Sometimes You Can Fix Your Mac, Part 3

- 2001.08.03

Well, last week I talked about hard drives and RAM. This week I will talk about expanding your computer - adding a second hard drive, different expansion slot types, and how to decide on a modem.

Additional Hard Drives

Storage space. You can't buy too much. Remember the Macintosh SE with a 20 MB hard drive? Well, now we have 20 GB hard drives and larger. That's 1000 times the size of the original MiniScribe drive that shipped in the SE back in 1987. And it's not uncommon to find 40, 60, and 80 GB drives these days.

Why do you need more storage?

Apps get bigger. Photoshop 3.0 used less than 10 MB of hard disk space. Photoshop 6.0 uses over 160 MB! Microsoft Word 4.0 fit on an 800K floppy disk. Word 9 (2001) uses over 50 MB. And Office? 199.6 MB on my 6400/200!

Your music collection gets bigger. This only applies if you collect music on your computer, but music eats up hard drive space in seconds. Each song can be 2-6 MB, and if you have 500 of them, that could be as much as 3 GB! I have over 550 songs on my G4.

You work with large movie files or Photoshop images. Photoshop uses your hard disk as a scratch disk, and if you don't have enough space, well, you can't edit the file. And where do you plan to store those great iMovies you plan to make when you have 50 MB of hard drive space left?

Okay, so how do you install a second hard drive? Easy. If you are using SCSI, simply set the SCSI ID on the back of the new drive with the jumpers. The manual that came with your drive should have instructions, otherwise look it up on the manufacturers website. Make sure the ID is not 0, 3, 6, or 7. The reason I say 6 is because I always leave one ID free in case I want to temporarily add something. To say that it is always ID 6 which is free is very easy and prevents conflicts. 3 is the ID of the internal CD-ROM drive, 0 is your main hard drive, and 7 is the ID of your Macintosh (yup, the Mac has a SCSI ID as well).

If your system uses IDE, you may not be able to install a second drive. Power Mac 5200, 6200, 5300, 6300, 5400, 6400, 5500, and 6500 series machines cannot use more than one IDE drive. The 6400 and 6500 can support a second SCSI drive if you do not have a Zip drive installed. The early G3s are also machines that may not support a second IDE drive. If you have Revision A ROMs (the way you can tell is if your video card is an ATI Rage II+; the Apple System Profiler will say something like "ATY,mach64_3DU") don't support more than one IDE device. If yours was made in 1997 or early 1998, it almost certainly has the Revision A ROMs.

If your system does support a second IDE device, simply set the device to "slave" using the jumpers (check the drive's manual or the company's website) and connect the drive to your computer.

Expansion Cards

Expansion cards add capabilities to your computer. Some machines need them to add simple capabilities such as ethernet or a decent video card (6400). Other cards allow you to import and export video, connect other types of hard drives, and connect to different types of networks.

There are three different types of slots you should know about. The first is NuBus, which shipped in the original Macintosh II and was used until the Power Macintosh 8100/110 in 1995. Later came PDS slots, such as the type inside the Mac SE. A different PDS slot was used in the SE/30 and the IIsi. Yet another type of PDS slot was used in the LC, LC II, and Colour Classic. An extended version of this was used in the LC III/LC III+, LC 475, Quadra 605, 630, LC 5200, and Performa 6200, 5300, and 6300 series. PDS stands for Processor Direct Slot; however, it doesn't communicate directly with the processor in the PowerPC machines that shipped with this slot.

Later on, Apple adopted the PCI slot which PC manufacturers had been using for a while. This is the current slot used in Apple's G4 product line, and modern expansion cards are PCI cards.

NuBus and PDS are pretty much obsolete, and there are no longer any cards made for these types of slots. However, cards can be found on eBay that do just about anything and can be purchased for very little.

PCI cards can be purchased new in the stores. You can buy USB cards, ethernet cards (for those few Macs in 1996-97 that didn't come with built in ethernet), video cards, and just about anything else.

Before you buy any card, make sure that the software and hardware you are installing is compatible with your OS version. The 7200/90 that you have may be running Mac OS 7.6.1, but the USB card you are thinking of will certainly require OS 8.1, if not 8.5. This may also mean a RAM upgrade. Make sure you know the requirements before you buy any expansion card, new or used.

Installing an expansion card is no more difficult than installing RAM. Open up your machine, remove the expansion slots cover plate, install the card, and close the case.

Modems

Modems. They enable you to send faxes, make telephone calls through the computer, send email, and access the Internet. What happens if you need a new one? What kind do you buy? Where do you look?

I recommend looking for a modem on eBay. If your telephone lines cannot support 56K, don't buy a 56K modem, because it will cost you a fair amount more. A good, used 33.6 modem can cost as little as $15. 28.8 will be a bit less. I always recommend 3Com/US Robotics modems, although there are other good brands out there. Global Village modems are good, but they require special software and are useless without it. If you plan to run Mac OS X (or are running it), don't buy a Global Village. All USB Macs have modems built in unless you specifically order them from Apple without a modem, in which case you can buy inexpensive 56K USB modems in almost any Mac catalog.

If you use your modem for Internet and email only, you may consider a cable modem or DSL (I use Optimum Online from Cablevision, and it is an excellent service with hardly any downtime. I highly recommend it if it is available in your area). Your local service provider may have cable or DSL access anywhere from $19 a month up to $60 a month. You can talk to your local cable provider about the availability of a cable modem. All that you need is a Mac with Open Transport (included in System 7.5.3 and later, it can be downloaded from Apple's website) and an ethernet card (no, you don't need a PowerMac to use a cable modem, regardless of what your provider may say).

Summing Up

it is important to be able to fix your Mac and things to it. Of course, if you have a major problem with your machine, have someone else take a look at it if you feel that you can't figure out what is causing it.

Remember there are three main parts to a computer - logic board, power supply, and drives. If your computer does nothing (the fan doesn't even come on) when you turn it on (and you have verified that it is plugged into a working outlet), you would probably suspect something with the power supply because it provides the power to the other components, and you may be able to replace it yourself.

If your computer chimes but does nothing more, it is probably something with the logic board. It could be that your clock battery has died, an expansion card has died, the RAM has gone bad, or a bad logic board itself (not very common). You can test your theory by checking on these things in order. Replace the battery. If that doesn't fix it, remove all the expansion cards. If that doesn't fix it, remove the RAM (if your machine uses DIMMs or 30-pin SIMMs, you will likely have to leave some RAM in in order for the machine to actually start up). If it is still not fixed, you will need to have someone look at your machine to test the logic board.

Fixing your own Mac is not hard, and it is very satisfying when you figure out the problem and get the machine working the way it should.