I like stuff that lasts, and vice versa. Last week, the Frigidaire
refrigerator we bought in 1998 died suddenly, less than a year after
the warranty expired. I discovered fridge warranties aren't what they
used to be - the White Westinghouse box we bought to replace the dead
machine coming with only a paltry one-year warranty, although I think
my credit card will double that.
The 'WallStreet' PowerBook G3 Series
The annoyance and unwelcome expense of having to replace the fridge
got me thinking about another piece of 1998-built equipment I own - my
WallStreet
PowerBook, which unlike the Frigidaire is still going strong in its
eleventh year of service, currently on long-term "loan" to one of my
daughters who is successfully running Mac OS X 10.4.11 on it. An
apples vs. refrigerators comparison to be sure, but it is gratifying
that the old Mac laptop is still hanging in and capable of providing
useful service.
Today is the 11th anniversary of the WallStreet's unveiling at the
Worldwide Developer's Conference on May 4, 1998. A radical departure
from previous Apple laptops, the WallStreet and its
entry-level MainStreet companion
were not the first G3 Mac notebooks, but the original PowerBook G3 that had
been quickly brought to market half a year earlier by grafting a G3
motherboard into a PowerBook
3400c chassis and enclosure has obviously been a stopgap machine
(albeit a very expensive one). The WallStreet/MainStreet represented
the true G3 revolution in the Mac laptop space, with their swoopy,
contoured styling; bigger, higher-resolution displays; wonderful
scissors-action keyboards; expansive palm rests; and no standard floppy
drive. The MainStreet/WallStreet line included:
MainStreet
233 MHz processor with no Level 2 (L2) cache, a 66 MHz system bus,
16 MB of RAM, a 2 GB hard drive, a 12.1" 800 x 600 passive matrix
screen, and 2 MB of video RAM. There was no S-video port, and the
modem was an optional extra on the base model. You could optionally get
a 13.3" or 14.1" screen. I used one of these as my production machine
for a few months in late 1998 and liked it a lot, not minding the
passive matrix display as much as some folks did, and while the lack of
an L2 cache hobbled its performance somewhat compared with the
WallStreets, it was certainly a lot faster than the PowerBook 5300 that I was used to!
WallStreet
250 MHz or 292 MHz G3 processors with 1 MB of L2 cache and an 83 MHz
system bus. The 250 MHz machine came with 32 MB RAM, while the 292 MHz
unit shipped with 64 MB of RAM. WallStreets had either a 13.3" or 14.1"
1024 x 768 screen with 4 MB of VRAM, a standard S-video out port,
and A 56K modem. Either 4 GB or 8 GB hard drives were
available, and high-end models came with a floppy drive expansion bay
module as well (optional on other models).
Both the MainStreet and WallStreet came with 20x CD-ROM drive
expansion bay modules, and a DVD ROM drive kit was offered (but rarely
supplied) for the 292 MHz WallStreet.
All of these machines had SCSI, serial, ADB, and 16-bit
sound-in/sound-out ports, an ethernet port, an infrared port, two PC
Card bays, and stereo speakers. They all had two expansion bays, either
of which could support a lithium ion battery or a variety of expansion
bay devices.
PDQ
The PowerBook G3 'PDQ' came along in September 1998 as a sort of
second-generation WallStreet. The WallStreet name is now generally
applied to both May 1998 and Sept. 1998 G3 Series PowerBooks, but the
origin of the 'PDQ' code name is rumored to be from Steve Jobs' decree
that problems besetting the early PowerBooks G3 series get fixed 'PDQ'
(pretty damn quick).
Another reason for the mid-life revamp was that PowerBook production
was shifted from Apple's own facility in Cork, Ireland, to
subcontractor Quanta, in Taipei, Taiwan, the company that still builds
(and helped engineer) MacBooks and MacBook Pros for Apple.
With the PDQ makeover, the MainStreet line was dropped, with it the
last passive matrix PowerBook display. The PDQ line includes:
- 233 MHz G3 processor with 512 K L2 cache
- 266 MHz G3 processor with 1 MB L2 cache
- 300 MHz G3 processor with 1 GB L2 cache
All PDQ units have a 66 MHz system bus, a full slate of ports
including S-video out, standard 56 K modems, and a 20x CD-ROM drive.
The 233 MHz and 266 MHz machines came with 32 MB of RAM, while the 300
MHz machine shipped with 64 MB of RAM. The floppy drive was phased out.
The troublesome 13.3" screen was also dropped, and the 14.1" 1024 x 768
monitor and 4 MB of VRAM was standardized across the line.
