Now I did it!

S

Sogni

*gone*
I have just adopted...
Two orphaned/abandoned Macs! :)

They are old, dusty, beige, and have seen better days... but I couldn't let the opportunity to expand my Mac family (and overall Computer World <grin>) pass me by.

My Friend (guy who owns the offices where my studio is - boss?), has just about had it with a couple of "orphaned" macs (they dont care about them anymore) roaming around the offices and he was trying to figure out where to unload them...

After my other friend (uh, co-worker?) looked at him like he was crazy after it was suggested one of them go into his office.

I thought about it for a split second and said "I'll take them! Both of them!"
Everyone turned to me as if I was crazy! "You can't run os x on them", "Oh I know", "But what are you going to do with them?", "You don't worry about that, you'll see". :)

Now I've done it, I will have at least two orphaned Macs coming into my studio - that I don't know too much about, and was hopping some of you could help me out.

One of them is a UMAX "Super Mac" H6D0, I belive it's a G3 (correct me if I'm wrong).
The CD-Rom driver is missing and can't load the OS without it. Apperantly there is no support for it in the newer OS CDs. Anyone know where I can find the CDRom driver for it or is there a work-around?

The other is a Quadra 840AV, no idea what processor but I don't think it has a G3, I think it may have whatever processor was out just before the G3. This one works, but the poor thing has been abused so bad for years on end it crawls and crashes all over the place. Itching to redo the hard drive on it from a fresh start.

Now I do NOT expect to use OSX on them, but any idea how close to the latest Mac OS I can get? Can 9.2 go on either of them?


Thanks for any help and/or info on my new adopted babies. :)
 
Actually, testuser, I don't think you're quite correct. Non PowerPC Macs like the Quadra can only go up to OS 8.1, I believe.

As for non-G3 machines like the UMAX machine, they will NOT run anything over 9.0.4. Apple issued a restriction with OS 9.1 and up that it must run on computers with a PowerPC G3 or G4 processor. I am 99.999999% sure of this.
 
Yup, the Quadra 840AV can only go up to Mac OS 8.1... BUT lemmie tell ya the Centris/Quadra 660AV and Quadra 840AV have a very interesting point in Apple history- they were the first Macs to come equipped with RCA-style inputs BUILT-IN. Meaning, you can plug in an analog camera, VCR, or TV, and do all sorts of neato stuff with it on the computer. If you have an analog camera lying around, I suppose you could make a nice webcam server out of the Quadra.... The Quadra 840AV was also the fastest Non-PowerPC Mac. 40 blazing Mhz. It's a great (and somewhat revolutionary/odd) machine, I suggest you take good care of it.

(My first computer... The Centris 660AV my dad brought home :D )
 
Originally posted by simX
Apple issued a restriction with OS 9.1 and up that it must run on computers with a PowerPC G3 or G4 processor. I am 99.999999% sure of this.
Click to expand...

Hello!

A correction, all PowerPCs can run 9.1 they can not, however, run 9.2. I am running 9.1 on my PowerMac 8500 as well as my PowerMac 7100 (with no CDROM drive) and everything works fine (although the 7100 is a little bit slow :rolleyes: ).

Have a great day!

Albert
 
For details on a bunch of lower-end macs, go to:

http://www.lowendmac.com

They seem to have quite a history built up there, and can tell you exactly what equipment and OS your system will support.

Hehe... and about the A/V ports on the Quadras -- yeah! Loved 'em. i used to bring my PlayStation to my old job and play it on our PM 7600/132 all the time... gave us a good break from network Shadow Warrior battles when we got tired of that.

If either of those computers will support system 7 or 7.5, you can download that free from Apple's FTP site now. Make some floppy disk images, and you might be able to get that SuperMac or whatever running without the CD drive...
 
I heard somewhere that a quadra could be upgraded (processor) to a fairly recent chip. I want to say the source said it could be up'ed to g3 or g4 but I can't say what that source was so don't believe what I'm saying. Could have been a dream.
 
I know that it's nice to know all the exact facts about a new computer.

Macintosh Quadra 840AV

Logic Board (Motherboard):
Processor: 68040
Processor Speed: 40 MHz
FPU: Integrated
Data Path: 32 bit
Bus Speed: 40 MHz
Level 1 Cache: 8 kb
Level 2 Cache: None
Slots: 3 NuBus

Memory:
RAM Type: 72 pin SIMM
RAM on Motherboard:  0 MB
Minimum RAM: 4 MB
Maximum RAM: 128 MB
RAM Sizes: 1 MB, 2 MB, 4 MB. 16 MB, 32 MB
RAM Slots: Four
Minimum RAM Speed: 60 ns
Video RAM: 1 MB
Maximum VRAM: 2 MB
ROM: 1 MB

Storage:
Floppy: 1.44 MB SuperDrive
HD: Yes
HD Size: 1.0 GB or 1.2 GB
HD Interface: SCSI
CD-ROM: 2x

Ports:
Serial Ports: 2
ADB: 1
SCSI: DB-25
USB: None
FireWire: None
Ethernet: AAUI-15
Speaker: Available
Others: None

Communications:
Ethernet: None
Modem: None

Monitor: None

Sound Input: 8 bit Mono
Sound Output: 8 bit Stereo

Machine Gestalt ID: 78
Power: 200 watts
Weight (lbs): 36.8
Dimensions (in): 14H x 7.7 W x 15.75 D
System Software: 7.1 to 8.0

Codename: Quadra 1000, Cyclone
Introduced: July 1993
Terminated: July 1994
 
unfortuantely, the A/V model Quadras used a much different motherboard design incorporating several different chips used for the A/V stuff. Basically, A/UX is NOT supported on these machines. Which is a shame, cuz I have two 660av's that I'd LOVE to run A/UX on just for fun. But honestly, I've had fun tinkering with NetBSD on them.

Love those A/V quadras ... how cool was it that almost 10 years ago Apple was building A/V capabilities into their coputers?!?!

The wintel world is a sad afterthought ....
 
Heh, I guess they have AAUI-15 ethernet, but not 10/100BaseT, so you'll need a TP tranceiver to use it on a "modern" TP network :)
 
Have any of you used one of those old-skool Apple branded hubs? I've got one that I procured off eBay for something ridiculous like 5 bucks. They couldn't get it on to see if it would work because it had no power supply. Long story short, it had 4 regular RJ-45 jax and one AAUI cable on the back ... and that drew power from the computer to power the hub ;) And it worked fine.

so AAUI, like most Apple proprietary technologies, was pretty much only compatible with itself, but offered great benefit ;)
 
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