Table of Contents for this issue:
Re: Plus & Zips
Battery Info www site
7.5.5
Interleve and Mac Plus
MacII and Superdrive
SE/30 Accelerator Cards?
Re: original Mac
Good source for (used) Macs?
Re: Classic Macs Digest 11.18
Re: Classic Macs Digest 11.18
Re: IIsi with multiple monitors
Re: Classic Macs Digest 11.19

From: Dave Orne
I also have an old Mac, upgraded to a Plus, then cut the little resistor and added 2 more megs to get 4 megs of memory. We run system 7.1. My daughter uses it for school and has an old PLP II laser printer. However, I run a PowerBook 180C (68030) and can't communicate with her via SCSI as the Plus is interleaved at 3:1, and the PowerBook 180C is 1:1. (I tried a few times and ruined the SCSI on a 500 meg internal PowerBook drive!) I guess I could try to run Apple Talk, but I thought there must be a more efficient way. Someone told me that they run a Mac Plus at 1:1?? Can anyone confirm that?

David,

I have run both a Quantum 53 MB HD and a Quantum 165 MB HD at a 1:1 (fixed) interleave on a Mac Plus under system 6.0.8 and 7.1. When I have reformatted these drives (using APS Power Tools 4.0.6), I do not have the option of setting the interleave to anything BUT 1:1 (the interleave option is grayed out). I cannot confirm the 1:1 interleave on any other mfg of HDs nor any larger sizes or newer Quantum drives.

I just thought I would let everyone know about the Macintosh Motherboard Batter Information www site. Lot sof info AND PHOTOS of battery locations and how to replace instructions.

The URL is:

http://www.academ.com/info/macintosh/

I have no affiliation with the site or it's owner. Just passing along a POI.

Regards,

Bob Eye

From: Albert L. Lilly III
...7.5.5 and many apps can run on 10MB of memory, provided one does not become too wild with extras...

From: noise
I'm... running System 7.1 on the LC(III). (Would) system 7.5.5... chew up too much memory and slow down the machine...?

and others

For the moment, I'm an honorary member of the club (my oldest Mac is a Quadra 800 and what follows has only been checked on it) but try this _if_ you don't mind stepping outside the lines.

I assembled a System Folder with a 7.5.5 Finder, a 7.1 (that's right, Seven _One_) System file and 7.1 System Enabler. These consume about 1.5 megs disk space vs. over 5 megs for a 7.5.5 System and Finder. Startup memory partition is smaller, too, but not by as much (System heap is about 400 K to 1 meg less, depending on whether my usual extensions are off or on).

All 7.5 features I've tried except the Note Pad and Scrapbook (Boo) work if the necessary Control Panels and Extensions are installed (Drag and Drop requires the Dragging Enabler and Macintosh Drag and Drop 1.1 Extensions). The 7.5 Find File works if you launch the application (It and other 7.5 items may bark at you: "Warning: This utility... was not designed to work on earlier systems and may not function correctly." Click OK). AppleTalk and Open Transport work fine too. The "hidden" 7.5 Finder features are available if you install Finder Extensions Enabler Extension (Cmd-Delete drags to Trash, Control-Drag creates alias etc.)

My impression is the 7.5.5 Finder doesn't run any slower than all 7.1 and, based on CheckTicks, may actually be a bit faster. It appears to be as stable as running all 7.5.5 or all 7.1.

Also, older (7.1) versions of Control Panels etc. tend to be smaller (_why_ is newer usually bigger -- sheesh!) than recent counterparts. Several Control Panels need not be in the startup to work and can reside on floppies, to be Opened when needed. Among these are Color, Date and Time, Labels, General Controls, Memory, Monitors, Sound and Views. Example: put 7.1 Date and Time on a floppy and install SuperClock! in the Control Panels folder.

(Sir) Francis FDrake3335

Dave Orne wrote:

"...My daughter uses it for school and has an old PLP II laser printer. However, I run a PowerBook 180C (68030) and can't communicate with her via SCSI as the Plus is interleaved at 3:1, and the PowerBook 180C is 1:1. (I tried a few times and ruined the SCSI on a 500 meg internal PowerBook drive!) I guess I could try to run Apple Talk, but I thought there must be a more efficient way. Someone told me that they run a Mac Plus at 1:1?? Can anyone confirm that?"

Changing the interleve factor on a hard drive should not cause any physical problems with any computer, but it may make the drive very slow. You should be able to run a drive formatted with 1:1 interleve on your Mac Plus, but it will not read/write as fast as one formatted with 1:3. BE CAREFUL about BLIND TRANSFERS! Some formatting software will allow you to configure the driver for blind transfers. If the drive is not fast enough, you WILL corrupt data!

If the Plus did hose your PB drive, it was not interleve factor that did it.

Check terminator power.

-RZ

What you need is the SWIM (Super Wozniack Integrated Machine) chip. It is not a ROM, but is custom to Apple. Apple used to charge $400 for this upgrade, and I doubt they still offer it. You might be able to find an otherwise dead logic board and remove the chip. Since Mac IIx boards are available for around $200, that might be the cheapest way to go. (I bit the bullet when the upgrade first came out and spent the $400 on my Mac II).

-RZ

My trusy ol' SE/30 is starting to choke on the splendid new multimedia titles now available. I am looking for an SE/30 PDS-compatible accelerator card, preferably used.

Why used? Price for one - I don't have a big budget and besides, I'm just plain cheap! Performance is another; I don't need the speed of Sonnet's 50 MHz 030 card - I'd rather find an older 32-33 MHz unit that I can afford.

