Table of Contents for this issue:
LCIII Accellerator
Sources for upgrades for school donations
Re: Internal HD compatibility with LC II?
Re: Color Classic 10" screen connundrum
Mac IIsi video
Mac Portable expansion
Re: Mac II, Superdrive ROM
Netscape 3.0 Gold and a IIci
Re: IIsi colors, Mac II Ethernet
RE: Portable upgrades
Re: Mac IIsi and color monitors

Subject: LCIII Accellerator
From: armstrong

I've got an LCIII that runs like a champ.

But I'm experiencing Techno-Lust as I help my friends out with PowerMacs and even fast Quadras.When I look at Accellerators in various catelogs, I see nice ones for the LC and LCII, but almost nothing for the LCIII.Any recommendations for accellerators for the LCIII?or, any ideas why there are so few?I'm tempted to buy something like an empty Quadra 605 and move my monitor, keyboard, extra mem, etc. etc. over to it.

thanks!
bob

Subject: Sources for upgrades for school donations
From: CurtHiker

Okay, guys, I need a simple solution to two problems (i.e. *cheap*, it's for my son's school!):

1). I need a source for cheap internal hard drives for two venerable old LCs, an LCII, and 2 LCIIIs. I don't need gigs, just 230 or 500 megs, and cheap, like <$100 each. Need internal to keep down the desktop clutter for the classrooms. Any restrictions on the size due to power supply in these older Macs?

2). I picked up 2 LC580s for the school at a closeout, but the kind without a CD-ROM. I need the front panel plate kit that has the slot for the CD, and I need 2 cheap 2x or 4x internal CD-ROM players with brackets. Any problem installing these? What address do internal CD drives have/need?

You could summarize the question by saying I need sources for new, used, or refurbished parts to upgrade old donated equipement for my son's school. I see ads for old CPUs, but not the stuff to upgrade them. Any suggestions welcomed. By the way, I'm always looking for donations of old or used Mac stuff for the school, we'll give a full tax deducion as its non-profit.

Curt Kiest
Tech Team Coordinator
LSAS Tecky Laguna Salada Alternative School
Pacifica CA

Subject: Re: Internal HD compatibility with LC II?
From: Steve Dropkin

From: Ian K. Erickson

I'm considering buying a Seagate ST31200N 1.0 Gig internal hard drive to replace to 80 meg standard issuer HD in my LC II. The Manual for it says "for use with SE, SE/30, II, IIx, IIfx, IIcx, IIci or Quardra 700." Does this mean it would *also* work with an LC II, or * Is the internal HD connector different in an LC II from the above?

* Is the LC II power supply too weak or weaker than these models?

The problem is either power (I notice they also didn't mention the LC or IIsi, both Macs with "weaker" power supplies) or space restrictions (there's more hard-disk room in the models mentioned; height especially is critical on the LC series).

I'd shop some more.

Subject: Re: Color Classic 10" screen connundrum
From: Steve Dropkin

From: Andrew Ludgate

A while back, I posted a note asking if anyone could help me in finding software to make my monitor virutally larger. I said that I was currently using Stepping Out II to do this but it didn't work very well. A few people sent replies with useful suggestions such as minimizing the RAM cache. Well, I've tried all the methods suggested and none of them worked. What I had been doing, was running Cursor Animator to refresh my cursor (it tended to vanish as soon as SO II was turned on) and Desktop Picture to refresh my background. (this also wasn't being redrawn, without the virtual screen being scrolled.)

So does SO II work _without_ Cursor Animator or Desktop Picture?

Stepping Out II works fine on a Mac+, but fails to work properly on my Color Classic (is Color Quickdraw the culprit?)

Shouldn't be. My SE/30 had Color QuickDraw and it ran SO II just fine. _System 7.x_ broke SO II, not Color QuickDraw.Virtual was as close as I've seen anything come to SO II. I lament the fact that Berkeley decided to quit enhancing the product. I see so many people asking for it ...

