Upgrading PowerBooks
From Robert Friede
Hi Charles,
I can't resist adding my own 2 cents on the CPU upgrade scene
for our beloved P'Books.
My everyday machine is a last-iteration 1 GHz TiBook (Panther, Jaguar, OS 9.2.2)
which I hope will last a very long time!
Meanwhile, our good old Pismo
almost got a DayStar upgrade, but after thinking hard about what
it's mostly used for, we opted for a zippy G3/900 instead. No
regrets about that. 10.2.8, 9.2.2.
The Wallstreet II has been
running great on a Sonnet G3/500 for some time now. I just upgraded
the first partition to 10.2.8 last week and also like the result. I
find Jaguar's Finder better than Panther's, so there's no plan to
go to the G4/Panther option.
The Kanga 3500 still putt-putts
along doing minor online things every day. Upgrading from 8.6 to
9.1 saw a big improvement in how it feels to use. I tried 9.2.1
using 9Helper but this update slowed the machine down too much so
we reverted to 9.1. Still too slow online, really, even while using
iCab.
The Kanga has replaced the Comet
2400c/320 (9.1) only because nowadays my eyes have too hard a
time reading text on its small 800 x 600 screen. I much prefer the
Comet otherwise. I love the Comet.
The 5300c (8.1) has always run too
slowly for me and still sits in its storage drawer along with
assorted, even earlier PBooks remaining from various projects from
long ago. As I recall, my 190cs was
always faster, although its passive matrix screen was a major pain
under any conditions. Now the PB 170 -
that was one solid machine in its time...
Thx for listening.
Bob Friede
- Hi Bob,
Thanks for the interesting review of your impressive fleet of
PowerBooks. I'm glad you're enjoying the 900 MHz G3 upgrade in your
Pismo. My precious Pismo is about to be shipped the way to Georgia
for a 550 MHz G4 injection. I already have a reasonably fast G3 in
my iBook.
Am running Panther on both of them and loving it.
Charles
Gawab.com
From Wil Webb
Hi Charles,
I read your article on alternatives
to .mac, and I'm currently trying gawab.com. I'm having problems sending
mail on their SMTP server. Do you happen to know the correct
settings, etc.? I've looked on their site and couldn't really find
any information that could help.
Cheers.
- Hi Wil,
Mail Server: gawab.com
SMTP Server: smtp.gawab.com
Charles
iBook Problems
From Simon Magennis
Hi,
Just to add to the general discussion about white iBook
motherboard problems. My sister, who I introduced to Macs about 10
years ago, has insisted on having her office and assistants
equipped with Macs for a good number of years. I guess she must
have 6 to 10 around the department in the Irish university where
she works. Their 13 month old iBook died recently - needs a new
motherboard for 500 Euros. She is so disgusted that she has just
ordered 6 Dell laptops. If Apple had admitted the problem, she
would likely have ordered 6 new iBooks or even PowerBooks.
Regards,
Simon
- Hi Simon,
She may be out of the fat and into the fire with those Dells, but I
can understand her frustration. If Apple doesn't positively address
this problem, 2004 could turn out to be "the year of the laptop
exodus," at least from Apple 'Books.
Charles
7x00 + Upgrade Card versus Beige G3
From Peter da Silva
Does the Umax [SuperMac
S900] really give you much of a better deal than an Apple
pre-G3 PCI Mac? The G3 upgrade, which is the majority of the price
of the final system, is still going to cost just as much. And the
Umax boxes are still saddled with the slower bus and older PCI
chipset.
For a file server, if you have the UW SCSI and 10/100 ethernet,
the extra expandability may be worth it, but you can get an awful
lot of commodity PC for the same price and my experience is that
Mac OS X is more than happy to interoperate with a free Unix
file server. And the 9600 can hold
50% more memory (1.5 GB, I think that's more than any of the G3s or
the first generation G4s, no?).
