Thread
Lombard & Tangerine
Just picked up a Lombard 333 Powerbook and a Tangerine iBook 300 = $0.
The Lombard has 128MB/4G/CD -no DVD decoder- and the iBook 64MB/6G. Both in perfect working order.
I've given the iBook to a friend. The Lombard has just jumped to the front of the queue and become my new "best" laptop. The Wallstreet's I've been dicking around with repairing are by the by.
Gonna bump up the RAM/HD in the Lombard, put OS X and NetBSD on it, get a DVD drive, and think about maybe a G4 CPU from wegenermedia or macsales.com.
What're the chances of being able to play DVDs on the Lombard?
The Lombard has 128MB/4G/CD -no DVD decoder- and the iBook 64MB/6G. Both in perfect working order.
I've given the iBook to a friend. The Lombard has just jumped to the front of the queue and become my new "best" laptop. The Wallstreet's I've been dicking around with repairing are by the by.
Gonna bump up the RAM/HD in the Lombard, put OS X and NetBSD on it, get a DVD drive, and think about maybe a G4 CPU from wegenermedia or macsales.com.
What're the chances of being able to play DVDs on the Lombard?
Nice score B! Our luck seems to be high this week, I scored a PB Ti 867 = $0. Given to me as "dead motherboard", two minutes later with my iBook adapter = 100% working Mac. It's now overclocked to 1067Mhz, 768MB/120GB courtesy of our friends at MSY. My best Mac too!
Without the DVD decoding 400Mhz motherboard, DVD playback isn't possible. Only possibility is if you come across a 400Mhz board. I had a Lombard 333 which amazingly overclocked to 433Mhz and even then it couldn't handle things, nor DivX playback. I think the PCI graphics card wasn't helping things much.
JB
Without the DVD decoding 400Mhz motherboard, DVD playback isn't possible. Only possibility is if you come across a 400Mhz board. I had a Lombard 333 which amazingly overclocked to 433Mhz and even then it couldn't handle things, nor DivX playback. I think the PCI graphics card wasn't helping things much.
JB
Yeah. After looking at the specs on Lowendmac, I'm wondering how well I scored here.
ADB's no big loss, and SCSI is nice. The loss of one PC Card slot is made up for with built in USB. And I suppose I can burn my movies to VCD.
What player software did you try in yours?
New World ROMs will make life easier with Unix
And one thing it definitely has over my Wallstreets - it works :
Don't think I'll be plumping for the G4 upgrade on this. It's still only got a 66MHz bus, and it still needs low density ($) 256MB SO-DIMMs. Guess I'm still saving up for a Pismo after all.
ADB's no big loss, and SCSI is nice. The loss of one PC Card slot is made up for with built in USB. And I suppose I can burn my movies to VCD.
What player software did you try in yours?
New World ROMs will make life easier with Unix
And one thing it definitely has over my Wallstreets - it works :
I think of the Lombard as being the ultimate 'book suitable for use with old and new Macs - the inclusion of SCSI a big plus. I'm pretty sure the G4 upgrades are for Pismos only Bunsen - and wegenermedia seem to not have the greatest rep if you search for them online. I've been tempted to get the G4 Pismo upgrade, having bought a dead G3 900Mhz one some time back (got money back though), but am wary since we're so far away.
I tried VLC with all the post-processing turned off for DivX movies. Certainly some of the more older basic "single CD" movies worked OK, but as soon as the resolution crept up or it used higher quality sound, it choked.
Sadly ended up selling the Lombard as it had really loose hinges, and unsuitable for anything bar propping it against a wall to use.
Easy come each go tonight. My PB Ti is running silky smooth, but the 17" LCD on my Cube is crapping out.
JB
I tried VLC with all the post-processing turned off for DivX movies. Certainly some of the more older basic "single CD" movies worked OK, but as soon as the resolution crept up or it used higher quality sound, it choked.
Sadly ended up selling the Lombard as it had really loose hinges, and unsuitable for anything bar propping it against a wall to use.
Easy come each go tonight. My PB Ti is running silky smooth, but the 17" LCD on my Cube is crapping out.
