Jaguar or Panther for Pismo?
From David Lee:
Dan,
I have been reading your articles on Low End Mac for a while, and
though you've touched on this topic, I was wondering if I could ask you
a question....
I have a Pismo G3 400
MHz with 512 MB RAM, and I am currently running OS X 10.3.9 with
all the updates. Obviously it's a lot slower than my old 9.2.2.
I also have an iBook G4, so I only use the Pismo for web browsing,
blogging, and simple things like that. My friend just gave me his old
copy of 10.2.0, and I was wondering if I would gain any speed by
dropping the Pismo down to Jaguar and then updating to 10.2.8?
Thanks,
David Lee
David,
I have no OS X experience on Pismos, but in general
Mac OS X 10.3.x is going to give you faster performance than 10.2.x on
the same hardware. You'll also have to deal with older browsers and
other software, so I'd vote for sticking with 10.3.9.
If you want more performance, a 5400 rpm hard drive
can make a world of difference, especially one with an 8 MB or 16 MB
buffer. And low capacity drives are pretty cheap these days....
Dan
Mac 128K Corrections
From David:
I
was reading the "Cautions" about using a 5.25" disk drive with
[the Macintosh
128K] and noticed these two points:
"The 128K cannot access shared volumes on a network,
although it can print to networked printers. More details in Apple TIL
5356."
This is true for AppleShare, however there are many third party
solutions that do work, among them the popular XL/Serve and Sun
Microsystems' TOPS, both extremely reliable early offerings (TOPS was
even PC compatible). I realize this is a technical distinction, but one
which further demonstrates the 128K's forward-thinking abilities in
1985. Also, XL/Serve and TOPS make for a fine vintage network instead
of AppleShare which didn't even show up until 1987, especially today
since none of these Macs can directly access a network volume with an
OS X Mac at all.
"The 128K and 512K will not be able to read 400k disks
in an attached 800k disk drive"
This is not true. The internal 800K drive mechanism (MFD-51W-10)
that shipped with the beige 800K External Drive, will not read a 400K
disk. However, the later drive mechanism (MFD-51W-03) that shipped
inside the later Mac Pluses, SEs & Mac IIs, as well as the stock
Apple 3.5" Drive (external), will read a 400K disk - not just
read, but boot from one. (If used internally it requires the
yellow ribbon cable.) In addition, the original MFD-51W (no vers. #),
which first shipped in the UniDisk 3.5" external drive will also work
(with the internal Liron interface board disconnected in the UniDisk)
as well as internally in the 128K (with the red ribbon cable), but not
installed inside the 800K external drive case. This drive mechanism was
later shipped internally in the Mac Plus, and Apple differentiated it
as the "internal" vs. MFD-51W-10 as "external". More importantly, using
an 800K external drive with a 128K & 512K Mac will allow 800K MFS
data storage. So not only can the 128K use an 800K drive as well as
boot from it, it can also take advantage of all 800K storage
capabilities and double the otherwise useable disk space.
My website [Mac128.com] details
much of this, and eventually I intend to offer Mac 128K compatible
networking software, once I have acquired and tested the configurations
and compatibility with AppleShare.
Don't forget about the M0001
Registry.
David,
Thanks for writing. I remember TOPS well, although I'm
having difficulty finding anything about it on the Web using Google or
Yahoo search. I've updated the Mac 128K and 512K profiles to indicate
that the network volume issues only apply to AppleShare and that only
one 800K drive mechanism is incompatible.
Thanks for all you do to keep these ancient Macs
alive.
Dan
Believe me, I know, having tried to research it myself. Many of the
details I have come from trade show publications and reference books.
Both [TOPS] and MacServe were hugely popular at the time
. . . they were the Macintosh Office for 5 years until
AppleTalk Phase 2. It's like all record of their existence was wiped
off the planet.
