Clamshell Upgrade Questions
From Christina:
Hi,
I want to get a clamshell iBook
for watching DVDs and going online. Low End Mac has been very helpful
in educating me in the features each clamshell comes with.
I just have a question: Would an indigo
clamshell have the same quality for playing DVDs (with a DVD player
connected to the USB port) as a graphite with the DVD-ROM drive
installed? If not what - if any - upgrades would help bring the quality
up to the Graphite's?
Thanks so much!
~Christina
Hi Christina,
Remember that the USB port in the Indigo iBook is USB
1.1, not USB 2.0, so throughput is pretty slow. I can't say with 100%
certainty that this would cause difficulty playing DVDs, but I'm
apprehensive that it might.
The built-in DVD-ROM drive in the Graphite (or 466 MHz Lime) iBook would be a
more promising solution, and the extra 100 MHz of clock speed can't
hurt either for video performance.
There are no upgrades available that would help with
this issue, although I suppose it's possible to swap a DVD-ROM drive
from the 466 MHz iBook into the 366 MHz model.
Charles
Fix a Flash Drive by Repartitioning
From Steven Hunter:
Whenever I've had strange issues with USB flash drives, about half
the time it's a problem with the partition table.
I suggest he backup all his data, and then use either Window's
Logical Disk Manager (Control Panel -> Administrative Tools ->
Computer Management -> Disk Management) or OS X Disk Utility to
delete all existing partitions and create a new one. Format it FAT32
for best compatibility.
Another possibility is if the drive supports the U3 standard that this is
somehow interfering with OS X. There should be a utility that came
with (or sometimes on) the drive to remove this functionality
permanently.
Flash Drive Drag and Drop Problems Solved with Disk
Utility
From John Muir:
Hi,
I had something similar happen with my 256 MB USB flash drive
recently. Just after installing the 10.4.9 update, my 12" PowerBook G4 started saying the drive was
full when it was far from it. The same thing then happened on my
Intel Mac mini, despite it still being
on 10.4.8 at the time. Weird, I thought.
I fixed it by the doing the following:
- back up the flash drive by copying its contents to a new folder on
the Mac
- run Disk Utility
- select the flash drive and erase it with an MS-DOS (FAT) format
(for PC compatibility - or try HFS+ for Macs only)
- copy the original data back to the drive
This did the trick for me. The problem came as a surprise in the
first place, as I have used many different flash drives with my Macs,
including the two thumb drives I've owned (a TwinMOS and an Omron), and
this was the first time I've had a glitch.
A reformat is definitely what I'd suggest.
John Muir
Thanks for the information, John and Steven.
Charles
Choppy Video with iTunes, QuickTime
From Christopher Norbury:
Charles,
Judging from the posts on message boards and feedback forums on the
Web, this seems to be a problematic theme, but I've never seen it
covered on Low End Mac. The video playback of purchased videos in
iTunes and QuickTime becomes very choppy and out of sync as the time
for which the video has been played increases.
I am running a G4 with a PowerLogix 1.6 GHz processor and 1.5 GB
RAM, so those shouldn't be an issue. I also installed an Ultra ATA 133
PCI card and corresponding hard drive, as well as an ATI Radeon 9200
video card with 128 MB RAM.
The picture is still very choppy after a while (approx 15-20
minutes), and it's basically unwatchable. If I quit iTunes and then
start the video again from the place where I stopped, it gets better
for a while.
Is there anything I am overlooking to be able to get a good video
product?
Chris Norbury
Hi Chris,
You seem to have ample hardware capacity to handle
QuickTime video playback (a lot more power than my 1.33 GHz PowerBook, which does a decent job)
and then some, so I'm stumped as to what the issue might be.
I'll put it to readers in the Miscellaneous Ramblings
Mailbag, and hopefully someone will be able to help.
Charles
Many thanks for the reply. I am still playing with some things on
this. if I reduce the monitor resolution to 640 x 480, then I can watch
for longer before the video becomes choppy and the sound is out of
sync with the video. That's about the best solution I have come up
with, and it still doesn't allow me to watch for much more than 35
minutes without having to quit the program and then start again.
