Table of Contents for this issue:

SoftPC/SoftWindows
SE/30
Re: Mac Plus can't get going
Re: 128k mac boot problem
Re: Mac Plus: System 7.5.5
Re: SE/30 ADB ports out
Classic II Floppy Disk
RE: Classic Macs Digest 1.15
se/30 HD
RAM Doubler
Mac plus hard drive
Re: SE/30 HD problems
Xternal Modem for Classic Macs
Classic Macs Books
Mac II large HD
Re: Classic Macs Digest 1.15

Hi!

Do SoftPC or SoftWindows work on an SE/30? Are there shareware
versions available?

My brother-in-law is a traveling salesman. Recently I had the idea to get him
an SE/30 to take with him on the road. I'm interested in finding a source for
a reliable accelerator and four 2meg 30 pin simms to bring 8megs up to
16megs. Any help would be appreciated.

Jim Kelly

Rex,

It sounds like the reset switch is stuck. If you look from the front
of the unit, on the left hand side near the back there are two push-
button switches mounted on the motherboard and accessable through the
air vents. [Sometimes folks insert the plastic piece with the two
tabs that are used to access these switches. If these are in place,
just pull out the plastic piece - it should reinsert just fimne if
you want to reinstall it.] One is the reset switch and the other is
the programmer's interrupt switch. It is possible that the reset
switch is stuck in the pushed-in position. A little Radio Shack
tuner cleaner sprayed around the push button and repeatedly pushing
this button in and out should free up the switch.

Regards,

Bob Eye

Subject: MacPlus can't get going?
From: Rex

I've got a MacPlus that will turn on & off when I flip the switch in
the back. The screen comes on with the 'bong' sound ...then goes
black...then 'bong'... then black....

I've replaced the battery in the back. What could be causing this?
I would love to give this computer an external HD, more RAM, & a new
life, but I can't rationalize it if I can't get it going.

Thanks for any input!

Rex Rogers

Jen,

One option is that someone this list or in a users group may be
willing to part with some 400k diskettes.

Failing that, I believe you can format 800k disks as 400k by putting
an unformatted (or erased) 800k disk into the Mac. The dialog box
will appear asking if you want to initialize and will ask if you
want "single sided" or "double-sided." Click single sided - this will
give you a 400k disk.

I do not know if this option is available on a PowerMac or not. It
is possible on 68k machines.

There was a program called MacTerminal, but I don't recall if it
worked with 128k Macs or not. I *thought* that the Plus was the
first Mac with modem capability, but I could be wrong. If
MacTerminal does work, you should be able to do VT100-type connects
into a shell account. PPP/SLIP is out of the question. Sun
Remarketing (http://www.sunrem.com) used to have copies of MacTerminal
for $15, but I don't know if they still do.

Regards,

Bob Eye

Subject: 128k mac boot problems
From: Jennifer Huebert

hey, i have got what i think is an original 128k mac. i got some old
system disk IMAGES, and tried to format and write them to 800k disks on
my powermac. using these disks, the little mac spins up to the smiley
face but wont finish the boot.

Ive heard these machines have 400k drives. what can i do to make boot
disks? i have been considering trying to format 800k disks into 400k
disks but id have to go in search of someone whod do me the favor, and
i'm wondering if a classic mac can even format a disk for 400k.
my ?? is, am i wasting my time? is there really any difference? i've
posed this question to others always with a different reply. and is
there any chance in hell i can use this computer to connect to my ISP?
using a terminal session, something like that? anyone tried it?

jen

Alan,

It sounds like that when you installed the system, you did an Easy
Install. The installer looks to see what machine you have and
installs an appropriate system for that machine. So the Plus is
trying to boot from a system that is configured for your PMac. Not
good.

Dump the system from the HD, using you PMac. Then do a reinstall (I
assume of either 7.5 or 7.5.3) and select Custom Install from the
Installer window. Scroll through the choices until you come to Mac
Plus. Look through the choices for whatever other "goodies" you want
to install (printer drivers, etc.) and then run the Installer. It
should work, and the FWB HD Toolkit drivers and formatting should be
fine (I use APS Power Tools myself, and their latest version works
fine on a Plus).