The less conspiratorial theory is that since both were basically
pushed out by AppleShare before the Internet took off, anything not
directly supported by Apple tended to get pushed aside, particularly
when it comes to higher end business applications that did not have
relevance to everyone and were left far behind by their respective
companies. Both InfoSphere and Centram Systems West actually helped
Apple develop AppleTalk AFP. In fact "Inside AppleTalk" makes reference
to version 1.0 of AFP, which was codeveloped with Centram and never
released. Interestingly both companies developed subsequent
technologies such as commercial dialup network access over AppleTalk
software long before Apple did. Makes you wonder....
Thanks for updating things so quickly. Such a request would have sat
on my desk for a couple of months before I got to it!
Best,
David
David,
I didn't use a Mac until late 1996, so a lot of this
predates my experience. I'd love to find someone who could write about
the third-party innovations of the first two years of the Macintosh
era, when there were no fast hard drives, official ways to expand RAM,
share files, etc.
Dan
My Old iMac
From Bruce Meek:
Hello, just found your site. Thanks for all the info in one handy
place!
Driven by a recent
perceived slowdown of my connection speed, I have been playing a bit
with my '99 G3 350 MHz
6 GB blue slot loader. Found some memory chips that seem to
work fine to increase RAM (now at 128, going to try for 512) and found
an article about changing out the hard drive (don't know about that one
yet...).
I'd like to get to 10.2 so that I can be more functional on the
current Internet, and found an outlet that offers the system for $60
including "Kitchen Sink". A tech mentioned upgrading the internal modem
or LAN card to increase connectivity speeds, but have found nothing
about this in my meanderings. Is this possible? A good idea?
Thanks for any advice. I know I should bite the bullet and buy into
the new technology, but the way things are changing now, I'd like to
wait a few years if I can get the old girl to stay in the game. I tend
toward older, proven machines anyway.
Thanks, Bruce
Bruce,
You've got a nice little computer there. Dropping in a
7200 rpm hard drive will make it much more responsive, as will boosting
RAM to at least 512 MB, especially if you're running a version of Mac
OS X. You can check out recent prices on early versions in our
Best Online Mac OS X
Prices.
As far as upgrading the modem and networking are
concerned, you're between a rock and a hard place. There are no
replacement modems or LAN cards made for the iMac, as these features
are built right into the computer. That said, it's got a 56k modem and
10/100 ethernet, which should be plenty fast for anything you'd do on a
G3 iMac.
Dan
Thanks a lot for the come back. I've also been looking at picking up
a Power Mac G4 tower and passing the iMac on to my kid (9). There seems
to be a few around once in a while, and prices seem okay. From what
I've been able to gather, these machines are easier to upgrade as well
as being more powerful in all ways. Am I on the right track?
Thanks again, Bruce
Bruce,
Yep, you're on the right track. G4 Power Macs will let
you expand memory to 1.5 GB or 2.0 GB, accept CPU upgrades to nearly
2.0 GHz, have room for several internal hard drives, can take a better
video card - or a second one, and can take a USB 2.0 card in a PCI slot
to bring them up to date for connectivity.
Dan
Optical Trackball for ADB Macs
From Tim Conroy:
In Optical Mice for ADB Macs,
you discussed snags in getting optical ADB mice. Skating round the
problem, don't forget that an early iteration of the Kensington Orbital
trackball came with two cable endings: one for USB, the other for ADB.
And the track rate of input can be tweaked in software.
Tim
Tim,
Thanks for writing. I've tried a few different
trackballs over the years, but I always go back to the mouse. It just
fits my work style better.
Also, we're looking for something currently on the
market. For the old Orbit trackballs with ADB connectors, you're pretty
much limited to
eBay.
Dan
Internal or External Hard Drive for eMac?
From Eric Halbert:
My wife currently uses a first generation eMac (700 MHz,
768 MB of RAM, this model has a Combo drive). While it feels slow to me
(compared to my 1.66 MHz Intel
Core Duo Mac Mini), she has been quite happy with it. However,
spinning beach balls are starting to become more common in her work
load. Plus, the 40 GB drive in the eMac is starting to look overfilled
(which probably explains the slower performance).