JB
I *love* the G3 PowerBooks and clamshells, all that G3 awesomeness wrapped up in such gorgeous cases - how do you guys keep finding them for free when I can't find any laptops better than a 386?! > 
Didn't work. Mind you it's got a Japanese keyboard and caps lock and control have swapped places, so I dunno. Meanwhile I've pulled the battery.
It booted into OS X with only 128MB of RAM. But there's a password-locked screensaver, and doofus here deleted the Applications folder, which contains useful things like the Startup Disk pref pane :
It booted into OS X with only 128MB of RAM. But there's a password-locked screensaver, and doofus here deleted the Applications folder, which contains useful things like the Startup Disk pref pane :
All will be revealed young grasshopper. Watch this space.
From what I'm reading, the DVD decoder is a dedicated chip on the 400MHz motherboard.
Now I just need to hunt down a cheap DVD drive and some RAM, and a bigger HD, and a TV tuner, and and and and
/edit/
] ]'>
Now I just need to hunt down a cheap DVD drive and some RAM, and a bigger HD, and a TV tuner, and and and and
/edit/
MacDan says they'll take any standard laptop optical drive [
] ]'>The Lombard 333 @ 433 was sheer luck; I tried it on a whim as 433 involves a least amount of resistor swappery, and it was always fine. Might as well try it Bunsen, and if not 400 should be right.
As noted he should be able to clock the CPU to at least 400Mhz, so no hassles with DVD playback (I reckon it'd be fine at 333Mhz too, as the hardware decoder is doing all the work - remember when lowly Pentium 1's could do the same with a PCI DVD decoder card!).
JB
As noted he should be able to clock the CPU to at least 400Mhz, so no hassles with DVD playback (I reckon it'd be fine at 333Mhz too, as the hardware decoder is doing all the work - remember when lowly Pentium 1's could do the same with a PCI DVD decoder card!).
JB
Ah, I see that you've answered my question here cj.
Seriously though, I'll have it open to upgrade RAM/HD/optical, so what the heck.
In other news, the guy with the lobo has a 512MB SODIMM for the iBook for US$50 - thoughts?
Have you seen the price of those cards? Besides, a/ there's only one Cardbus slot, and I have other plans for that, and b/ you call field-stripping a black'book "work"?? Man, that's like my idea of sex.
Seriously though, I'll have it open to upgrade RAM/HD/optical, so what the heck.
In other news, the guy with the lobo has a 512MB SODIMM for the iBook for US$50 - thoughts?
Man I would LOVE to have an iBook G3 Clamshell. I really love the design. Too bad that I can't find any of them except on powerbookguy.com and it does not look too good for being in Canada right now because:
Meh. This is annoying. Silly US companies having all the good stuff I need.
And he is very much-so correct, provided that you're running OS X. (or OS 9 if you have third-party drivers)MacDan says they'll take any standard laptop optical drive [
I've been considering this (the G4 upgrade). I love my little Lombard. I have OS 9 and OS X Tiger on it. I never boot into 9, I use this for my web surfing and email only (well, and Quicken) and it does all I ask. Well, iPhoto too, now that I think about it.... hmmm...
$55 rebate if you send your CPU and heatsink back to them afterwards
$100 rebate if you send it to them first - they upgrade it and send it back.
$199 is a bit more feasible, but not this week
I have 512 MB ram in it (2 x 256 Ram modules). AFAIK, this is the max ram you can put into it. Also, officially it can only take 384 MB of Ram, so if you try to install an OS onto it with more than that, it won't work. I took out one module, installed the OS with 256 MB ram, and then put the extra ram back in.
Anyway, as others mentioned, the SCSI interface, USB, and ability to use Firewire or USB2 via Cardbus really helped me make the transition from the Classic OS to OS X. And, the screen is brilliant!
I'm really thinking of hanging on to this when I upgrade, and running OS 8.6 or 9.1 on it, as long as it chugs along.
Hmm. I was under the impression that as long as it was a Matsushita UJ-x series drivers wouldn't be a problem. That's what I'm looking for now.And he is very much-so correct, provided that you're running OS X. (or OS 9 if you have third-party drivers)MacDan says they'll take any standard laptop optical drive [
Cheapest way to get them seems to be looking for ones that are listed by someone pulling them out of x laptop and saying it's only compatible for x.
