PB 500 PPC 603EV 187MHZ Problem

Holding the shift key just as Finder starts tells us a user process may be trying to load, typically an application started from the Startup Items folder. Check that, remove anything there. Also, try yanking the prefs folder from the System folder (to the desktop is a good place), reboot, and see what happens.

MOS 7.5.3 isn't the best choice, I'd up it to at least 7.5.5, or better yet, to 7.6.1. Any of the the OS8s will work, 8.1 requires no hacks where 8.6 does need help to run. Your 32MB of RAM is enough to run OS9 if you also have a faster HD with which VM can work. The original SCSI drives are dog slow.

FYI, I've got 9.1 on both of my PowerBooks 167MHz 540c, see my page on the subject of running 8.6 and 9.1 on PPC upgraded Macs. I like 9.1 the best, but I've got 40MBs RAM and big, fast HDs on both.

dan k

Thanks a heap dankphoto!
I did the Startup Folder thing but there was nothing in there, but the Launcher had 2 items which I don't recall at the moment (I put this on back burner for a few days till the SCSI adapter arrives ). I'll do the Pref's Folder thing cause I have had prob's in the past on other machines with issues in the Pref's. I realize 7.5.x is not the best chioce and planned on 8.x or 9.x in the near future, but without CD ROM access it has been a pain so far with this project. How is it possible that you have 40 MB's of RAM ? Is it Physical or logical (VM )? I have a couple more 540's parts machines w/RAM but thought 32MB's was the limit on these PB's. Were can one find faster SCSI drives for these PB's? I have 2-1GB's but not sure if they are the originals or upgrades, I'll have to take a look. What about fast external drives? Would they be running at 10 MB's throughput vs. 5 on the internal bus ??
Thanks for the link to your website!! It will be an awesome help when I get back to this project in a few days.
Thanks again for the excellent help. You are the Man!!

P.S. What will this PB be worth once up and running? Its in great shape.

I have 40MBs RAM because I have the 167MHz model, which has 8MB soldered to the daughter card, where your 183MHz model has 0MB soldered to the daughter card. Add those figures the largest available RAM card and you see the difference. Sadly, while the 183 model was supposed to have been available with RAM on the daughter card, none shipped so equipped. AFAIK, it is possible to add RAM to a 183, but it's decidedly non-trivial.

As for faster drives, you'll need to install an larger ATA drive onto the ADTX ATA-SCSI adapter plate which is part of the Apple 1GB drive. Amazingly I've got a page which deals with those, here.

Hmm, you ask about value . . . really, it all depends on how well one could market the item. 183MHz upgrades are scarce, and I think a nice package with the PPC daughter card, a rev C cardcage and huge HD (think 30GB or something) with MOS 9.1 already installed and running, inside an as-new 540c PowerBook might fetch anywhere from $250 on up to $500 or so. All depends on how it's sold. That's just my take BTW, if anyone has a better idea of the current market, let him/her speak up. The 183 CPU oght to sell for at least $100 on its own, perhaps even $200 or more. They are quite rare.

dan k

Wow dankephoto you really know these PB's!! I will check it out ASAP. I have a fujitsu 12 Gig ATA, hope that will work. You have made my week. I'll keep you posted.

I really need to investigate the 1GB drive in one of my Duo 280s... It is probably after market, but I dunno if it's got a SCSI-ATA adapter.

Well, after investigating my 1 gig drive, I found out why I have been having boot problems and no SCSI Disk Mode on the 540C Newer Upgrade. It has an ATA drive w/adapter!! Couldn't figure out why somebody would use FWB drivers on a Apple drive. Was also getting all kind of weird errors on a non upgraded PB540C with this drive. Hence I cannot use Apples Drive Setup to reformat or Update drivers. So now I have to sit down and figure a whole new approach to this PITA (Pain In The A_s) PB540C. If I finally get it done I know I will enjoy it but in the meantime it is more of a project than I planned on. And I have a Fujitsu 12 Gig that I would like to try to use now that I know I have an adapter to work with. Any suggestions where to start?

