Table of Contents for this issue:
OS software for SE
Display card +drives for IIfx
Torx Screwdrivers
Old software on an '040?
Looking for SE Accelerator
SuperDrive, HardDrive, Modem for MacII
Re: MacTCP on a 68000
Re: Mac desktop Batteries
Color Classic
Color Classic accelerator
Wasted LC
Tech Info on the StyleWriter
Truncated Issues
Re: Classic II/ Powermac Comparison
Re: Plus & external hard drive
Power Brick for Mac Portable
400K floppies and the 128K: summary
Re: Color Classic
Re: Multiple answers to questions
Re: big problems with SE

I have been having difficulty getting software running on my SE; actually,
I gave up on it in August after trying everything withing my power to
build a boot disk for it. However, at current, my only computer is my 386
PC, which replaced the Pentium that (surprise surprise) fried itself when
I replaced its power supply with a more effieint one. (Gotta love those
PCs). Anyway my mother has threatened me that if I don't get these Macs
on my bedroom floor working, she's going to toss them.
I thikn the SE works, as far as I know it merely needs a boot disk. I
aquired (free, of course) a keyboard an I need to get my SE working ASAP,
both because my mother is threatening to
toss it if she doesn't see it do something productive and because I'm
really sick of dealing with unreliable and slow PCs (my Pentium/486 fried
itself and the 386 is absurdly slow and DOS is too frustrating convenience
wise.). Anyway, I need a boot disk for it, unless the 800Ks are fried,
which I doubt. I have tried formatting disks on my friend's Powermac,
which didn't work, and I got a few formatted on the Plusses at school and
copied Sys 6.0.1 (I think) from the Powermac, but nothing has worked. Am
I doing something wrong? I do suspect I may be using too old a version of
System (it needs 6.0.6, right?) but I think it's something about the disks
or the formatting thereof. The disks I'm using are old 720s from my PC
collection, but I don't think that's the problem since the Powermac liked
them. IF anyone has any ifeas, or advice, past experience, etc, please
email me. Thanks.

Jim

I recently aquired (entirely be luck) a IIfx without drives or cards, and
separately, a "Two-Page Monochrome" monitor- a lovely 20" beast.

I need a video card to use the two, at the very least. It has I think 6
Nubus, and the monitor has a strange looking connector about the size and
shape of a DB25 except for the pins are not standard looking at all, in my
PC experience. I would also need a cable for the card+monitor.

Also, I will need a boot device for it, but, assuming I can get software
on disk, I can rip an 800K out of my SE. I have available to me an IBM
40mb SCSI, but I'm clueless as to how to connect it to power, and I'm also
wondering how I'll ever format it and get software for it, considering the
only thing available to me there is the aforementioned flopppy drives. MY
primary concern though is getting the video card, and my budget is very
very limited.

If you have or know where I could get a dirt cheap or free (or trade..for
PC stuff [386+486 boards]) video card for the mono monitor, or a different
one with a monitor or to use an RGB or my VGA, I would be greatly
appreciative.

Lastly, any advice on using the PC modem (external 9600) with the IIfx is
good. Thanks.

Jim

emmak wrote,

Do any UK users know where I might get a torx screwdriver that will
get the case off if need be?

The best place to get torx screwdrivers, US, UK, wherever, is at your
local automotive tool store. My personal favorite is Craftsman, becuase
of the low price and lifetime warrantee. All of my tools are
Craftsman. For those who don't know, you can get them at any Sears
store

George M. Gunderson
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Pines/9404

This might be a real stupid question but is there anyway to get software
written for a 68000 machine (namely Microsoft Word 4.0 and Quark Xpress
2.0) to work on a 68040 machine?

Bill

I am in search of an accelerator for my SE which currently has an Asante
Etnernet PDS card that I need to keep. While I know that dual-port PDS
accelerators exist, like Micromac's LC accelerator, do they exist for the
SE? If so, who made/makes them and what models do you all recommend?
Used is preferred but new will work so long as it's not too pricey.