Current HP DeskWriters require at least a 68020 processor;
consequently, they won't work with a Plus.

Reagrds,

Bob Eye

Subject: Mac Plus: System 7.5.5
From: Virginia Steckley

HELP! HELP! HELP!

System 7.5.5 is the last operating system to support the Mac Plus. I
installed it by connecting the hard drive to my extenal SCSI port on my
PowerPC. When I go to boot up my Plus I get a system error after the
"Welcome to Macintosh" title comes up and have to restart. Restarting
with extensions off does nothing. I also formatted the disk with FWB
Toolkit, maybe it was how I formatted it? Please give me some answers
that may help. I would also appreciate any help finding the latest
driver for a HP DeskWriter to use on a Plus. Thank you for helping or
at least reading this far.

-Alan Steckley

The ADB ports on the back of my SE/30 are OUT.
Computer boots fine, but no responce from my mouse or keyboard.
Booting from Emergency disk or Disk Tools - same thing, can't get the
cursor to move.

Apple tech literature very thin on this. Have examined the
motherboard, can see no damage. Mac II's have a fuse in the ADB line,
but the SE/30???

What to do? Apple says go to an authorized dealer. What do you
think?

Are you sure it's the port? Try plugging the Mouse directly into the
port to verify that it's not the ADB cable or Keyboard.

I just brought a Classic II for my mom to run Eudora and Netscape. I
installed everything by networking it with my other Mac and it works
great. But it has one problem... When I insert a diskette the Mac does
not see the floppy. No icon appears and I can't use the menu or any
control key sequence to eject the floppy. I end up inserting a paper clip
to eject it. The diskette appears to insert all the way into the floppy
drive. Any hints?

Could be as simple as the power connection being disconnected (inside the
case). I had this happen with one of those old external floppy drives.
There are two connectors between the floppy drive mechanism and the rest
of the system. The smaller one supplies the power. Make sure both are
connected firmly.

If you've never opened up a compact Mac case before, be very careful with
the back end of the CRT...

- Ken Watanabe

Subject: Classic II doesn't see floppy drive
From: Ian Leslie

I just brought a Classic II for my mom to run Eudora and Netscape. I
installed everything by networking it with my other Mac and it works
great. But it has one problem... When I insert a diskette the Mac does
not see the floppy. No icon appears and I can't use the menu or any
control key sequence to eject the floppy. I end up inserting a paper clip
to eject it. The diskette appears to insert all the way into the floppy
drive. Any hints?

Thanks,
Ian Leslie

at the front of the drive are 3 small switches, one of then detects a
floppy. If it don't work, then the Mac will not ever see a floppy disk or
try to eject one. These switches are small and hard to get. buying a second
hand wreck and getting the drive out is cheaper that a swap from Apple.

PBJ

Subject: SE/30 HD problems.
From: Alex Shelamoff

Fault finding's a slow process because, once *fixed*, it takes more
than a week for the symptoms to re-appear. My friend is talking about
buying his son a "reliable" windoze box so, any ideas? Could it be the
battery? I'll try that next.

Alex

The Battery is the best place to start. Try Starting off a floppy and
reseting the PRAM and then restart without interupting the power.

PBJ

Subject: 128k mac boot problems
From: Jennifer Huebert

hey, i have got what i think is an original 128k mac. i got some old
system disk IMAGES, and tried to format and write them to 800k disks on
my powermac. using these disks, the little mac spins up to the smiley

PowerMacs may not support 400k disks, apple said that they would not support
400k disks on PowerMacs and in some of the newer floppy drives.

PBJ

Subject: Mac Plus: System 7.5.5
From: Virginia Steckley

HELP! HELP! HELP!