However, about a month after the PDQ debuted, Apple released a
low-end replacement for the MainStreet, which has come to be known as
the "WallStreet LE". This machine had most of the good stuff shared
with its more expensive siblings, but wit as limited to availability
with the 233 MHz G3 with 512K L2 cache and a 12.1" 800 x 600 active
matrix TFT screen with 2 MB of VRAM. I bought one of these units
(referenced above in my preamble) in January 1999.
While the 266 MHz and 300 MHz PDQs are nominally a bit faster than
their 250 MHz and 292 MHz WallStreet counterparts, there isn't much
difference, as the slower system bus on the PDQs cancels out most of
the speed advantage.
The 233 MHz PDQ/LE is almost equivalent in performance to the
original 250 MHz G3 Kanga, thanks to its 66 MHz bus versus the Kanga's
50 MHz bus.
New Features
New features introduced with the WallStreet family were an fn
modifier key and moving the screen brightness control to a console
above the keyboard, along with a volume control, a mute button, and the
power button.
A quick-release keyboard made installing memory upgrades and access
to the hard drive a snap. Another change ushered in with the WallStreet
was that the stickers bundled with every Apple CPU were changed to
white from the original six-colored Apple logo.
Unlike Apple's present day parsimony with bundled cables and
adapters, the PowerBook G3 Series machines came with a VGA adapter, an
S-video adapter, an ethernet cable, and a phone modem cable, all in
classy black to match the PowerBook's charcoal livery.
The G3 Series WallStreet machines were the last PowerBook with what
we had come to regard as a "standard" set of PowerBook ports - ADB and
serial ports, an HDI-30 SCSI port, ethernet, an internal modem, a video
out port, plus an S-video port and an infrared (IrDA) port, two CardBus
slots, and two removable device/battery bays. There were two RAM slots
supporting (eventually) up to 512 MB of RAM, and the processor was
mounted on a removable daughtercard, which was later to facilitate a
thriving market in faster G3 and G4 processor upgrades for the
WallStreet.
The WallStreets weren't entirely modern, being the last PowerBooks
without USB support and the last but one without FireWire (both could
be retrofitted using CardBus adapters, which is what I did). They were
also the last 'Books to use "Old World" ROM, which was to somewhat
compromise their flexibility running OS X - they do officially
support up to OS X 10.2.8, and, as my daughter has established, it
is possible to install up to OS X 10.4.11 - perhaps even OS X
10.5 "Leopard" with a G4 upgrade and hacking the installer.
Issues
The WallStreets were pretty rugged, as my going-on-11-year-old unit
attests, but they did have some problem issues, including power manager
board failures in early units, a tendency for the power adapter barrel
connector to short out on the machine's RF shielding, and maddening
ribbon cable video connector problems with the 13.3" displays.
Perhaps worst of all, many PowerBook G3 Series owners experienced
broken display lid hinges during their
second year of ownership. The hinges (or "clutches", as Apple referred
to them) provide friction to keep the display at a static position when
open. Without this friction, the display falls flat onto the nearest
surface.
Users reported that the display hinges would fail under moderate to
heavy use - ranging from three to eight opening/closing cycles per day.
For busy professionals - the target market of these machines, failure
seemed inevitable.
Typically failing on the right side of the computer first (being the
side that received most of the opening strain from right-handed users),
the hinges on these Wall Street and PDQ computers would loosen over
time, then snap suddenly, leaving a jagged metal edge that could easily
cut the display cables routed over them. If the broken clutch was not
repaired, the remaining clutch would also fail, rendering the PowerBook
useless for portable use.
My Experience
Affected PowerBooks had to be shipped to Apple's Texas PowerBook
repair center, and the job was subject to Apple's Tier 1 flat repair
fee of $310 plus the technician's time - and you lost the use of your
PowerBook for ten days or so. I endeavored to treat my WallStreet's
screen hinges gently and as seldom as practical over the years, and
they've never failed, although the screen has become a bit floppy when
open.
The major issue I experienced was a sudden processor failure on
August 2, 2002, which knocked the WallStreet out of service for several
months until I scrounged up a replacement processor daughtercard. Since
then it's been entirely dependable.
In my initial musings back in 1998 I said, "I think that the G3
Series will live on long past its production life, much as the 500 Series has done, as one of the
best-loved PowerBook models ever." One of my better calls.
For more on these notebooks, see Low End Mac's Compleat
Guide to the WallStreet PowerBook G3.