Kurt Bauer

Now for some items that I need. I am looking for a hard drive that is
at least 200 megs or better. I am planning to install it into that Mac II
that I will be getting in a few days. I will also be needing a SuperDrive
to replace the Mac II 800K floppies. Finally, I am looking for a GV
9600 baud rate modem with software and book. Any ideas ? Thanks.

Manuel,

Subscribe to Lance Timco's e-mail specials list.
To subscribe contact mailto:lance@lance.seanet.com, send
the message, "subscribe to list".

He has a Web site too:
http://www.timco-computers.com

He has lots of stuff that is well tested, guaranteed, and decently priced.
I purchased a Superdrive from him for my Mac IIcx & it worked great.

Welcome.
Curt.

P.S.: An external drive is a good idea for the Mac IIs because of the fan
sucking dirt through the floppy drive opening.- Or at least ask Lance for
a protective plastic cover for the drive (and keep a piece of tape over the
drive mouth when not in use.)

Curtis Bard

mac tcp- has trouble working on plus and SE due to being 68000 macs...

The worst trouble is that MacTCP may crash the first time you save settings.
This also happens with the very common MacPPP 2.01 on 68000cpu Macs. Almost
every time either cause this crash (which is only the very first time they
save prefs) the prefs file (with the settings) gets saved. Just restart and
all is fine. As far as function, MacTCP 2.0.6 as well as MacPPP 2.01 work
just fine on 68000 Macs.

neongooch

I have a Mac Plus that has a screen problem. When I start my Mac, the
screen works fine. But when I enter a boot disk in the 800k drive,
most of the time the screen goes blank for about ten minutes. Then it
lights up and I can see the desktop. After this the screen works the
way it should work. When I boot from a hard disk, the screen mostly
works fine. But as soon as I use the 800 K- drive, the screen
goes black. Apparently there is some connection with diskette-drive
activity and the screen in the first ten minutes. After ten minutes
the screenl is normal again. What can I do to solve this problem?

Fred Gaasendam

Greetings fellow classics,

The 1/2 AA lithium batteries for inside Macs
can also be found at Photo shops.
I have had luck calling around to these stores
with the battery in my hand for reference.
You cannot ask for a Mac battery.

Radio Shack offered to order them for me,
but the photo store had them.

Bruce

Greetings from South Africa,

I have used a Color Classic 10/80 for years with a MicroMac 030-33hz
Accelerator card in it with no troubles at all. It requires no extension
and it is Ram Doubler friendly. I also tried the 030-50 card but had
nothing but grief with it. All though there is a fellow in Canada who has
had good fortune with that card.

Jeff Blanton

In response to ighhorseaid, I have been using an Impact 030
(made by Extreme Systems, purchased from Pacific Mac) on my Color
Classic and have had no problems whatsoever with it. Boosts speed to
32MHz and doesn't require an extension. It has an FPU slot, as well.
Would still like more hard RAM but RAM Doubler works fine with it.
Tried a Sonnet '040 card and couldn't get Navigator 2.0 to work at
all.

tcarlson

Hello. I have an LC that I am trying to put back together. I am
using it with a 15" multiscan monitor. Whenever I try to start up, I get
three images / side by side/ that are very, very fuzzy. I can barely see
the startup mac icon. Has anyone out there encountered this kind of
trouble with LC's? Any help would be much appreciated.

Sincerely, John

[MODERATOR]

The LC probably doesn't like the multiscan monitor - try a simple 13"
monitor (not multiscan), a 12" grayscale, or a 12" RGB (that's the small,
undesirable one.)

[MODERATOR]

Hello,

I have recently found this wonderful maillist and really appreciate all
the good info!

A question:

I recently picked up a cheap StyleWriter printer, unfortunetly this thing
isn't as intuitive to use as the Image Writer II that I have used for
years. Any one know of a web site which has tech info on this printer? I
guess part of the good price was no tech manual included.

thanks,
John Robinson

Whenever you complicate things, they get less simple.