System 7.5.5 is the last operating system to support the Mac Plus. I
installed it by connecting the hard drive to my extenal SCSI port on my
PowerPC. When I go to boot up my Plus I get a system error after the
"Welcome to Macintosh" title comes up and have to restart. Restarting

Boot from a floppy and check the system folder for a folder called Installer
Items, Installer Clean Up or something similar, trash it! or You may have
installed a PowerPC version of the MacOS.

PBJ

Subject: Imagewriter II Drivers
From: Marc L. Briel

Is there a version of the Imagewriter driver that supports background
printing and TrueType fonts on Inagewriter II?

The Imagewriter II supports TrueType anyway. All you need is the TrueType
INIT for sys 6 or just use system 7. There were some 3rd party products that
supported background printing, and I think QuickDraw GX has a driver that
does background printing.

PBJ

Alex, you have a sticky hard drive. Apple's 20, 40 and 80 meg drives are
notorious for this. I had exactly the same problem with my SE. The good folks
at my local user's group gave me the unconventional, though effective, advice
to simply pick up the beasty and give it a good smack on the side.

Otherwise I suggest installing another hard drive, small ones are so cheap these days.

Hi!

I've read some messages mentioning RAM doubler and was wondering if
this program works on an SE/30. Where can I get it?

I have a mac plus with an exturnal hard drive. Just recently the plus
won't recongise the hard drive. System 7.1 was recently installed. Any
way to retrieve the data on hard drive. When I hook it up to other Mac's,
they say to initialize it. Any help appreciated.

Alex,

I think you have a hard drive that doesn't spin up. I've heard people call
the problem you describe "stiction". If the drive isn't used for a long
period of time, some type of lubricant gets too viscous (spindle grease?).
When the drive gets power it tries to spin the platters, but if they don't
spin it cuts the power. So like you've found, restarting repeatedly may
eventually get it to spin on startup. Once the platters spin the viscosity
goes down which is why it takes significant down time for the problem to
return.

The cleanest solution is to back up the disk once it is working and buy a
new hard disk. If that isn't practical, try leaving it on or restarting
more regularly. When it doesn't start up you may have better luck getting
it to mount on restart if you give the case a whack, but that can cause
other problems.

When a friend of mine's son's SE/30 went non functional I stupidly
volunteered my services. At work, I've had an SE/30 from new (that's
what I'm typing this on) and I know something about their insides but
this one's got me stumped.

The symptoms are as follows: The machine runs fine if it's used
regularly. However, if it's left for a week or more, at startup, it
shows a floppy icon with a flashing question mark indicating it can't
find its HD. Sometimes I can *fix* it by repeated restarts but this is
not usual. It will boot from a floppy or an external HD but then does
not recognize its own internal hard drive. Running SCSIPROBE finds the
Internal drive and all's fine from then on unless it's been left unused
for a week or two.

A repair shop had replaced the HD ribbon cable, I've replaced the HD
with another, I've re-installed the system software, I've re-seated all
the socketed chips on the motherboard, I've played with the cables to
the HD and checked the power supply connector on the HD all to no
effect.

Fault finding's a slow process because, once *fixed*, it takes more
than a week for the symptoms to re-appear. My friend is talking about
buying his son a "reliable" windoze box so, any ideas? Could it be the
battery? I'll try that next.

Mike Timlin

HELP
Folks,
In two months I had to return this PB520C to my company and be replaced
with windoze/ laptop.

My company was a victim of the Classic Rumor that Mac is out of business
soon as their shares dropped.

At home I have a Classic 8 M RAM/40 M HDD which I want to use to keep in touch with this Classis Macs List.

Based on your experiences folks, what is the best modem I need to buy & hook up to my idle Classic?
Any idea will be appreciated. Some body said PC Modem can be used also ?

TIA
Victor Soleman

I have been reading Classic Macs Digest for some time and would like to pass
on to other readers some information I have found valuable in using "Classic
Macs." A company called Pre-Fix (formerly Soft Solutions) sells several
repair and diagnostic books for the classic Macs. Particularly usefull are
the books by Larry Pina. They also carry the "Guide to the Macintosh Family
Hardware" book which documents internal hardware features, pinouts and
diagrams for Plus through IIfx. They also sell component parts as well as
the Pina beefy Plus Analog board. They are helpful and don't do DOS or Windows.
Their reference books and parts source are a must for keeping our "classic
Macs" going. I don't have stock in the company. I just appreciate their
efforts.

