Pismo No Longer Boots from Internal Hard Drive
From Anthony:
Hi Charles,
I was looking through Low End Mac this evening and thought I would
send in a question in case you might have a solution. My Pismo [PowerBook] and I have
had a great working relationship for the last ten years; all of my
major academic papers have been written on it, and I hope to have it
around long enough to finish my dissertation.
This March a friend tripped over the power cord, and my Pismo fell
from a table. From then it would not boot from the internal hard drive.
The drive, in an external enclosure, still works and mounts on a
friend's desktop. It also will boot the machine from the FireWire
enclosure. I tried installing a spare hard drive (the original, which I
know still works) in the drive sled; alas, the machine will not
recognise it and boot.
As far as I can tell, the drive ribbon cable is connected securely.
Might the cable itself have been damaged in the fall?
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks,
Anthony
Hi Anthony,
Unless something is visibly disconnected, addressing
this sort of issue is pretty much a trial and error dynamic. So far,
you've done all the right things.
It is possible (but seems unlikely) that the ribbon
cable might be damaged, but a dislodged connector somewhere in the
bowels of your Pismo is a more likely probability. A damaged logic
board circuit would be a possibility as well.
You're probably looking at a teardown and inspection,
hopefully finding that it's a loose cable connection. iFixit's
teardown guide to Pismo will show you what that would entail and
walk you through it if you decide to proceed.
Hope you can isolate the problem and get your Pismo in
good health again.
Charles
Firefox 4 for Macs Requires Intel and OS X 10.5 or
Later
From Luke:
Unfortunately, Firefox 4 Beta is only available to Windows. Not sure
why. But for when I am forced to use Windows, I thoroughly like using
FF4. I loathe IE and will not use it unless it's for some required
training. Am still using only PPC Mac, but it has one drive with Tiger
and one drive with Leopard. So on Leopard on the PPC Mac, Firefox
3.6.8, Safari 5.0.1 and Opera v? I have been using.
Luke
Hi Luke,
Firefox 4 is not supported by OS X 10.4, but it does work fine with
10.5 Leopard on Intel Macs. There
has been some confusion due to the Mozilla FireFox 4 Release Notes page
still linking to system requirements for version 3.6, which say it
supports OS X 10.4. It doesn't. However, OS 10.5 and up are
supported for Intel.
More on this topic in Firefox 3.6
Likely the Last for PowerPC Macs.
The marquee FF4 feature is Tab Panorama - a tab
organizer that lets you group and prioritize open tabs, and with one
keystroke bring up an overview of all tabs so you can quickly locate
the tab you're looking for and switch among tabs or groups of tabs.
You can view Aza Raskin's (the son of "father of the
Mac" Jef Raskin) video introducing Tab Panorama
(née Tab Candy).
For more information on Firefox 4.0b4 see Episode 4: A New
Look on the Mozilla website.
System requirements:
- Mac OS X 10.5 and later (Intel only)
- G4 or G5 processor
- 128 MB RAM
- 200 MB disk space
System Support:
Release
Notes (see comment on system requirements above) here:
Download link 4.0b4,
English (US), Mac OS X (19 MB):
Charles
Extending Range for a USB Mouse
From LEM columnist Adam Rosen in response
to 'Perhaps the Mouse Is
Passé' in last week's Mac News Review:
Bradley also declaims that "wired mice have the
obvious handicap of being tethered to a limited range and constantly
getting the wire tangled or caught."
Editor's note: Why in the world do you need extended
range with a computer mouse (aside from perhaps the odd unusual
circumstance)? Personally, these days I lean toward gaming mice like
the Razer Orochi and the SteelSeries Ikiri, partly because they still
offer the option of hard-wired connectivity, unlike current mainstream
mice which are overwhelmingly wireless. Serious gamers won't put up
with the imprecision of wireless connections. cm
Other editor's note: The USB specification supports
cables up to 3 meters (9'10") for low speed devices, which includes
most mice and keyboards, and up to 5 meters (16'5") for high speed
devices. And when that's not long enough, you can always use a powered
USB hub to extend your reach. Really, how far away from your computer
are you going to use your mouse? dk
Hi guys, love the dual editor's notes! You're both right about
computer mice generally not needing extended range, but I can give you
one example of where this was in fact necessary.