[MODERATOR]

I have one of these attatched to my IIsi. It's really pretty
easy to use. Just assemble, put a stack of paper in, an ink cartridge,
extend the paper catcher, use a Din8 cable to connect it to the mac,
get the print driver, and you should be ready.

If you have any specific questions I'll be happy to answer them.

[END MODERATOR]

Hi!

Both 971003 and 971004 arrived truncated - the last with only 2 articles. :-(

We got a problem somewhere!

[MODERATOR]

Yes, that was my doing, I'm afraid. A little programming
glitch in the application I wrote to help me deal with the digests
caused a few control characters to find their way into the digests.

As I have since found out, this causes some mail readers to see
an end of message.

The problem is fixed and shouldn't happen again.

[END MODERATOR]

Stuart Bell
Running an Acorn Risc PC and an Apple PowerBook in a Wintel-free Zone.
Acorn user? Visit http://www.poppyfields.net/sasaug/

Date: Tue, 30 Sep 1997 22:23:43 +0100
From: Jon Gaines

[snip]

If you just want to write letters, the older machines are more than
adequate.

This does depend on how you write your letters.

I have a MacPlus networked to my Performa 475. One evening, just after
we'd got them together in the same room, I told the Plus to typset (using
LaTeX) Rebecca's thesis which she wanted a copy of. It took something over
an hour to finish, rather than the 3 minutes or so it takes on the Performa
475.

What's this got to do with letters? Well, *if* you use LaTeX with the (as
yet unreleased) rmpage package to do your letters, it takes a MacPlus
something like 5 or 10 minutes to typeset a single page letter.

But MacWrite II works wonderfully quickly :-)

Rowland.

Date: Tue, 30 Sep 97 07:01:59 -0400
From: Daniel Knight

Digest 970904 had two questions about the Mac Plus not recognizing an
external hard drive. The Mac Plus had a relatively slow SCSI port. Most
older drives must be formatted with a 3:1 interleave so they don't
overwhelm the SCSI port. You should format the hard drive while it is
attached to the Plus.

You can't overwhelm the SCSI port with a 1:1 or 2:1 interleave. All that
will happen is that your HD will work very much slower if you're using an
inappropriate interleave.

What matters is the speed of the drive relative to the speed of the SCSI
port and computer - older Macs couldn't keep up with the relatively fast
HDs that were available at the time. Modern Macs (even Mac IIs, I think)
can keep up with these ancient HDs so an old HD should be formatted with an
interleave of 1:1 if you're going to use it on a new Mac only. I gather
PPC Macs should have any HD formatted with a 1:1 interleave; I think the
same applies to all 68030 and above Macs.

Rowland.

I bought an old Macintosh Portable. It looks to be a pretty nice setup, but
doesn't have a powerbrick. Can someone tell me what the voltage should be
going into the little power connector? Will this recharge the battery, or
is an external charger required?

Bryan Walls

Many thanks to everyone who responded to my question about 400K floppies
and the 128K. To wit, I wrote:

I bought a 128K ... and faced the problem of putting [System 1.0] on a 400K disk the 128K
would understand.

I tried reformatting a HD (1.4MB) disk on a Power Mac using an old, old
reformatting program called Fast Formatter... But the 128K didn't recognize it.
Either there's a problem with trying to create a 400K disk using the
Power Mac's SuperDrive or the 128K's drive is simply busted.

Here's a summary of the responses I received.

* A few people suggested putting tape over the hole of a HD diskette. I
tried that, but there seems to be a more fundemental formatting issue
between my PowerMac's SuperDrive and the 128K's 400K drive.

* Several people asked me to forward the answer to them when I got it. :)
One wanted to know if I knew of any 128Ks for sale. Timco Computers

http://www.timco-computers.com/ sells a

variety of 128K *parts*, which suggests to me that he's cannabilizing
whole 128Ks. Worth asking. He sells mice and keyboards for $10 each and
the 128K motherboard for $20. I'm sure there are others out there as
well; maybe Lance could refer you if he doesn't have them.

