Mac OS 7.6 on PowerBook 1400cs/166?

I have a 1400c/166 running 7.6.1. No problem.

YAY!

Should I purchase a floppy module as well as the CD module?

If you can get both yes.

I have a 2GB CF in a PCMCIA Adapter which I copied the System 7.6.1 on my 5300ce as a back up drive, and tried it on my 1400/133 & 166. They both booted the CF card. Then I took it to the next level and used a PCMCIA Flash Memory card (512MB), though I had to remove a lot of extensions and control panels to make System 7.6.1 (same one on my 5300ce) fit in the card, it did boot on both 1400s. Both 1400 has OS 8.0 on their Hard Drives but I'm thinking of formatting the drives for System 7.6.1

And yes, when the CF with the 5300ce System 7.6.1 is moved to the 1400's IDE with a CF to IDE Adapter, it boots there too! Nice and quiet I will add!

OK, I'll pay the extra US$30 to get the floppy module. My PowerBook 1400cs/166 has the CD module already in it.

I'll also get a HDI-30 to 25-pin SCSI adaptor so I can

• Use SCSI Disk Mode with my Mac SE FDHD (dual floppy) and Macintosh IIci (subject of a few posts here)
• Use my Asanté EN/SC-10T to connect to the Internet
• Use my SCSI hard drive enclosure. It's a wonky one, with no screws, and an exposed power supply that doesn't fit my hard drive (160MB LC III pull), and I run a power cable from a SATA/IDE-to-USB conversion kit that I wasn't using (the power cable used Molex as an intermediate between the mains and SATA-style power).
• Use any miscellaneous SCSI peripherals I get in future.

I'll also get 18 650MB CD-Rs (a pack of 10 and 8 individuals; the seller of the 8 individuals threw in a CD-RW, which is hard for the 1400cs to read) for the CD drive.

I'll order Sunday.

CD-ROM Readers have a difficult time reading CD-RW Disks, but a CD-ROM Writers can read them easily if the support the CDRW+ format. Not all older CD Writers have CDRW+. If it does it will say it on the door cover.

Hmm... I'll have to see what it says on the door when I get it. I don't mind using CD-Rs for now. It would be nice to have CD-RW capability though. Edit: In the eBay picture, the CD drive has a white blotch on it. It could be the CD-RW logo, or just the Compact Disc logo, or even just a sticker/splotch from 18 years of use(?).

And what about 650MB vs 700MB media?

I have the Apple 600i CD reader and 2 CD Burners (one from Ricoh and the other from who knows...) all can read 700mb media and the burners can burn 700MB. It's just that last couple of millimeters at the edge of the disc that makes it 700MB if it is readable or 650MB if it cant.

Strange, I remember something about the color of the CD media having something to do with some drives being able to read them. The Sony Drive drives as I remember tend to like the Green CD Blank media while other drives like the Blue media. All can work with the clear media. Funny though - I used PNY's Black CD Media and there was no problems with that on any drive I use.

Some brands of media were crap also. Lots of burn errors on generic and the like. Slower write speeds helped.

Can I use the replacement power brick for my Dual USB "Snow" iBook G3 (700MHz I think, from GainSaver) for the PowerBook, or must I buy a replacement 1400c(s) power supply from eBay?

Also, I may have a Clamshell iBook G3 (Blueberry) power cord somewhere from an old Clamshell I had a few years ago. Would that work?

If the plug fits it will work.

The Clamshell might work if it is the same size. The G3 iBook wont work because the plug is too small.

It's been ordered! (Though, to save costs, I only bought 10 CDs.) It should come by the 19th (next Tuesday/Tuesday week). (It's being sent UPS Ground from New York State to California.)

Clamshell plug is the same, the newer G4 plug isn't. The Duos, 1400, 3400, G3 PowerBooks and Clamshells all shared a plug.

I use Diamond CD-Rs, they have a silver recording layer. Thats the only thing that works on early CD drives as the laser power levels are a bit weaker, and adjusting the power levels on these older pickups are pretty much signing a death sentence. Bad idea. Also older drives dont read CD-RWs becuase of the beam scattering. its slightly different on the CD-RWs compared to CD-Rs or real CDs. the beam alignment from the scattering shifts enough where the tracking/focus servos are reading the error sensors incorrectly, which are located on the photo pickup sensor inside the optical block. 

Single beam pickups rely on PSD (position sensitive device) style sensors surround the beam. As tracking/focus changes the beam becomes oblong and the PSDs pick that error up and the servos correct. 3 beam pickups use a main beam for decoding and 2 side-beams. each side beam lands halfway onto a sensor on each side. and as tracking shifts, the beam shifts with it. So the optical pickup servo corrects. CD-RWs scatter the beam enough to cause problems with older pickups, So newer pickups position those photo-sensors slightly further away from each other. 

But I digress...

I have one of those little panasonic portable CD SCSI drives which doubles as a portable audio cd player. 

it wont read CD-Rs. Except those. 

techknight said:

I use Diamond CD-Rs, they have a silver recording layer.

Click to expand...

That a brand, or just find one that says it's got the silver layer?

Probably both?

The silver ones are probably most similar to commercially-made CDs, which is another (maybe somewhat simplistic) reason why they work with older players and drives.

c

I think its a coined name/brand. But honestly it doesnt matter as long as the reflective die is silver, as it reflects full spectrum without much color distortion, Now granted the laser is a specific wavelength so you would think it doesnt matter, but it does. 

