Semi-OT: PMac 6100 DOS - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

13 Mar 2002

Yes, that IS the answer.
The video dongle looks like a simple cable, but it must have some sort of
electronic switch in it as well.
It switches the monitor between the PCs video output and the Mac's video
output.

As a workaround, however, I remember that you CAN plug in two monitors
simultaneously -- one that shows
what is going on on the PC and another, the Mac...
It is actually pretty cool -- just requires lots of desk space ...

...
  -----Original Message-----
 From:	Chris [SMTP:mythtech@mac.com]
 Sent:	Wednesday, March 13, 2002 2:42 PM
 To:	Classic Computer
 Subject:	Re: Semi-OT: PMac 6100 DOS

 Question: There is a three-row, 26-pin port on the
PC card, for some 
external device to plug in to. What is this?  
 Looking over the fact that it always hangs at the same place... I think 
 what is happening is, it IS booted into the PC... only that 26pin 
 connector is for the video dongle, and without it, you just aren't seeing 
 the PC screen.

 There should be a cable that plugs into that port. That cable will then 
 have an RGB video connector to go to a monitor, an RGB video connector to 
 go to the Mac's video out port, and a PC Joy stick port.

 It looks like the card you have is just like all the others... without 
 that dongle, the card is useless. FINDING a dongle is next to impossible 
 without getting a whole new card. Some day I will have to sit down and 
 pinout one of my Dongles, so that I can at least make available a wiring 
 diagram for others to make new ones.

 Awesome, thanks for the link! Why is the
corresponding Apple FTP site's 
folder empty then? Grrr. Made me think they'd pulled their whole software  
 archive except for patches.   
 Apple reorganized their software archives a while back... and they made a 
 total mess of things. Some stuff is located in odd places, some stuff was 
 moved but links not updated... ugh... its a mess for anything in the old 
 discontinued software.

 One thing I noticed, dunno if it's at all
relevant, but when I try to 
click the popup menu for "Sharing" (this is in the PC Setup panel) it 
gives me the following error message: "No PC drive letters available.  Make 
 sure that "MACSHARE" has been started on
the PC and "LASTDRIVE" is set to  
 an appropriate value in your
"CONFIG.SYS"." I assume this is for file 
sharing Mac data to the PC side, so at the moment I don't need to care 
about that problem...right?  
 Yeah, this is only for hosting a shared folder between the Mac and PC. It 
 is a VERY nice feature. Basically, you assign a folder on the Mac side, 
 and that becomes a drive letter on the PC side... so anything in that 
 folder is read/write accessable from both worlds. But it needs a driver 
 installed on the PC before you can configure it. That driver is part of 
 the PC half of the installer software (I'm not sure it is available on 
 Apple's web site... if not, let me know, I'll send you an image of one of 
 my disks... although, you SHOULD be able to use the PC drivers that come 
 with the 1.6.4 version of the PC Setup software, and those I believe are 
 on Apple's site).

 I would expect you to see the error you are seeing right now, as you 
 can't assign a drive letter until AFTER the PC is up and running 
 properly, and the driver is installed.

 I would check with the person that gave you the mac, see if they still 
 have the video dongle. If they kept the old monitor, they may have left 
 it connected to the monitor (I have seen that done a few times... people 
 don't realize the dongle goes to the computer, they figure it is part of 
 the monitor and try to keep it). If you can't find one, let me know... 
 maybe I can pinout one of mine so you can build a new one (anyone have a 
 suggestion on the best way to pinout an odd cable? Or am I just stuck 
 using a continuity tester and going from pin to pin looking to see what 
 connects where?)

 -chris

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