* Finally, John Gaines summarized the problem
nicely:

The 128 disks are in MFS format, which is incompatible with HFS disks.
To further complicate things, many Power Macs will not write successfully
to 400K disks. There is a way around this, and when I get some time
tomorrow I'll send a note explaining what to do, unless you've already
figured it out. Jon

So -- it looks like I'm back to where I started. Here's an idea: Anyone
want to start a business selling System 1.0 on a 400K floppy? I'll send
you $5 for it. :)

Tom Geller, Mac Product Consultant * http://www.tgeller.com
Product criticism * Market analysis * Press relations * Partnerships

From: IGHA/HorseAid Volunteer

We also inquired into a Performa 550 logic board (also used in the CC II),
which is a `30 chip running at 33MHz and a full 32bit data path with a max
of 36 megs of RAM possible (cost $350.00). Has anybody had any experience
with this logic board (i.e., a Performa 550, or CC II)?

That is supposed to be a simple swap, I've never tried (no color classic).

While on the idea how about a Performa 575, 577, or 578 (580?) motherboard
swap? They are supposed to be a simple job too, and that would put the Color
Classic up to an 040, you could even run system 8 if so inclined (36meg of
ram max with these). I have seen them listed for only around $450, thats a
lot, but if your looking at $350 anyway for speed...

neongooch

Date: Tue, 30 Sep 1997 07:55:22
To: Classic Posts
From: IGHA/HorseAid Volunteer
Subject: Color Classic

We just resurrected a Color Classic (10/80) we had laying around, and wish
to make it a bit speedier.

I have looked at all the list archives to find an accelerator that works,
but have conflicting opinions from the posts.

We have several SE's (4/275/800K) with MicroMac 32MHz accelerators (and
Compact Virtual), and have not had a problem with them EXCEPT with
formatting disks (we have to turn the caches off, and sometimes they just
don't want to go off).
ic board (i.e., a Performa 550, or CC II)?

Anybody care to recommend something I have overlooked (it was said in the
archives that the Newer Tech `40 accelerator won't let you use more than
256 colors, and we want to stay at 16 bit, so that's out). Any other boards
out there that you have personal experience with and can post the pro's and
cons of?

TIA
Cindy

I bought a 030 accelerator board from Extreme Systems for my old Color
Classic. No incompatibilities--just plug and go. It's faster than a IIci
and I even set it up to surf the Internet using Navigator 2.0! And
thousands of colors!

I think they still have a bunch at their offices--make a deal!

Extreme Systems
1050 Industry Drive
Tukwila, Washington 98188

Ofcourse--I'm still waiting for a 750 PowerPC card for the Color Classic! :-)
Now *that* is the 20th Anniversary Macintosh!

------------------

Clarence Searles

I attempted to retrieve the fonts from the attachments folder but when I
clicked "Check Mail", I was asked for my password which was correctly given
but I was immediately cut off line. My ISP I thought. Later in the day I
could not only access my mail box, I was unable to access my ISP without a
password which, when given, I was immediately rejected. In my following
attempts to get on line I was not even allowed the access of the modem. It
refused to dial up. Instead I was shown two windows. The first, "MacPPP
Status": "Terminal Mode". The second window was titled "PPP terminal
session". There is a blank enclosure below that, then at the very bottom,
the usual cancel and ok buttons.

First of all--try and use a regular terminal program(like Zterm) and dial
into your service(shell access). Does it work? Are they rejecting your
password? If so--voice call to your ISP! Sometimes your ISP is having
problems(like too many callers!) This way you can eliminate your ISP as the
source of your problems.

Other than that--you're gonna have to go and check all your settings in
your MacTCP and Mac PPP control panels. You may have to also trash the
MacTCP DNR file(and other preference files like MacPPP preferences) and
start over.