The Maxell 650MB CD-Rs came yesterday, as did the floppy drive and HDI-30 to DB-25 SCSI adapter. The PowerBook and the AC adapter are coming Monday (18 May 2015). I found the Clamshell power adapter on Tuesday (12 May 2015).

This topic is marked as "HOT"! I think it's the first topic I started that is "HOT"!

Edit: Actually all the topics I've started (save my latest one) are "HOT".

What is the verdict with the 1400/166? Does it work?

The topic being hot is because it reached 20 replies in a short time.

It's coming Monday (18 May 2015) so no verdict on it yet. I'll tell you sometime next week.

The power adapter (which I may not need, since I found the Clamshell adapter) arrived today.

Test the adapter on another machine, like the clamshell iBook if you got it. At least you will know that will work or not.

I have nowt (a Yorkshire term meaning nothing) in the way of Mac laptops except some Intel ones (MagSafe, various versions) and an iBook G3 (Snow, Dual USB, 700MHz, 16MB VRAM, 256MB RAM) which I was told wouldn't work.

Yeah; anything from the G3 Snow and Dual USB have the smaller PowerBook PSU Connector.

Lets hope for the best here.

It arrived, but has a hinge problem: the two halves of the left hinge do not meet, and the left display cable has worked up into the bezel, and is pushing the bezel away from the screen. Any ideas on how to fix it?

Also, does anybody know where to find a British English Mac OS 7.6.1 CD image (PM me with the link)?

Edit: Also, is Apple's International English (Z) the same as British English? If not, what are the differences?

Edit 2: Can you plug in SCSI devices in sleep mode?

Well...

English is not English everywhere. I'm sure if the states did not revolt in 1776, The Queen would have demanded the USA to separate from the UK if it remained since we bastardized English so bad that we can even tell what we are saying from different regions of the USA! -End Rant- 

But as I seen, there are little to no differences with Apple's "International English" with anything out there. Perhaps a few words have been changed or spelt differently. But, if I remember correctly, you can select the English or any other language within a control panel that brings up tiny flag on the menu bar in System 7.6. But from System 7 to System 9, the control panel that selects this has been changed several times.

- - - - - -

Plugging in a SCSI Device while in Sleep Mode will wake up the 1400. You can also blow out a Bornes filter if you do so its best to do it while it is off.

- - - - - -

There are several things to do that could fix the bezel, but it means removing it and taking it apart. Using acetone (or some other chemical) to soften up the plastic, mold/glue the parts as necessary, and then use JBWeld Epoxy to strengthen the area is one way. I think you can find the threads that discuss this, I know there are a couple in the powerbook sections - both PPC and 68K.

I can't find an option to turn on the flag in the menubar. Any help?

The difference between 74min/650MB media and 80min/700MB media is the track spacing. The latter is slightly tighter, but still within CD player standards. I have drives from the late 80s/early 90s that have no issues reading 700MB CD-Rs. Never buy garbage media either, chances are it won't read in a modern drive after a year or two anyway.

tanuki65 said:

I can't find an option to turn on the flag in the menubar. Any help?

Click to expand...

My guess is - Keyboard or Keyboard & Mouse Control Panel. Depending which control panel was installed. These were change about in 7.1/7.5/7.6/8.0

There's no option in the keyboard control panel, and I don't really want to change the keyboard layout so much as the spellings (e.g. "color" to "colour", "recognize" to "recognise").

Edit: Has the 1400cs/166 got an active or passive matrix screen?

CS is passive, the C is active.

tanuki65 said:

There's no option in the keyboard control panel, and I don't really want to change the keyboard layout so much as the spellings (e.g. "color" to "colour", "recognize" to "recognise").

Edit: Has the 1400cs/166 got an active or passive matrix screen?

Click to expand...

I think to have the flag shown on the menu bar you have to select more than one keyboard layouts in the keyboard ctrl panel, then it will get on the menu bar, and from there you can switch between the ones you've chosen.

But I don't care about the keyboard layout, I only care about the spelling!

tanuki65 said:

I can't find an option to turn on the flag in the menubar. Any help?

Click to expand...

Thought you wanted a flag on the menu bar ? Sorry then

Indeed , if you want the system to correctly spell "color" from "color" , maybe you need a British OS 7.6.1 … dunno.

PM me if you find one.

Could I update a US 7.6 with a British 7.6.1?

It can update, but not all the dialogs will have the updated UK Spellings. You would end up with a Frankenstein system where the dialog windows will come up with either American or UK spells.

The biggest issue I see is your word processor on that machine. Just like the OS, MSWord has its own dictionary, when installing it, you need to install the correct dictionary.

Max says that he might have British English on his servers in a Mac OS Anthology or Developer CD.

I have a non-bootable British English 7.6.1 from Max.

Edit: My first three-pager!

S short for STN, otherwise super twisted nematic.

Mine runs SSW 7 - I even have the restore CD for it.  Works great

tanuki65 said:

It arrived, but has a hinge problem: the two halves of the left hinge do not meet, and the left display cable has worked up into the bezel, and is pushing the bezel away from the screen. Any ideas on how to fix it?

Click to expand...

At the risk of stating the obvious, have you tried taking apart the display assembly, repositioning the cable, and putting it back together? The 1400, including the display assembly, is extremely simple to take apart.

As for the OS thing, my 1400 runs Japanese 7.6.1 and has had a 166MHz model's logic board in it although it does not currently. EveryMac seems to have a few minor details about the 1400 wrong on their pages; for example, the 1400c(s)/133 page states that it has a 56MB RAM ceiling unlike the 64MB ceiling in the 117 and 166, but mine is a 133 and I have 64MB in it.