At the recording studio where I used to work, the studios all had
separate machine rooms to hold amps, power supplies, computers, and
other noisy items with fans. This kept the control rooms quieter and
provided for proper cooling of the equipment. The engineer sat at the
mixing console with the monitor, mouse, and keyboard on a side table or
swing arm. KVM cabling ran between the two locations, which for some
the largest rooms could be a 50 to 100 foot run.
Back in the days of ADB Macs (or serial mouse ports on PCs), running
a single cable this entire distance was sufficient. When USB became the
interface, we were faced with the 5 meter limitation. Our solution was
to extend the cables using a series of powered USB hubs, which acted as
repeaters. This worked, but had less reliability than a single cable or
hub solution - occasional reboots of the computer and all hubs were
required.
Subsequent redesigns of each room shortened the distances, and now
the whole thing can be done wirelessly. But there are indeed unusual
circumstances requiring using a USB mouse 50 feet away from a
computer!
Adam
Hi Adam,
As I said, "aside from perhaps the odd unusual
circumstance". :-)
A device ideal for those who do need remote pointing
is Targus'
"for Mac" Bluetooth Presenter, which Targus claims is the only
wireless presentation remote control device of its type currently on
the market dedicated to Mac users.
I reviewed
it for PBCentral in 2009.
Charles
Dualling Comments
From Dan Knight, Low End Mac's publisher:
Adam,
LOL. Sometimes Charles and I agree; other times we
have different viewpoints. It's nice being able to add those comments
to some news briefs.
Thanks for the info. I sometimes wish my 3
dual-processor G4 Power Macs were in another room, as they generate so
much heat. On the other hand, that's a nice thing in the winter!
Dan
Looking for a SCSI-to-Ethernet Adapter
From Troy Phillips:
Hi Mr. Moore,
Back in 2004, you had a couple sources for SCSI-to-Ethernet adapters for older Macs (in
my case, trying to get the SE
online). Those sources lead to dead pages.
You don't happen to know of any others? eBay was a bust today.
Thanks
Troy
Hi Troy,
I did find this page, Old Macintosh System
Software and TCP/IP, which may be helpful.
Perhaps Dan Knight or some of our readers can
help.
Getting a 68k Mac online will be a challenge for sure
nowadays. My old Mac Plus
was barely marginal for email a dozen years ago.
Good luck!
Charles
Original Software for Vintage Macs
From Amir:
I now have over 80 different Macs. From Mac 512K, Plus, SE, SE/30, some Quadras/Performas, Power
Mac 7100AV, 8550, 9600, beige & blue/white G3, G4's, G5's & a
Mac mini. There are a number of PowerBooks: the entire 100 series,
Portable, Duo's, 1400, 5300, G3's, 12" G4 & 17" G4. I also have
retail CD's of 7.6, 9, 9.21 and others that are machine specific.
My question: How do I find what was the software originally
installed on specialty Macs, such as AV models and servers?
One of my recent purchases was the 7100AV - the seller told me that
his friend "cleaned" it. After starting it - all that I found was the
System Folder. This is in contrast to other Macs that have a lot of
applications installed and personal data.
Thanks in advance.
PS - One of my WallStreets is 300 MHz, and it has 8.6, 9.22, and
10.2.8 on separate partitions.
Hi Amir,
There's a list for very early machines in Apple Macintosh before
System 7.
This Apple page should also be of some help: Macintosh: System Software
Version History
As will this one: Mac OS 8 and 9 Compatibility with
Macintosh Computers
This might be helpful as well: Mac System: From System
1 to System 7
Charles
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