Thanks
Chris
'Lombard' Turns Out to Be Pismo
From Lee Shartau:
Hi Charles
If it were not for bad luck, I would have no luck at all (see
Best Dead Lombard Replacement? and
Problems Dragging Files to Flash Drive
on B&W G3).
The Lombard I was
expecting turned out to be a Pismo. The listing was in
"Bronze Lombard" and the bus speed was listed as 66 MHz, but after
running a hardware test suite and noting a bus speed of 100 MHz, I
dropped the back panel. No HDI 30 port. Two FireWire instead. So while
it has been "rode hard, and put away wet". It is what it is.
Q. I downloaded FireWire Update 4.1.8. Is there anything else I need
before partitioning drive and loading 10.3.9?
Q. The power port seems to have excess slop. Any way to stiffen it
up before it breaks?
Q. The yo-yo AC power supply seems to be leaking RF, as the TV gets
snow when AC adapter is plugged in. And some browning where cord exits
center of yo-yo to PowerBook. Is this a good assumption? I can use AC
from MainStreet if this a fire
hazard.
Q. In light of Low End Mac's "how much Mac do you need?" - the
Lombard does everything I need. Has any after-market supplier
built/refurbished a motherboard that addresses the "issues" with heat
that may plague this PowerBook.
Thanks in advance
Lee Shartau
Hi Lee,
A lot of people are (understandably) confused as to
the PowerBook G3 families, and the Lombard and Pismo being virtually
identical in appearance to the uncritical observer doesn't help. The
upside is that the Pismo is more powerful and more stuff is available
for it, it officially supports Tiger, etc.
The firmware update you have should be all you need.
Actually, Panther (OS X 10.3) worked fine on my Pismo before I
installed that update.
The AC port sloppiness doesn't sound good. It could be
coming unsoldered from the motherboard. This happened a couple of times
to my nephew's WallStreet and once to my son's
Lombard. In all cases, he disassembled the machine and resoldered the
joint - it's doable, but not a DIY project for someone not handy with
teardowns and soldering.
I'm no fan of the yo-yo AC adapter and still use a
WallStreet/Lombard M4402 black adapter (the one that was recalled as a
fire hazard) with my Pismo. I think they recalled the wrong adapter
(just MHO). If the cord insulation is compromised (a common problem
with the yo-yos), the adapter should be retired. FastMac makes an
excellent replacement adapter for $39.95.
DayStar markets a 433 MHz G4 upgrades for the Lombard; as far as I
know, that's the only currently available logic board-related
upgrade.
Charles
Problems Booting a Secondhand iMac
Hi Charles,
I didn't quite understand that answer [see Problems Troubleshooting a Slot-loading
iMac]. I've bought
this FireWire drive and
this set of Mac install DVDs and I thought I would simply be able
to plug in the FireWire drive and start the computer.... Does the
message imply I need to move a cable to another place?
Sorry for being so dumb! I am really a bit in the wilderness on this
one!
Hi Steve,
The eBay items look like they should work, provided
the install DVDs are real, generic installers and not System Restore
disks from a particular Mac model.
Getting back to your original problem, have you ever
yet managed to get the
iMac to boot from any system since the RAM swap go-round you
described?
The behavior you describe could be caused by many
things, but in context, a RAM issue seems likely. You need to have
known-good RAM installed for diagnostic purposes.
My son once fried the motherboard in a Power Mac 9500 by installing the wrong voltage
RAM, but in that case there were smoke and sparks.
Try booting holding the option key down with the Tiger
install DVD in the FireWire drive (a straightforward FireWire cable
connection is fine). If a selection of bootable volumes appears, select
the system on the FireWire drive and proceed.
It is possible that there is no problem with the
system installed on the hard drive and that the issue is something
other.
Charles
Netscape 7 a Great OS 9 Browser
From John Kocijanski:
Hello. I just read your article on OS 9
compatibility. I have a WallStreet II 266 MHz and
run Netscape 7 as a browser and for email. So far I have had few
problems. I like it better than anything else I've tried. Luckily
someone gave me a Netscape 7 install CD for OS 9 and OS X. I
still use OS 9 at times for some classic software and use my
WallStreet once in a while rather than booting into OS 9 or using
the classic mode with my G4 tower
that I run Panther on.