On another note, after hunting high and low on ebay for a decent price on RAM to max out both machines, the cheapest option by a long shot is to order them new from OWC. Even with the US$27 shipping.
I have my Lombard (which I got off eBay in the spring of 2006) tricked out with the DayStar G4 upgrade; it's not a huge speedup (just barely fast enough to play DVDs, even with AltiVec) but it makes a difference. The CPU it came with had the LoneStar lockup bug, and I was feeling adventurous, so I splurged on the G4. And I concur on the screen; despite being from 1999, it looks good even now.
It's running Tiger at the moment, but seeing as Leopard won't support anything older than about 2002, and XPostFacto is all but abandoned, I may put Ubuntu on it.
It's running Tiger at the moment, but seeing as Leopard won't support anything older than about 2002, and XPostFacto is all but abandoned, I may put Ubuntu on it.
That's the first I've heard of that lockup bug. I've just googled it, and found a list of affected CPUs and an Apple Support Forum thread with an official seeming reply.
I'm awaiting delivery of the 400MHz logic board with the hardware DVD decoder, so I'm not worried about DVD playback. I am concerned that I may have to fork out for a new CPU earlier than I had hoped, though the machine had OS X (10.0) installed and bootable when it arrived.
From your report, I would be more likely to go with a far cheaper 400MHz CPU off ebay.
I'm awaiting delivery of the 400MHz logic board with the hardware DVD decoder, so I'm not worried about DVD playback. I am concerned that I may have to fork out for a new CPU earlier than I had hoped, though the machine had OS X (10.0) installed and bootable when it arrived.
From your report, I would be more likely to go with a far cheaper 400MHz CPU off ebay.
Provided you're running OS X, you should be pretty much right. Hardware-wise, they use an industry-standard laptop ATAPI connector, the same as just about every PC laptop ever made, so as long as you have driver support, you're covered. A couple of years ago i tried a TEAC DW-224E Combo drive in my iMac, it was from Dad's Toshiba laptop, and was not ever intended to be used with a Macintosh whatsoever. The iMac, and OS X picked it up as a TEAC Combo drive, and had no problems with it whatsoever, and i can't imagine it being any different on a Lombard.
I'm using a Hitachi-LG DVD-ROM drive scavenged out of a defunct ThinkPad on my Lombard, and it works great in OS X. It also seems to work in OS 9.2.2 as well, though I haven't tried it with a non-HFS disc yet.
ETA: Something I forgot to mention is that the Lombard's media bay adapter isn't set up for cable select; the drive that originally came with the Lombard (a Panasonic) has a switch on the back to force master/slave. If you try to put a modern drive in, it'll come up as slave (something OF doesn't like), since all modern notebook drives are cable select. Fixing this requires soldering together two terminals on the adapter board (they're small, but they also happen to be next to each other; I'm not the best solderer in the world and I was able to do it with a ColdHeat). At some point I'll tear down my adapter and post pics for the mod.
The original iBooks (and the later ones, to a lesser degree) were quite difficult to extract the hard drive from and leave the machine looking as it did before it went into surgery. I've done the chore several times, though, so it's possible to have a drive in/out of one of those things in 30 minutes with no scars. Practice (or repeated attempts) makes perfect, after all.
As far as the placement of the drive, I'm not really sure if they made them that way because it was the most cost-effective in manufacture and design, or because they wanted people to throw them out when 3.2 or 6GB (in the originals) didn't cut it anymore (or the drive died, whichever).
As far as the placement of the drive, I'm not really sure if they made them that way because it was the most cost-effective in manufacture and design, or because they wanted people to throw them out when 3.2 or 6GB (in the originals) didn't cut it anymore (or the drive died, whichever).
The wheel turns ever slow, and yet it doth turn...
I'm typing this on the Lombard right now. It's got OS X 10.2.8, 512MB of RAM, the original 333 CPU and logic, a new 80GB 5400rpm Seagate, and a slot-loading Combo drive from an iBook, sans bezel.
The UJ-841 didn't seem to want to boot - I'll take note of all your earlier hints when I go back for another attack at it. It's annoying that it won't work/boot in OS 9 - there's no firmware hack to get around that?