John Szostek

i have a mac II with a 160MB apple hard disk inside. the drive is much
larger that those i have in my se/30 and IIci. it is about 8" by 6". does
anyone know if it can be made to fit inside an se/30, IIci, or duo dock?

also, is there room and connectivity in a mac se to fit an internal hard
disk. the se has two 800k floppies. thanks.

hilal

Subject: MacPlus can't get going?
From: Rex

I've got a MacPlus that will turn on & off when I flip the switch in the
back. The screen comes on with the 'bong' sound ...then goes black...then
'bong'... then black....

I've replaced the battery in the back. What could be causing this?
I would love to give this computer an external HD, more RAM, & a new life,
but I can't rationalize it if I can't get it going.

Most likely your power supply is marginal. What is happening is it goes
through it's startup procedure okay then tries to start up the floppy to
see if there is a disk in it. When it does, the power supply is overloaded
and it shuts down. It then starts up again repeating the cycle.

There is a voltage adjustment on the analog (power supply) board that may
help. You need to adjust it so that the +5V is 5.0v. It may be that the
supply is just failing in which case you probably need to replace it.

Subject: SE/30 HD problems.
From: Alex Shelamoff
To: classic-post@hitznet.com

When a friend of mine's son's SE/30 went non functional I stupidly
volunteered my services. At work, I've had an SE/30 from new (that's
what I'm typing this on) and I know something about their insides but
this one's got me stumped.

The symptoms are as follows: The machine runs fine if it's used
regularly. However, if it's left for a week or more, at startup, it
shows a floppy icon with a flashing question mark indicating it can't
find its HD. Sometimes I can *fix* it by repeated restarts but this is
not usual. It will boot from a floppy or an external HD but then does
not recognize its own internal hard drive. Running SCSIPROBE finds the
Internal drive and all's fine from then on unless it's been left unused
for a week or two.

A repair shop had replaced the HD ribbon cable, I've replaced the HD
with another, I've re-installed the system software, I've re-seated all
the socketed chips on the motherboard, I've played with the cables to
the HD and checked the power supply connector on the HD all to no
effect.

Fault finding's a slow process because, once *fixed*, it takes more
than a week for the symptoms to re-appear. My friend is talking about
buying his son a "reliable" windoze box so, any ideas? Could it be the
battery? I'll try that next.

Quantum had some problem with lubricant in the harddisks of this vintage.
It would harden up and prevent the drive from working. The solution is to
either use the drive regularly or replace it.

Subject: Mac Plus: System 7.5.5
From: Virginia Steckley

HELP! HELP! HELP!

System 7.5.5 is the last operating system to support the Mac Plus. I
installed it by connecting the hard drive to my extenal SCSI port on my
PowerPC. When I go to boot up my Plus I get a system error after the
"Welcome to Macintosh" title comes up and have to restart. Restarting
with extensions off does nothing. I also formatted the disk with FWB
Toolkit, maybe it was how I formatted it? Please give me some answers
that may help. I would also appreciate any help finding the latest
driver for a HP DeskWriter to use on a Plus. Thank you for helping or
at least reading this far.

You need to do a custom install on the harddisk and install the System for
ANY MACINTOSH. The normal install installs a version for the Mac in use.
In this case it will install software for the PPC processor where PPC and
68K code both exist. The Plus will choke on this. An install for any Mac
will install both PPC and 68K code.

Subject: Imagewriter II Drivers
From: Marc L. Briel

Is there a version of the Imagewriter driver that supports background
printing and TrueType fonts on Inagewriter II?

I don't think there is anything you can do to get background printing.
TrueType Fonts will work on it as long as you have System 7 (or System
6.0.? with the TrueType software installed).