Make sure you have these settings like DNS server, mail server and
newsgroup server names written down somewhere so that you can reconfigure.

One more thing that troubles me--what the hell do you mean send "fonts"
from your Mac? Are you sending something directly out of your active system
folder??

I hope there were uninstalled fonts.

Next thing you know--you'll be sending control panels, extensions straight
out of your System folder(while it's running!!!)

One more thing--I hope you are running at least 7.1 with tuneup. It's a lot
more stable for Internet access.

At last resort--reformat and reinstall 7.1 and then your Internet stuff!

------------------

To: Classic Posts
From: Lorenzo141
Date: 28 Sep 97 14:52:44 -0500
Subject: Color Classic

This list is the greatest!

Anyway, I'm writing about the Color Classic. I am thinking of purchasing one
for my friend, but I am scared that I won't be able to run programs that
require a 640 x 480 resolution. Does anyone have any of the following
programs and run them successfully?

1. After Dark
2. AOL 3.0 for 68k Macintosh
3. Microsoft Word 6.0.1

1.Forget the AfterDark--the built in Energysaver and Screen dimmer of the
Macintosh Color Classic is much more elegant. However--if you insist on
running it--it will work.

2.Also Forget about using AOL--the windows on AOL is bigger than the
CClassics screen--certain buttons can't be reached--not to mention that AOL
is a resource hog.

Now adding artwork(wait, wait wait...)

Get a real ISP and you run Netscape Navigator or Explorer and use real
Internet applications like Eudora and Newswatcher.(The last two are faster
and less demanding than AOL's program). My old Color Classic only had 8
megs or ram and Navigator 2.0 worked great!

3. I installed Word 6.01 on my sisters Color Classic. It works--but Word
5.0 is a better choice(with the Word 6 compatibility translators plugins
installed)

If you insist on Word 6--I hope you've got plenty of hard drive space!

Laurie wrote:

My fiance just bought an ancient SE for $15.
.... but one of it's problems is that all of the
type on the desktop is so huge I can't even read the full names of the
programs or files.

A system utility called CloseView (a control panel?) may have been set to
magnify the screen. Try finding that and turning it off. Or zapping the
PRAM might do it (see below).

Sometimes, but not always, when I click on an icon
the computer will instantly delete its name and replace it with a long
series of slashes.

This is adapted from an Apple tech info document:

---------------

The problem can exist in any of these areas:
1. Badly-formed keycap on the keyboard
2. Keyboard or ADB hardware
3. A faulty logic board

First, check the [slash] key on the keyboard. You may find it partially
depressed. This occurs because of a tiny plastic protrusion left on some
keycaps after manufacturing. Some troubleshooters have found this
protrusion catching on the case just enough to produce characters, but not
enough to be noticed at a glance. The fix is easy - remove the keycap and
shave off the plastic protrusion.

Second, if nothing is wrong with the keycap, try changing the keyboard and
cable.

Third, if the problem remains, change the logic board.

---------------

I have downloaded all 4, 800k disks for system 6.08 from the Apple site onto my
other computer. I assume I should transfer these downloaded segments of sys.
6.08 onto 800k floppies and somehow get them into the SE. How?

Is your other computer a Mac? We need to know.
If it is, you would use a utility like ShrinkWrap or Disk Copy to turn the
four disk image files into real 800k disks, use one of them (System Tools)
to boot the SE, then run the Installer you'll find on that disk. Boot from
a floppy by putting it in the drive before switching on the SE.

And what of reformatting the drive? How is that done? I, unfortunately,
don't have access to any sort of external drive.

Another of the four System 6.0.8 floppies (Utilities 1) will also boot the
SE, and on that you'll find a utility called Apple HD SC Setup, which will
reformat your drive.

Could someone now please tell
me how to zap the PRAM on this machine running sys. 6.07?

Hold down Shift-Command-Option and select Control Panel.

Chris Adams, Birmingham, UK.
The Mac SE Support Pages http://www.edprint.demon.co.uk/se/