Pismos on the Cheap
From Scott Cook, in response to My Pismo Won't Come Back from the
Dead:
Hey Charles,
In response to your response to Steve's Pismo problems, he should be
able to get a stock Pismo in nice condition very inexpensively if he's
patient and watches Craigslist
every day.
I just bought a beautiful Pismo for $30 from Craigslist with a
working battery that lasts 2 to 3 hours in actual use, a working
built-in AirPort Card, a working DVD-ROM, extra RAM installed, a bunch
of software CDs, original Pismo adapters and accessories, and the
original Pismo manual.
Over a year ago I bought another beautiful Pismo that I'm typing
this on for $50, and the guy even delivered it to my house! I live in
the middle of the Dallas/Fort Worth metro area, so my selection of used
Craigslist Pismos may be different than readers in more rural
areas.
On a slightly related subject, I just bought a
Maxtor FireWire CardBus from MWave the other day for 99¢ with
shipping included! I wanted it for the new Pismo I just got so I could
burn CDs and DVDs at full speed with my Plextor PX-708UF FireWire
burner. I keep all the files on an external FireWire drive, and the
Pismo's built-in FireWire isn't fast enough to run both the hard drive
and the burner at full speed simultaneously. I plug the burner into the
Maxtor FireWire card and plug the hard drive into the Pismo's built-in
FireWire, and I can burn discs at full speed without using the Pismo's
built-in hard drive.
The Maxtor card works great in OS 9 after installing the drivers
according to the included instructions from the included CD. I very
briefly tested in it OS X, but not enough to really know if it
works perfectly. The Maxtor card also works with Windows, although I
don't have a Windows laptop to test it with. If any of your readers are
interested in this super cheap FireWire card, I'll do some testing for
you... You'd only be out 99¢ to get one yourself and test it
though.
Scott Cook
Hi Scott,
Great prices on those old Pismos. I would stock up
too, if I could find some good ones at those price points.
I have a couple of FireWire CardBus cards, including a
FireWire 800 adapter. However, the FastMac 8x dual-layer SuperDrive
expansion bay module does a pretty good job of burning CDs and DVDs for
me.
Charles
Hey Charles,
I only buy Pismos in nice condition at low prices. I don't really
need any more, but if they're nice enough and cheap enough, I'll buy
them. I'm sure I'll be able to sell them to my friends when they want
to try out a Mac. New switchers often aren't anxious to spend $1,000
just to try out a new Mac they're not sure they'll like. They'll buy an
old Pismo, though, if I have it all set up for them and show them how
to use it.
I just discovered the T-Mobile webConnect Rocket USB 4G modem, which
is actually a Huawei model UMG1831. It doesn't necessarily play well
with my Pismo running OS X
Tiger, even though the T-Mobile website says it works with PowerPC
and 10.4.11. The Mac software seems to be poorly written, and T-Mobile
tech support appears to be kinda clueless. I manually configured
OS X to connect without using T- Mobile's software and got it to
work somewhat. The card shuts down often for no apparent reason. I
presume I'm in a low signal area or something (?) Sometimes it crashes
my whole computer when the card goes down.
I bought a Cradlepoint MBR-900 3G router and ran all the firmware
updates on it until it worked with the webConnect Rocket. Now the modem
isn't directly connected to my Pismo, and it can't crash my computer
anymore. I have 13 more days to decide if I want to keep the modem or
return it to T-Mobile. I'll let you know how it goes, if you think your
readers would be interested.
Here are the settings I used to manually configure OS X to connect
through the T-Mobile webConnect Rocket.:
Run the T-Mobile software that you download from their website.
Instructions pop up as an .html file that Mac users are supposed to
click on when the card is inserted in the USB slot. You'll need an
Internet connection other than the webConnect Rocket, because it won't
work with a Mac right out of the box.
In the Apple menu in the upper left corner of your screen, select
System Preferences > Network > Network Port Preferences, and
you'll see the T-Mobile software installed 5 (yes 5!) new ports. The
only port you need is "HUAWEIMobile-Modem". You can delete all the
other ports that start with HUAWEIMobile-. In the Show menu, select
HUAWEIMobile-Modem and fill in the blanks of the settings to this:
- Account Name: GPRS
- Password: gprs
- Telephone Number: *99***1#
Then click the Modem tab and select "HUAWEI Mobile Connect - 3G
Modem" as your modem script, which the T-Mobile software should have
installed.
At this point OS X should be able to connect without using
T-Mobile's application, which is good, cuz it doesn't even work. I
threw the application away so it wouldn't try to connect. You can
connect manually through the Network pane of the System Preferences,
and the Internet Connect application will launch. I checked the box to
have the modem status displayed in the menu bar so I can just click on
the little telephone receiver icon and connect. You can also check the
box in the Network preferences that allows OS X to connect through
the modem whenever it needs to.
I hope this information saves somebody a lot of time that I had to
waste to figure it out.
Scott
Hi Scott,
Thanks for the helpful T-Mobile tutorial and good on
you for keeping those old Pismos in circulation!
Charles
I couldn't actually get the T-Mobile webConnect Rocket to work with
10.4.11 on my Pismo as T-Mobile advertised, nor could I get it to work
with the Cradlepoint router. It worked for a little while with each,
but now it won't work at all. I'll try Clear next and see if their 4G
works as advertised. I'll let you know how it turns out if you think
your readers are interested in such things. I'm at Schlotzsky's Deli
right now, using their free WiFi, because mine doesn't work. (sigh)
Scott
Pismo Power Manager Problems
From Bob, following up on MailForge Still Not Ready for Everyday
Use:
Charles,
Maybe it is because my PowerBook is a G4 with the PowerPC chip
rather than the Intel.
