact name of the offending folders (you can also copy and paste the name from the bad one), if the items are 'files' you will have to make a dummy file by duplicating an existing file and renaming it. Once you have the replacement items, drag them to the folder containing the bad items. Because they are the same name you should be asked if you want to replace them, click OK and then drag these files to the trash and dump 'em. Hope this works for you.

Terry Meehan

I have a Mac II w/o the FDHD ROM upgrade. It's running a DayStar 40-MHz '030 Universal Powercache. I've tried putting 4 MB SIMM's into bank B and I get the Chimes of Death on startup.

The '030 on the DayStar board has built-in PMMU, right? This *should* work, shouldn't it? (Yes, I've got Mode32 installed but that shouldn't be a factor for startup since the Chimes of Death sound before the HD is ever accessed.) Yes, the SIMM's are (according to the vendor) the PAL SIMM's required for a Mac II. Yet it doesn't work. Howcum? TIA.

Forgive my asking but what's in bank 'A'? I believe the larger simms should be in bank A. If you already have 4 meg simms in Bank A then perhaps one of the new ones is bad. It's a pain, but swap these out one at a time to test. If you already knew this, I didn't mean to insult you, it's hard to know who knows what from these messages.

Terry Meehan

My Performa 460 has a *33*MHz '030 chip. It doesn't make sense that there would be a 32MHz version of the '030 when they made a 33MHz chip. I distinctly remember that the chip was in several machines from 1992-1993, including mine which is sort of a hellified LCIII.(The LCIII had a 25MHz '030)

Of course, we're talking about Apple here...a quirky company, to put it politely.

I've got an LCII running 7.5.1; I have 3 items that I was able to drag to the trash but can't empty because the items are "in use."

I've tried "option-emptying" and I've rebooted with the original systems disk but no change. When I use the Finder to find the originals, the originals "can't be found" or my internal or external drives.

This is a well-known MacOS problem, commonly known as the "file/folder from hell."

Suggested solutions are available on a number of web pages, including http://mug.lerc.nasa.gov/MUG/Tips&Tricks;/Misc/HellFolder.html and http://holmes.acc.virginia.edu/itc/helpDesk/MacFAQ/Mac_System_FAQ.html.

Things you can try, in brief:

Drag it out of the trash into a folder; create a folder of the same name on another disk(ette); drag the new folder into the same folder as the bad file and answer "yes" when asked to replace it.

Try locking the file (in Get Info) before option-emptying trash.

Restart with no extensions.

Norton Disk Doctor or DiskTop will often correct this.

The referenced pages contain other, more involved things you can try.

Pardon me if I'm completely wrong, as I've never had a Mac II series Mac, but I think I read somewhere that for certain Macs if you get a 'death chime' after installing SIMMs, it's not a problem with 32-bit addressing or anything like that, but that the SIMMS in each bank have to match or something.

I think there are several guides on the net e.g. GURU, check info-mac.

Of course I could be wrong... :)

Subject: MacPlus
1. Can you get a copy of pre 7.1 OS?

Systems 6.0.8 and 7.0 are available from ftp://ftp.info.euro.apple.com and other sites.

2. Can you run the MacPlus from a Zip drive?

Theoretically, yes. I haven't actually tried it, but it should work.

Subject: Two questions
Second, is the (40Mg) drive replacable?

Can't answer the first, but the Classic II will accept any standard 3.5" 1/3rd height SCSI drive. *However* If you are scouring the secondhand market for SCSI drives, note that unless you get a Quantum drive, Apple's HD SC Setup won't partition or format it (Grrr!!). You will need a third party utility like LaCie's Silverlining http://www.lacie.com/.