Note: doesn't it seem strange that most of the Color Classic limitations are based on the number 10? 10 megs max memory, 10" max screen, 15Mhz max processor, 16 bit data bus, 8 bit sound (OK, maybe not *all* based on #10....)

At least they're all _base_ 10 ... :-)

Subject: Mac IIsi video
From: ghl3.dtp

From: TomS999999

I have a Mac IIsi that I've used only with the grayscale Apple Portrait Monitor, and want to set it up with a color monitor. The basic question is: Will I be able to get 256 colors?

You can use up to a 14" monitor and get 256 colors. For a larger monitor or more colors you would have to get a video card.

The monitors control panel now only shows a max of 16 colors/grays available, but I assume that is because of the larger size of the portrait monitor. Is this assumption correct?

Yes.-- George / Mac& DTP RoundTables @ Genie

-- Sent using Online Servant 1.36

Subject: Mac Portable expansion
From: E. Barnes

Among other classics, my household has a couple of old backlit Mac Portables -- the pre-PowerBook "luggable". One of them has only 2 megs of RAM, and I'd really like to pump it up to at least 4. Does anyone know where I can find a reasonably-priced RAM expansion card for this machine? Any info on putting in bigger hard drives would also be appreciated. There was somebody on a newsgroup a few months back who was working on making an adapter cable to permit the use of regular PowerBook SCSI drives in the Portable, but I never heard the results of his experiments.

*Dear Michael:Piece of cake on this one...though not cheap. Call Dynamic Engineering in Ben Lomond, CA (near Santa Cruz) 408/336 8891 (Jackie or Tim) 408/336 3840 (FAX) They're terrific people. You can also check out their website (which I discovered at this very moment! [G])

http://www.dyneng.com/.

They can boost you to the full 8 Mb the machine will take (my non-backlit has 9Mb) and give you a 320Mb HD if I recall correctly. I have their 160Mb, all they had at the time. The real advantage to getting away from the original 40Mb Connors HD is that your speed will increase from about 11Mhz to at least 17Mhz. Not fast in today's terms, but you'll really notice the difference. You won't, however, be able to use RamDoubler as that program requires at least a 68020 processor. (They were working on a Portable upgrade to 68030, but I don't know whether they succeeded or not.)They also do work on the 100 series Power Books if anyone has need of that. They can boost processor speed on them, install larger HDs, etc.

Tell 'em Eric sent you.

And good luck.

Subject: Re: Mac II, Superdrive ROM
From: Marconi

Re: Mac II upgrade for Superdrive, other needs I had two Mac IIs which had the early ROM (version 1.1, if I recall right). This is shared FYI.

I remember the following limitations: 8MB real RAM max. Low-density floppy only, could have one or two. Mine had 1 each. 9600 baud max (that might be a hardware limit, I'm not sure) Worked OK with Sys 7.0.1 but would not accept 7.1. I never tried anything any higher.

I run 7.1 on mine and it's just fine. System 7.5.5 should work but might take up more RAM.

Small hard drive limits,

No hard drive limits that I know of. I'm using a 1 Gig drive. I think there is a size limit associated with the system s/w or HFS. Most people won't butt though.

but would work OK with external SCSI drives connected, including SyQuests. One of my machines had a 5-1/4 form factor 39MB drive, the other had a 3-1/2 ff 40MB drive, original equipment from apple.

Questionable ethernet performance (we had only one NuBus card to try, it didn't work out will in the Mac II but did OK in Centris 650 ... problem was never really truly understood).

My II is on my ISP's Ethernet serving http, SMTP mail and mail lists. Ethernet seems to work fine!

There were several 'remanufacturers' and swap-up firms in the back of MacWeek and other computer weekly mags that offered upgrade options for the Mac II (e.g. upgrade to a Mac IIx for a small amount). For example, one would take my Mac II 8/40, and give it back with a 105MB hard drive, SuperDrive, 8MB of RAM and ready to take more RAM, all for around $350. It wasn't a bad deal. Remember that the IIx uses different RAM, however, and now THAT is getting harder to find.

Whoa! The II and IIx both use the same PAL SIMMs. And I just bought 32 MB a few weeks ago.