I'm looking into faster hard drives, but in your professional
opinion, which would be faster?
- An external FireWire drive (with 7200 RPM, 8+ MB cache, etc.)
- A faster internal drive (with 7200 RPM, 8+ MB cache, etc.)
I'm leaning towards getting an external FireWire drive, simply
because the concept of getting inside the eMac kind of scares
me....
But I also want to make sure her machine is as fast as possible,
since there's not much else we can do to upgrade the machine beyond
upgrading the hard drive and upping the RAM to 1 GB.
Thanks for the great site.
Eric
Eric,
FireWire is at least as fast as the internal drive
bus, and you have a lot of options with an external drive:
- Keep a clean, bootable version of OS X on the internal drive for
troubleshooting.
- Partition the external drive so you can try Leopard on a second
partition without having to wipe out Tiger (or whatever version you're
using).
- Move the drive to your Mac mini if you need to run drive
diagnostics or copy lots of files - or install Leopard.
- If the eMac dies, your files are safe on an external drive.
My advice is to buy a big drive with both USB 2.0 and
FireWire 400 ports, as that will give you all the flexibility you could
want going forward. I'm fond of the NewerTech miniStack drives, which also
include USB and FireWire hubs.
Dan
Can You Install Mac OS X from an iPod?
Dear Dan,
I was wondering - if you have a Mac with a CD-R or CD-RW drive,
could you install Mac OS X off of a USB iPod? Because I have a Mac
without a DVD drive, and of course it can run [Leopard], but of course
because of no DVD, well I'm outta luck.
-Seth Windoms
Seth,
It should be possible to install Leopard from a disk
image on an iPod. Problem is, PowerPC Macs aren't designed to boot into
OS X from USB drives. It might work if you hold down the
Option key at startup, which I've heard is the only way to choose a USB
device as an OS X startup drive. (I have never tried it
myself.)
Dan
TiBook 500 Running Leopard
From David Emmons:
Dan,
It's been a long time since I
posted about running a Radius
Rocket and System 7.
Still in GR, but my Mac fortunes have moved up. Primary machine is a
17" iMac Core 2 Duo
2 GHz running Leopard, and I got hooked on Omnifocus, but work
is Windows, so I went looking for a laptop to run Omnifocus. Enter a
500 TiBook I got off
of eBay. It had 10.3, but Omnifocus needs Tiger, and the only Tiger
disk I have came with the iMac.
I tried the various schemes to get Leopard on the beast. Target disk
mode failed because my hard drive is too small. The program method just
wouldn't work. Hacking the Open Firmware did the trick. So here I sit
on the PowerBook typing this note through screen sharing so that my
iMac can send it to you.
TiBooks Specs:
- 768 MB of RAM
- 500 MHz G4
- 20 gig HD
- 8 MB ATI Rage 128 video
I'm running 10.5.2 now, and DVD Player will not run. VLC runs but is
choppy. I don't plan on using Time Machine, as this machine is
basically a giant PDA and remote controller (Back To My Mac is
cool). AirPort seems weaker than in Panther, though it seems to work
all through my house and at work.
So here I sit with an older Mac running something it's not supposed
to. It's just like the old days.
David Emmons
David,
Thanks for writing. I had your TiBook's slower
brother, the 400 MHz model. Got 5-1/2 years of use out of it before it
was dropped and beyond repair. Putting in a 5400 rpm hard drive made a
world of difference. Otherwise my config was similar to yours.
AirPort is always weak with the TiBook. Your best bet
might be a PC Card or USB WiFi dongle. (I went the PC Card route.)
Dan
Dan Knight has been publishing Low
End Mac since April 1997. Mailbag columns come from email responses to his Mac Musings, Mac Daniel, Online Tech Journal, and other columns on the site.
