- 2001.08.03
Well, last week I talked about hard
drives and RAM. This week I will talk about expanding your computer
- adding a second hard drive, different expansion slot types, and
how to decide on a modem.
Additional Hard Drives
Storage space. You can't buy too much. Remember the Macintosh SE with a 20 MB hard drive? Well,
now we have 20 GB hard drives and larger. That's 1000 times the
size of the original MiniScribe drive that shipped in the SE back
in 1987. And it's not uncommon to find 40, 60, and 80 GB drives
these days.
Why do you need more storage?
Apps get bigger. Photoshop 3.0 used less than 10 MB of hard disk
space. Photoshop 6.0 uses over 160 MB! Microsoft Word
4.0 fit on an
800K floppy disk. Word 9 (2001) uses over 50 MB. And Office? 199.6
MB on my 6400/200!
Your music collection gets bigger. This only applies if you
collect music on your computer, but music eats up hard drive space
in seconds. Each song can be 2-6 MB, and if you have 500 of them,
that could be as much as 3 GB! I have over 550 songs on my G4.
You work with large movie files or Photoshop images. Photoshop
uses your hard disk as a scratch disk, and if you don't have enough
space, well, you can't edit the file. And where do you plan to
store those great iMovies you plan to make when you have 50 MB of
hard drive space left?
Okay, so how do you install a second hard drive? Easy. If you
are using SCSI, simply set the SCSI ID on the back of the new drive
with the jumpers. The manual that came with your drive should have
instructions, otherwise look it up on the manufacturers website.
Make sure the ID is not 0, 3, 6, or 7. The reason I say 6 is
because I always leave one ID free in case I want to temporarily
add something. To say that it is always ID 6 which is free is very
easy and prevents conflicts. 3 is the ID of the internal CD-ROM
drive, 0 is your main hard drive, and 7 is the ID of your Macintosh
(yup, the Mac has a SCSI ID as well).
If your system uses IDE, you may not be able to install a second
drive. Power Mac 5200, 6200, 5300, 6300, 5400, 6400, 5500, and 6500
series machines cannot use more than one IDE drive. The 6400 and
6500 can support a second SCSI drive if you do not have a Zip drive
installed. The early G3s are also
machines that may not support a second IDE drive. If you have
Revision A ROMs (the way you can tell is if your video card is an
ATI Rage II+; the Apple System Profiler will say something like
"ATY,mach64_3DU") don't support more than one IDE device. If yours
was made in 1997 or early 1998, it almost certainly has the
Revision A ROMs.
If your system does support a second IDE device, simply set the
device to "slave" using the jumpers (check the drive's manual or
the company's website) and connect the drive to your computer.
Expansion Cards
Expansion cards add capabilities to your computer. Some machines
need them to add simple capabilities such as ethernet or a decent
video card (6400). Other cards allow you to import and export
video, connect other types of hard drives, and connect to different
types of networks.
There are three different types of slots you should know about.
The first is NuBus, which shipped in the original Macintosh II and was used until the Power Macintosh 8100/110 in 1995. Later came
PDS slots, such as the type inside the Mac SE. A different PDS slot
was used in the SE/30 and the IIsi. Yet another type of PDS slot
was used in the LC, LC II, and Colour Classic. An extended version
of this was used in the LC III/LC III+, LC 475, Quadra 605, 630, LC
5200, and Performa 6200, 5300, and 6300 series. PDS stands for
Processor Direct Slot; however, it doesn't communicate directly
with the processor in the PowerPC machines that shipped with this
slot.
Later on, Apple adopted the PCI slot which PC manufacturers had
been using for a while. This is the current slot used in Apple's G4
product line, and modern expansion cards are PCI cards.
NuBus and PDS are pretty much obsolete, and there are no longer
any cards made for these types of slots. However, cards can be
found on
eBay that do just about anything and can be
purchased for very little.
PCI cards can be purchased new in the stores. You can buy USB
cards, ethernet cards (for those few Macs in 1996-97 that didn't
come with built in ethernet), video cards, and just about anything
else.
Before you buy any card, make sure that the software and
hardware you are installing is compatible with your OS version. The
7200/90 that you have may be running
Mac OS 7.6.1, but the USB card you are thinking of will certainly
require OS 8.1, if not 8.5. This may also mean a RAM upgrade. Make
sure you know the requirements before you buy any expansion card,
new or used.
Installing an expansion card is no more difficult than
installing RAM. Open up your machine, remove the expansion slots
cover plate, install the card, and close the case.
Modems
Modems. They enable you to send faxes, make telephone calls
through the computer, send email, and access the Internet. What
happens if you need a new one? What kind do you buy? Where do you
look?
I recommend looking for a modem on eBay. If your telephone lines
cannot support 56K, don't buy a 56K modem, because it will cost you
a fair amount more. A good, used 33.6 modem can cost as little as
$15. 28.8 will be a bit less. I always recommend 3Com/US Robotics
modems, although there are other good brands out there. Global
Village modems are good, but they require special software and are
useless without it. If you plan to run Mac OS X (or are
running it), don't buy a Global Village. All USB Macs have modems
built in unless you specifically order them from Apple without a
modem, in which case you can buy inexpensive 56K USB modems in
almost any Mac catalog.
If you use your modem for Internet and email only, you may
consider a cable modem or DSL (I use Optimum Online from
Cablevision, and it is an excellent service with hardly any
downtime. I highly recommend it if it is available in your area).
Your local service provider may have cable or DSL access anywhere
from $19 a month up to $60 a month. You can talk to your local
cable provider about the availability of a cable modem. All that
you need is a Mac with Open Transport (included in System 7.5.3 and
later, it can be downloaded from Apple's website) and an ethernet
card (no, you don't need a PowerMac to use a cable modem,
regardless of what your provider may say).
Summing Up
it is important to be able to fix your Mac and things to it. Of
course, if you have a major problem with your machine, have someone
else take a look at it if you feel that you can't figure out what
is causing it.
Remember there are three main parts to a computer - logic board,
power supply, and drives. If your computer does nothing (the fan
doesn't even come on) when you turn it on (and you have verified
that it is plugged into a working outlet), you would probably
suspect something with the power supply because it provides the
power to the other components, and you may be able to replace it
yourself.
If your computer chimes but does nothing more, it is probably
something with the logic board. It could be that your clock battery
has died, an expansion card has died, the RAM has gone bad, or a
bad logic board itself (not very common). You can test your theory
by checking on these things in order. Replace the battery. If that
doesn't fix it, remove all the expansion cards. If that doesn't fix
it, remove the RAM (if your machine uses DIMMs or 30-pin SIMMs, you
will likely have to leave some RAM in in order for the machine to
actually start up). If it is still not fixed, you will need to have
someone look at your machine to test the logic board.
Fixing your own Mac is not hard, and it is very satisfying when
you figure out the problem and get the machine working the way it
should.