So far I haven't got around to doing the logic board, PRAM battery, CPU or replacing the bewildering Japanese keyboard. Hey at least it's improving my touch typing.
One thing: having no bezel for the optical drive really takes out a lot of the case stiffness in that area. I don't recommend it.
Another slight annoyance I discovered on Apple support pages: the Wallstreets have the ability to run from the mains with no battery and two media bay storage devices. The Pismos don't - you must have a battery installed.
I'm typing this on the Lombard right now. It's got OS X 10.2.8, 512MB of RAM, the original 333 CPU and logic, a new 80GB 5400rpm Seagate, and a slot-loading Combo drive from an iBook, sans bezel.
The UJ-841 didn't seem to want to boot - I'll take note of all your earlier hints when I go back for another attack at it. It's annoying that it won't work/boot in OS 9 - there's no firmware hack to get around that?
So far I haven't got around to doing the logic board, PRAM battery, CPU or replacing the bewildering Japanese keyboard. Hey at least it's improving my touch typing.
One thing: having no bezel for the optical drive really takes out a lot of the case stiffness in that area. I don't recommend it.
Another slight annoyance I discovered on Apple support pages: the Wallstreets have the ability to run from the mains with no battery and two media bay storage devices. The Pismos don't - you must have a battery installed.
Well, that's a coincidence in names!MacDan says they'll take any standard laptop optical drive [
Yes, it did cross my mind when you joined up. The other macdan is a bit of a Powerbook guru.
In fact, he might have just given me the clue I need to make the UJ-841 drive bootable.
http://home.comcast.net/~macdan/PB_99_2K_EBM_sled.html
In fact, he might have just given me the clue I need to make the UJ-841 drive bootable.
http://home.comcast.net/~macdan/PB_99_2K_EBM_sled.html
So have you tried bridging the two pins? Have some random Combo drive in my Pismo (from a Dell Pentium 4 notebook), did the same mod and it works a treat booting now.
The Pismo still boots without a battery connected to mains; sounds like a bit of an error on the Apple support page to me.
JB
The Pismo still boots without a battery connected to mains; sounds like a bit of an error on the Apple support page to me.
JB
Well, this is a Lombard, not a Pismo. I'll try it in a second and get back to you
Result: MLA 1 Apple nil. I'm typing this post on it and the battery is on the desk beside me. In fact I can remove and replace the battery to my heart's content.
However I don't think the left bay will take a media bay device by the look of it. So no Lombard double hard drive action for me, barring my new 4GB Microdrive in the Cardbus slot.
Nope, not yet. I'll let you know when I do.
The PRAM battery appears to be fine - it hasn't forgotten what day it is yet, with several periods of being unplugged.
This is my first working OS X laptop, and I'm loving it. [
] ]'>Now it has 9.2.1 on the third partition. Man does this thing fly in the Classic OS. I'm too excited for words.
I've run Battery Reset after heebiejeebies put me on to it. I'll see how it goes. Must try it on the iBook next time I'm over at my friend's house - it can't see its battery at all.
I've run Battery Reset after heebiejeebies put me on to it. I'll see how it goes. Must try it on the iBook next time I'm over at my friend's house - it can't see its battery at all.
Too much! Now I'm running Ubuntu 5 from the LiveCD [] ]'>
Trackpad's a little tweaky and it's weird having to remember to use CTRL instead of the Apple key. But I'll sort that out when I install it. I left some unassigned space for that when I partitioned.
Triple boot laptop! }
I also updated to 9.2.2, found my working OS X 10.3 installers and Virtual PC 5, and Connectix Gamestation's in a box somewhere. Let's see just how many OSen I can run on this. It'd be fun to get NextStep or OpenSTEP running under VPC.
In other news, I'm in love with slot-loading CD drives.
] ]'>Trackpad's a little tweaky and it's weird having to remember to use CTRL instead of the Apple key. But I'll sort that out when I install it. I left some unassigned space for that when I partitioned.
Triple boot laptop! }
I also updated to 9.2.2, found my working OS X 10.3 installers and Virtual PC 5, and Connectix Gamestation's in a box somewhere. Let's see just how many OSen I can run on this. It'd be fun to get NextStep or OpenSTEP running under VPC.
In other news, I'm in love with slot-loading CD drives.