I'm running a Micron Xceed 8-bit color card as well, and have read many scary stories in comp.sys.mac.hardware about people having conflicts with them? Any comments?

Finally, if anyone has recommendations regarding Conflict Catcher or Now Startup Manager, please send them my way. My Apple 300e CD-ROM drive has decided not to work after being taken to the office for a couple of days, and since it worked fine previously after some Extension juggling, I'm sure it's the same gremlin. I'm ready to automate this chore, however, and wonder what kind of luck other users are having.

Thanks,
Mike McNeil

Even though the only part from my original purchase is the back case cover, I still consider it my original machine. Do others of you feel the same about your upgraded machines?

I'm reading and enjoying this list because I have an SE (working on the Net). This post though struck a nerve because my main Mac - a PB5300cs - has now had most of its insides replaced over several repair sessions. I still think of it as my original machine though.

Cheers,

Miraz

My 128K Mac (the original!) has finally given up the ghost: for the second time in six months, the screen's gone dead (the CPU still responds to keyboard commands)...and I just don't think it's worth $75 to fix it.

But I still have plenty of software and peripherals I'd like to be able to use--or let the kids use.

So: Can anyone recommend a good source for used Macs (Plusses or anything else --*is* there anything else?--that works with pre-ADB keyboards and mice)?

Because of the age of these things, good customer service (and warranty, if any) would be important.

Thanks.

Charles Meyerson
...writing from Oak Park, Illinois

Thanks for the reply. It never occured to me to look for upgrade paths for my portable because I thought that it was an orphan. Nevertheless I love it. The only problem I run into consistatantly is lack of memory and lack of speed. It only has a 68000 (actually the manuel calls it a MC68HC000) so that eliminates RamDoubler. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks for the reply. It never occured to me to look for upgrade paths for my portable because I thought that it was an orphan.

*It IS as far as Apple is concerned. :)

Nevertheless I love it.

*Fully understandable. Great machine. Mine is *always* on standby in case the Power pc goes down...which happens far more often than the Portable ever experienced.

The only problem I run into consistatantly is lack of memory and lack of speed. It only has a 68000 (actually the manuel calls it a MC68HC000) so that eliminates RamDoubler. Does anyone have any suggestions?

*You can upgrade to 9Mb and install a much larger HD. Mine is currently 160, but I believe a 320 is now available. You can also check into a program I think is called Virtual Memory (or something like that...the Ram Doubler people can direct you to it for 68000 machines) which works much as RD does for newer machines.

Contact Dynamic Computer in Ben Lomond, CA 408/336 8891 (Jackie or Tim) 336 3840 (FAX) for all the upgrading you might want. They *were* working on a 68030 fix for the Portables, but I don't know how far they've come with that. They had the tech part worked out, but were having space problems. Nice people and very helpful.

Good luck!

Eric

This request to Eric and all other Mac IIsi owners on the list. Eric's signature says he runs a Mac IIsi with a 13"Color and a Grayscale portrait monitor. I didn't know that a Mac could handle a simultaneous mix of monochrome and color monitors! You need a PDS video card to do this, right?

Not sure what a PDS card is. I have a NuBus Display Card plugged into the NuBus Adaptor/FPU Combo. The FPU cost me 20 bucks and the "Micron XCEED MacroColor II " cost me 65. bucks. The Nubus adaptor was new and card usd.

Which card are you using?

Micron XCEED MacroColor II

Does the card have any video RAM?

Don't know, its a 24-bit display card. I can see 256 colors or millions, nothing in-between.

Can you set a separate color depth for each monitor in the Monitors Control Panel? If so, what happens when you drag a color object to the monochrome monitor and vice versa?

Yes, the Monitor Control Panel adapts to whatever display you point it at. The Grayscale has a range from Black and White to 256 levels of gray via the internal Video. The Color does all up to 256 colors and then millions of colors. Drag from one sreen to the other and the object just shows with whats available. I can have a photo half on the color screen and half on the grayscale. Some games are picky, But I have had no troubles. If I want to see what a graphics destined for the web will look in Black and White, I just drag it over to that screen and see. Very handy.

Other options: more IIsi ram, fpu, larger hard drive, OS upgrade. I can't afford to do all this but would be grateful for feedback on what you think each of these actions would cost and a ranking of them based on utility/performance gain.

Defintely get the FPU if you can, becasue it provides the nubus adaptor as well. Defintely get more ram. Its relatively cheap now. I stuffed this one with 17 meg for 120. bucks, and got money back on the one meg simms I replaced. (ten bucks each)

Definetly get the current system version. At least 7.5.3. 7.5.5 has run trouble free for a while now, except for a slowdown in the save and open dialogs.

Definetly get a large drive. But make it an external so you can use it with your new MAChine as well. Its a great way to back-up and restore your system(s) should the need arrise. (Like reformatting a crashed drive) I keep all my installers on a 170 meg external, (under a hundred bucks) so that a complete formatting and re-install (clean install=24 floppy disks), takes under two hours.

eric the web wandering wonderer

And another thing: has anybody on this list followed MacUser columnist's Andy Inhatko's directions for turning a compact Mac into an aquarium? I have the opportunity to grab a SE/30 case and I was wondering if anybody has successfully accomplished this conversion and has any words of wisdom before I attempt such a fool-hardy task.

Contact Barry Cotter at Advantage Computers in Richmond, British Columbia. He had a plastic insert made for old style Macs, cut the top to make a small hatch which allowed for feeding/cleaning and acted as a vent for air flow. Adding a small light made the best looking screensaver I've ever seen.

Barry can be reached at barry@

Cheers

Rod