If it won't run on the Intel chips, then I hope they get MailForge
or something running okay.
My PowerBook G4 will be five years old this coming November.
I too have a Pismo, but mine will not work. It used to be fine, but
then the last time I tried, it would not power up. Nothing. The light
does not come on showing that it is charging.
Any thoughts as to what I could check?
Bob
Hi Bob,
I have a Pismo like that too. It will boot from a
charged battery, but it won't run off the AC adapter or charge the
battery itself.
This started after I had an arc plugging it into an
old extension cord, and the best guess is that it somehow fried the
Power Manager board. According to Wegener Media techs, when the Pismo
Power Manager fails, it can often take the motherboard with it. Since
the machine will boot from a battery, that may not be the case with
mine, but I opted for buying a stripped Pismo from Wegener Media and
swapping over my CPU daughtercard, SuperDrive module, RAM, hard drive,
and so forth. A quick fix with no major tearing down and experimenting,
although if one has the time and can pick up spare parts
cheaply.....
One thing you could try is unplugging the PRAM battery
to see if it will fire up then. The battery is below the keyboard
toward the lower right. Check iFixit's Pismo
teardown guide for pictures.
If you can rustle up a charged Pismo battery, you
could try booting from that as a diagnostic.
Definitely try pressing the Reset button a few times
(beside the modem port in the port array on the back).
Make sure that your AC adapter is good.
Charles
Hard Drives to Match New Mac mini and Firefox 4
Beta 3 for PowerPC Downloads
From Aaron:
Has anyone released a hard drive enclosure that matches the new Mac mini? I used to have a
PPC mini, and it was nice
to have the miniStack
enclosure that matched, but I cannot find anything similar for the new
Mini. I recall several companies, including big names like Iomega,
making such drives for the original Mini, but all of them still sell
the old-Mini versions.
Also, in a recent mailbag a publisher's note went:
Publisher's note: Furbism.com currently has PowerPC
builds of Firefox 4 Beta 5. I've just tested it on my Power Mac G4
under Leopard and can report that it launches, handles some pages
correctly, and has problems loading many pages (including Yahoo Mail
and Facebook). Not recommended.
If any reader knows where you can download Firefox 4 Beta 3,
the last PowerPC version (which runs very nicely on my G4 with
Leopard), please let us know so we can post the link. Thanks! dk
The place to go for that is http://firefoxmac.furbism.com/ - just
scroll down the list. It's there. With multiple builds, in fact. The
direct link [for the G5 version] is http://firefoxmac.furbism.com/builds/G5/FXG5-4.0b3pre-2010.08.04.dmg
- Aaron
Hi Aaron,
Thanks for the Firefox links.
As to your question, I can't recall seeing anything
like the miniStack for the new Mac mini, but it would be a business
opportunity for an enterprising peripherals maker.
Charles
Publisher's note: Furbism.com states:
"7400 and 7450 are the series identifiers for the
different versions of the G4 processor." "In general, if you have a G4
that's faster than 533 MHz, you almost certainly want the 7450 builds.
I've been told that there are some Pismo upgrade cards that used 7410s
that don't fit this pattern, but otherwise, it's pretty accurate." "If
you have a Mac with a 7440, 7441, or a 7447/a processor, you want the
7450 build."
Here are links for the G4 versions:
Firefox 4.0b5 Somewhat Supports PPC
Hi Charles,
Firefox v4.0b5 was officially released today - and it appears to
still be a Universal app. It launches on my G5, but it doesn't seem to
work correctly. You can't load a site via the address bar, but you can
load bookmarks. The search bar does not work either. Maybe they just
haven't unchecked "PowerPC" yet in Xcode?
Thanks,
Mike
Hi Mike,
Perhaps not. However, I've found that support for
older systems isn't always complete.
For instance, the version 10.61 builds of Opera are
pretty buggy on officially supported OS X 10.4. I see the version
10.2 release has addressed at least some of this. Waiting to get
broadband back so I can download it and try it out.
Charles
Mailsmith 'Really Doesn't Do Everything I
Need'
From Farokh, following up on Eudora 6.2.4 with OS X 10.5 and
10.6:
I actually use Mailsmith for
one account, since I wanted to try it (I personally know Rich Siegel),
but it really doesn't do everything I need. I have 29 different
personalities in Eudora, and so far nothing seems to be up to the task
:(
Farokh
Hi Farokh,
Wow, somebody with more email accounts than me!
(Albeit not by many.)
FWIW, I've found that Eudora OSE/Thunderbird handles multiple
accounts with reasonable grace, although it's nowhere near as slick and
friendly as Eudora Classic,
Charles
Eudora on Leopard and Snow Leopard Update
From Dan, following up on Eudora
on Leopard and Snow Leopard:
Charles,
Thanks for the reply.
Just for reference, I'm running Eudora 6.2.4. I can't remember
whether there were important changes from 6.0.4 to 6.2.4, but suspect
there may have been some - and 10.5.8 is what I have running on the
mini, 10.6.4 on the MBA.
Dan
Go to Charles Moore's Mailbag index.