What's going to make more of a difference to the balance is the
second generation trickle-down. There's beginning to be used G3
upgrade cards showing up on the market. I suspect this is due to
people buying Beige G3s and parting out their old boxes, and while
they're the slower models (233 MHz or so), they're cheap enough
that they'll turn the tables again (at least for a while) after the
Beige G3 flood subsides.
I wonder where Apple will draw the line next? Pre-FireWire
models? The rest of the pre-candy cane iBooks? They'll have to keep
G3 support for a while, since they haven't had the G4 iBooks out
for long enough, but they might dump the pre-G3 towers or some of
the iMacs - or even anything that can't handle Quartz Extreme.
- Hi Peter,
I don't dispute your point about the 9600 vs. the Umax S900. With
these old machines, availability is always part of the equation.
The old S900 is still a pretty impressive piece of work, now
available cheaply (about 60 dollars), but a 9600 would be even more
desirable, I agree.
I think the next cutoff for OS X support will probably be machines
that shipped with FireWire. That will eliminate the early iBooks,
the Lombard PowerBook, and early iMacs.
Happily, as you note, the population of recent G3 iBooks out there
should guarantee G3 support for the foreseeable future.
Charles
AppleCare Alternatives
From Charlie
Hi Charles,
Before buying a Mac, check with your credit card company to see
if they offer any warranty program. My credit card company, Capital
One, doubles the manufacturer's warranty for free if you use the
their credit card to pay for the machine. In addition to that, they
offer a service contract similar to AppleCare that is less
expensive and runs longer. (Unfortunately, I can't tell you how
good Capital One's program is, because I haven't used it.)
- Charlie
- Hi Charlie,
Good advice. Several of my bank credit cards do also double the
manufacturer's warranty if you purchase the product with them,
which makes AppleCare a very expensive alternative for just one
more year coverage. However, make sure to read the fine print. My
cards don't cover machines that are used for work, alas.
Charles
I Bet I Know the Problem
From Chris Seibold
Hi Charles,
I can guess at the problem with the blank screen iBook. I
predict that while the keyboard was off, the brightness button was
accidentally depressed turning the brightness all the way to zero.
Just a guess.
c
- I wish you are right, Chris, and it is always prudent to check
these sort of simple things before believing the worst, but there
are well established issues with iBook video ribbon cables, and
logic board problems that produce an assortment of video issues,
including a blank screen.
Charles
PaperPort
From Petie Walker
Hi,
I am aware of the TravelScan 464M Scanner that you put in
your August 25, 2003 The 'Book
Review.
Years ago Visioneer made a scanner called the Strobe for the
Mac. Now only for PC. They also had PaperPort for Mac. They have
long since sold it off to ScanSoft, who does not support Macintosh.
Do you know of any Mac product that is similar, or how to run
PaperPort under Virtual PC and will it actually launch when you
begin to scan something, as in the good 'ole days?
I am in dire need of a PaperPort-like piece of software!
Thank you,
Petie Walker
- Hi Ms. Walker,
Wish I could help, but unfortunately I have no knowledge of any
PaperPort type product that currently supports the Mac.
If there is such a product, perhaps our readers can help identify
it.
Charles
Re: 6320 Upgrade
From Alex Taylor
Hi
Regarding Brian and his query regarding upgrading a 6320 with a 6400 logic board.
I upgraded my 6200 with a 6500
board, which worked fine (I have since moved the board into a
5200). I am told that a 6400 logic
board won't work without also using a 6360 power supply, because of
an issue with the 3.3 volt supply. However the 6500/250 board is
considerably faster than the 6200/75,
it's a very worthwhile upgrade.
Hope this information helps,
Alex Taylor
6320 Upgrade
From Jason Mango
Hi Charles,
In reply to Brian's question
regarding the 6320 to 6360/6400 motherboard swap in the 1/13/04
Miscellaneous Ramblings article, Brian is correct. There are power
supply issues. In order to make the swap work, he will also need to
swap in a power supply from a 6360,
6400, or 6500. The power supplies from the 62xx and 63xx (excluding
6360) are not compatible with the 6400/6500 motherboards, and vice
versa.
Jason M.
- Thanks for the information, Alex and Jason.
Charles
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