The presence of the adapter has no effect on SCSI Disk Mode. The drive appears to the system to be a genuine SCSI drive.

If the drive you have is an Apple-branded item, you should be able to initialize it with Apple's formatting tools. Heck, IIRC the Microtech-branded similar item I have initialized with the Apple tool. I wonder if the ATA drive on the adapter isn't a-bit-flaky-and-about-to-fail sort of dealy?

I'd try sticking the 12GB drive on the adapter and see what shakes loose. I reckon it'll show up as an 8GB drive and initialize just fine.

dan k

I'll try it. I have had drives in the past formatted with FWB and the only thing I could use to reformat them was Radialogic. After that no problem with the drives. But for the sake of speed/testing, I'll do the 12 gig. Is there any way to get past the 8 gig barrier??
Thanks again,

Not without getting new hardware, the 8GB limit is inherent to the ADTX adapter. You could always buy the Century adapter for ¥11,000, it's got a 32GB limit.

dan k

Never tested the drive before but ut apears to be junk. At least it is not recognized by any means I've tried so far. Next step is to put it on a PeeCee cause it may have some linux or something on it???? Also saw a DIP switch on the ADTX that I need to research. I have tested the 1 gig Apple drive with several utilities and it "appears" ok. I reformatted it on the 9600 back to apple drivers and am installing an OS using the 9600. Then we'll see how it performs. Whats 11,000 yen equal to??
Thanks

11,000Y == $95.304 according to the currency convertor widget in 10.4.

Thanks Jon,
Well I've updated to 7.5.5 so I think I'm going to try putting the drive back in the PB before I do the dance to 9.1. I'm hoping that SCSI Disk Mode now works so I can simplify further upgrades. Then if this PITA project works I'll maybe upgrade the hardwares.
Thanks for the helps so far, it's been much apprecated!!

with 7.5.5!!! It just did'nt like having FWB drivers and no FWB app. to run them. Its running stable after 1 hour of use. Still no SCSI Disk Mode though. May be a MOBO prob. 'cause the other PB 540C went into SDM with the same setup (adapter/cable). The light lights on the adapter but no SCSI icon appears even though I set it up properly in the control panel before shutting down. But I am very happy to at least be able to use it now. Should have gone this route from the beginning and would have saved about 100 hours of futility!!
Does anybody know what PCMCIA cards I can use on this PB? It has a 56k modem but are there any other options that it can use?? What is the best way to care for the batteries? I know VERY little about Mac PB's and have much to learn.

I know one kind of card you can use :-) Click the link below.

If I can't figure it out with that link, it just cant be done! Thanks a heap.

Thanks. I put most of that together, with some help from some of the other Melbourne Wireless peeps.

If the link for the Lucent drivers is kaput, there's another one at http://www.system7today.com under Software Index -> Hardware drivers.

I have the ADTX carrier and can't format with capacities different from 1Gb. Any drive I put in it only allows me to format with 1Gb both with Apple HD SC Setup and Apple Drive Setup. What Utilities should I use. The Drive is installed in a PowerBook 500 PPC.
Thanks

You can try an older version of Hard Disk Toolkit if you can find it. There is a downloadable release that shipped with one of the Mac clone makers back in the day - Supermac perhaps? Damn, I can't recall the details, been so long. One of the clone makers has/had it posted in their support section . . . sorry, I googled but since I can't remember enough I didn't find it.

Edit: Ah ha!! Daystar has HDT 2 (OEM + PE), near the bottom of this page.

dan k

Hard disk Toolkit reports also only 1Gb.
I Attached the drive to a USB to IDE bridge formated it with Disk Utility under Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, as it recognizes the full hard drive.
Attached the hard drive to the ATDX converter and back into the Powerbook 500 PPC. Booted from CD. The drive now shows full capacity. and I am now in the process of testing to see if data over the 1Gb address is read ad writen properly with this setup.
More info: If I try to erase the disk using the MacOS menu I get an error and if I reformat using FWB, HD SC Setup or Drive Setup it reverts back to 1Gb.
Do I have to mess with the DIP's on the ADTX converter.
Thanks