Cheers,
John
Hi John,
My wife still uses Netscape 7 with the WallStreet under OS 9.2.2,
and it works very well. Gmail tells here that its not a
"fully supported browser", but it seems to work fine on their site.
Netscape 7 (and ll other archived versions of Netscape are also
downloadable from: http://browser.netscape.com/ns8/download/archive.jsp
Charles
Thanks for your reply. I discovered last night that Yahoo mail no
longer works with Netscape 7 on my WallStreet. It seems to work with IE
5.1 and iCab though. Maybe I'll switch to Gmail.
John
PowerBook Ramblings
From Joe Leo:
My original AC [adapter] died a slow death; I think it was something
with the cord, or maybe it was the brick, but I ended up using the
power adapter from the VST battery charger I had bought later on to
power the laptop.
My colleague came upon a Pismo from a production company
that was donating all their old equipment to our school, and he gave it
to me since he knew that I was using a Pismo at the time. I got excited
about having two, but it was a dead unit. Though now I have the
original AC [adapter] that came with it, the round UFO thingy.
The one the seller gave me was from an older PowerBook, probably a
Lombard. It was
rectangular, like the one FastMac is selling.
So, how many computers do you have? I read your story earlier today
on PBCentral. Did you own all
of those that you reviewed?
I just got a "new" computer on eBay, a Mac mini to replace my aging G3 iMac at home (I'm getting annoyed at its
slowness). I decided I wanted a G4 model instead of an Intel one, since
I still use a lot of Classic apps. It was a great deal because its got
AppleCare until 2009. It's going to be my sixth computer.
By the way, how's your Pismo doing? I have to say I miss it, but
don't miss it that much ever since I got my 12" PowerBook. Though I don't think I will ever
get rid of the Pismo. I had planned on selling it to get my money back
on the amount I shelled out for the 12-incher but changed my mind.
(Though I guess I should sell it while it still has resale value,
right?).
P.S. Do you know of anyone who's upgraded their 12" PowerBook with a
glossy screen from TechRestore? It's very tempting as I, um, damaged my
screen when it dropped (ouch! I almost died when it happened) from the
table onto the floor. It's under CompUSA warranty, and I can get a free
replacement screen, though a matte one only. I've somehow taken a
liking (hell's frozen over) to the glossy type. People would certainly
take a second look if they saw my shiny screen. (I was so ticked! I
never dropped my Pismo ever. I don't even remember how it happened. I
was seated at the computer using it, and I looked up at the TV to watch
something, and next thing I knew, thud! Amazingly it fell not on
a corner or side, but landed flat, lid side down, and the whole thing
was closed when it fell - from open on the desk, to completely closed
when it landed.
Hi Joe,
The WallStreet and Lombard shipped
with a rectangular black adapter, and that's probably what you have.
Adapters from the 1400 and
3400 will also work with the G3
Series PowerBooks and Clamshell
iBook.
The FastMac adapter is a much better unit than any of
the Apple OEM adapters - very robust and relatively inexpensive.
An excellent product.
I have to think about how many computers there are in
this house. Nine at present, I think, the oldest being my ancient
Mac Plus. They are all in
working condition. I haven't owned all of the 'Books outlined in the
PBCentral article, although examples of most of them have been in the
family at one time or another.
My Pismo is working fine, still in daily use, although
the pink screen issue is getting worse. I'll never sell it.
I don't know anyone who has bought the TechRestore
screen upgrade. Sorry to hear about your screen mishap. I one time
jounced an open 1400 off a bed onto a hardwood floor. No damage.
Charles
Lower Memory Slot Failure
From Douglas Barrett
Dear Charles Moore
So glad to see that you are taking an interest in this problem, which seems to have affected so
many.
All the best
Douglas Barrett
Hi Douglas
Wish I had something useful to say about it.
Charles
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