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Migration Issues in Moving from a Beige
G3 to a Blue and White
2004.02.20
What I thought would be a simple upgrade
turned out to be something just a bit more complicated. Sure, the
machine worked all right after I moved the hard drive over -- I was
able to get online and do most basic things.
But what if I wanted to print?
Since the blue & white G3
doesn't have any serial ports, I had a couple of options. I could try
to get a new USB printer, or I could add a gPort
adapter in place of the modem in order to gain a serial port. While I
was thinking of doing this, I noticed that my printer, an Epson Photo
Stylus 1200, actually has USB. (And I advise anyone else in that
position: Check your printer, just in case). This surprised me a
little bit for such an old printer (1998 or so), but all I had to do
was buy a USB cable and change the setting in the Chooser. That was
it. Not hard at all.
Then I wanted to play a CD in my computer, so I pushed the F12
key, which ejects the CD-ROM drawer on most recent Macs. It did
nothing. I knew that I could reach down and push the button to eject
the tray, but I don't like pushing on the tray in order to get it
back in again -- and on the b&w G3, you can't just push the CD
eject button again, since it's actually located on a flap that folds
down when the tray extends.
After
a bit of searching on the Internet, I found a piece of software
called EjectDisk
from Beyond Midnight Software. This allows you to select any key or
key combination on the keyboard to eject any disk in the machine --
or just disks in a specific drive. It was exactly what I needed, and
now my CD-ROM tray ejects like I'd want now with the push of the F12
key.
I was also a bit concerned over how my iPod would work under
OS 9, since I'd updated the firmware in OS X several times.
Thankfully, it connected and showed up just fine under
iTunes 2.
The scanner was a bit of a challenge to set up. First of all, the
SCSI card wasn't recognized. I finally realized that it was because
the Adaptec 2906 needs driver software under OS 9 (OS X has
built in drivers for it). I downloaded and installed the software,
and it appeared in the system profiler with my scanner as SCSI ID 5.
Fine, I thought, and tried to scan something.
"Scanner not found" it told me. Come on, it says that it's
connected in the system profiler!
So I checked the SCSI termination; it wasn't terminated, but that
had never given me a problem on my beige G3. I connected it to
another external hard drive, since I couldn't find a terminator, and
it worked fine.
This whole little episode started getting me thinking that I might
want to look into a more modern scanner at some point. I'd like one
that will scan negatives, as my neighbor's has this capability and I
think it's a nice capability to have. Right now, though, this one
still works fine. Yes, it's SCSI, which no modern Mac includes, but
I'm still able to scan photographs and drawings. That's what really
matters.
The last little minor annoyance is when the machine freezes.
Unlike my beige G3, command-control-power doesn't restart it -- I
have to reach down, find the restart button, and try to poke it with
my fingernail or something else somewhat pointy. It's not the most
convenient thing in the world. Considering that when the machine came
out, OS 8.5 was the current OS, Apple probably should have made it a
bit easier to restart the computer after freezes and crashes.
Still, in the past week I've only had one freeze, and that was in.
-- you guessed it -- Internet Explorer.
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Compare products like desktop computers, apple laptops, apple macs, and LCD Monitors side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for new mobile phones, sat nav systems, or MP3 players. The Ciao online shopping community makes searching products easy for you.
Options for replacing your older iPod, 11.19.
Whether you've run out of space on your old iPod or want features it doesn't have, here are your options in new and used iPods.
Leopard different, a bit buggy, but worth the upgrade, 11.02.
Leopard on a Power Mac G4 and a MacBook Pro: It runs well on both computers, but each has some odd bugs, and some of the changes are a step backwards.
November 8 in LEM history: 99: OS 9: I think I like it - 01: The simplified Mac life - Soured on Windows - Flea market Mac - 02: Little room for improvement in new 'Books - Combo drive upgrade for iceBooks - 04: Re-Porter - 05: Fix the old iMac or buy a Mac mini? - Apple's Copland project - 06: MacBook Core 2 - MacBook value equation - Cheap is as cheap does - 07: Problems with Classic mode in Tiger - The G4 Power Mac that won't run Leopard
IDE Is Dead; Long Live SATA!, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 11.04.
SATA has displaced parallel ATA. While IDE hard drives haven't disappeared, the best deals are in SATA hard drives.
Best Power Mac G3 and PCI Video Card Deals, 11.02.
Used beige 300 MHz, $25; G4/366, $49; blue & white 350, $80; 400, $90; 450, $105; PCI video cards from $15; shipping additional.