28 Jan
2007
28 Jan
'07
11:11 a.m.
At 10:14 AM -0600 1/28/07, Tom Uban wrote:
Cameron Kaiser wrote:
I don't recall there being any extensions that were CD related. Would
they have come with the default OS install?
Maybe, maybe not, it's been about 12 years so the memory is pretty
foggy about the CD-ROM extensions. However, the 540c would have
shipped with System 7.1, and had disk images for System 7.5 (I
believe 7.5.3) on the Hard Drive. The system shipped with only 4MB
RAM, which wasn't really enough to run System 7.5. To save RAM
things such as the CD-ROM extensions would have been left out if not
needed.
I bought
a Powerbook 150 years ago and my brother has been using
it for years in the studio to run the MIDI sequencer FreeStyle.
The PB 150 recently died and I bought a couple of Powerbook 540c
on eBay to replace it.
My current problem list:
1. My AppleCD 600e (which works fine on the PB 150) does
not show up on either of the PB 540c, so I have no way
to read CDs on the 540c machines.
This sounds like an Extension problem. Do you have all the CD extensions
installed on the 540c? I don't remember them off the top of my head, but
they're things like Apple CD, Hi-Sierra, etc. And how does an extension affect the ability to boot
from the CD? I
would have thought that the boot ROM code would have to know about
the CD without the aid of an extension...
The extensions are for the different formats, I think there are a
total of 4 extensions.
Yes, I'm using the funny Apple SCSI cable. It is the same cable/setup
that works fine with the PB 150. Perhaps the 600e is just too new for
the 540c, but the PB 150 came out in 1994 and the PB 540c was certainly
in about that same time frame. The AppleCD 600e came out in 1995, so
maybe that is the problem. I guess I should pick up an AppleCD 300
to see if that works better.
That isn't the problem, the 600e should work, it was out when I
bought my 520c new (I now have a 540c as it was cheaper than
replacing the dead screen on the 520c years ago).
One 540c came with 7.5 installed and the other with
8.0. I have not
upgraded either OS, primarily because of the lack of 600e support.
System 7.5.3 is a floppy install, while I believe System 8 is CD-ROM.
Do you have TCP/IP working on either system? If so download the
needed disk images from Apple, and copy them over the network.
How does the working CD solve my problem? I realize
that I will be
able to write a large file on my PCs CD-RW, but will the MacOS be
able to read the file structure? And if it does, will it handle
the file type problem correctly? The new FreeMidi version is a .hqx
file. Will the OS know what to do with that or will I have to get
some Stuffit type thing to take it apart?
Will the 600e drive read CD-RW disk? It might not even read CD-R's
(I honestly don't know, but that vintage of drive can have such
issues).
There is another way you can attempt this. Get a copy of ARDI
Executor http://www.ardi.com/ardi.php and use it to copy the data
from a PC to Mac formatted floppies. Back when I was
in the Navy, I
had a P90 laptop that I could get online under Windows 3.11 with via
a 14.4k PCMCIA modem, and I'd then boot into Linux and run Executor
to write Mac software I'd downloaded to Mac formatted floppies that
my PowerBook 520c would read. I had both a current PC laptop and a
current Mac laptop onboard ship for my last year in. The PC laptop
was actually the most powerful PC onboard during that time.
This is exceedingly frustrating, especially as Macs are
touted as
being straight forward. I have to admit that in my experience over
the years, they have never lived up to that name, but then I guess
I try to do things which are less than mainstream.
Audio software on Mac's of that Vintage are a serious PITA. The
other problem I think you're running into is a serious lack of the
install media that someone that bought the system new would have had.
Might not hurt to pick up a book on Mac's of that Vintage as well.
Today I'm debating trying to resurrect my PowerMac 8500/180, or just
going out and buying a new Firewire Audio interface for a project I
have. As the new interface is plug-and-play I'm leaning towards it,
besides I wouldn't have to find room to setup my old 8500.
Zane
--
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh at aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
| MONK::HEALYZH (DECnet) | Classic Computer Collector |
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