The Mac II is a great multi-slice toaster, all those NuBus slots ... but there was no other path for the proprietary Apple ROM.

The ROM's are all but impossible to find.

We relegated those Mac IIs to the backroom and still use them for word processors with Word 5.1, it was cheaper to buy a newer bigger, badder PowerMac than to nurse the Mac IIs along for our application.

I nursed mine along with the help of a 40 MHz '030 Daystar board. Kept me happy for a long time -- until I bought a PM 8500.

Subject: Netscape 3.0 Gold and a IIci
From: Scott Williamson

I'm running a IIci (24MB RAM / 2.2GB HD / 2x Apple CD) Typing in Netscape is painfully slow. It was not a problem with 2.01 but since moving to 3.0 Gold typing text is a problem (and I m not a blazer on the keyboard). Has anyone else seen this problem on other machines?

A recommendation while I have the chance, SpellCatcher (Casady & Greene, Inc.) works wonderfully with my Claris e-mailer software. I can catch most of my spelling mistakes before I send mail as it checks on the fly and will give you an alert if is suspects an error. Well worth the investment.

Subject: Re: IIsi colors, Mac II Ethernet
From: LARRY.KOLLAR

Someone asked if the IIsi supported 256 colors with a "normal" monitor. It does; that's how I have mine set up. I believe it's a 13" monitor -- anyway, it's a 640x480 display. Did anyone else notice that the IIsi sped up noticeably when upgrading from 7.0.1 to 7.5? I'm up to 7.5.3 now; I don't use virtual memory so haven't bothered with 7.5.5.If anyone's curious, Jaz drives work just fine with a IIsi -- and it's a LOT faster than I'd thought it would be! It plays Quicktime movies off the drive with no problems, at least compared to the Apple 250MB interal hard drive. The Jaz came with my wife's Media 100 system; the dude setting it up didn't have the right cable, so we hooked it onto my system to check it out. Rough life, huh? :-) Only drawback is that the Jaz is a bit noisy -- sounds like a jet engine when winding up. (Can't wait to get it hooked up to the PowerMac; I have the "1984" commercial on the Jaz & the IIsi just doesn't have the horsepower to run it.)

On the Mac II -- I can testify that, at least with the right Ethernet card, the II has no problems. Here at work, I dug one out of the junk heap, hung a 500MB external drive off it, and set it up as an AppleShare server for a small workgroup. It has 8MB RAM, a 120?MB internal hard drive, System 7.1, and a (Dayna? can't remember) Ethernet card. The only problem I've seen was the external hard drive went on strike if I left it running for three weeks (or so) at a time, so I would shut it down on weekends. It was fast enough for a half-dozen people & light usage.

Larry.Kollar

Subject: RE: Portable upgrades
From: E. Barnes

I just got a post from Dynamic Engineering (sales@dyneng.com) stating that they are trying to get an okay from Apple to release a 68040 accellerator for the Portable. They need to convince Apple that there is a market for it. As soon as I know exactly what needs to be done, I'll post it. All the votes possible will help when the time comes. The Portable was truly made an Apple Orphan before its time!

Eric

Subject: Re: Mac IIsi and color monitors
From: Michael Timlin

I have a Mac IIsi that I've used only with the grayscale Apple Portrait Monitor, and want to set it up with a color monitor.

The basic question is: Will I be able to get 256 colors? The monitors control panel now only shows a max of 16 colors/grays available, but I assume that is because of the larger size of the portrait monitor. Is this assumption correct?

Will I be able to get 256 colors with a new 14 inch model (i.e. Apple or NEC)? Am I correct in my understanding that these newer monitors require an adapter to connect to the IIsi?

Would I be better off getting a used 12 inch RGB monitor that the IIsi was originally designed to use? Will it give me 256 colors?

A IIsi will work fine with a 640x480 monitor using 256 colors (or grays). The 12 inch color monitor was less than 640x480, so I'd go with a high-res 13" RGB or some other monitor that does 640x480 well.

Mike Timlin

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