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Performa 6116 liberated.. and today I went back for the 6400

Performa 6116 liberated.. and today I went back for the 6400 Hardware 34 posts Nov 28, 2007 — Dec 3, 2007
Today I picked up a 6116cd from a lady on Freecycle.

She also has a 6400/200 that boots, but she wants $25 for it; so if anyone lives in the Poconos area of PA and is willing to pay that to liberate a machine, let me know and I will get you in touch with her. It includes a monitor, keyboard, mouse, scanner, and printer. Don't ask what brand the peripherals were, because I don't think she has any idea.

Anyway,

Along with the 6116cd came:

external zip100,

1705 multiscan monitor,

fastmac c.34 external modem,

HP scanjet 4c flatbed scanner,

HP deskjet 855Cse

I cringed upon first sight of the case because it was apparent that it wasn't well cared for and probably was used by small children...

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h149/aphetica/6116cd_01.jpg

but with a little bit of elbow grease, (and lots of GooGone) it turned out quite nicely. :)

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h149/aphetica/6116cd_02.jpg

Oddly, the inside of the case was pristine, with no dust to be seen.

I hooked it up through the display adapter to a 14" color plus display that I have (and know works) and switched it on. The PSU fan whirred, the speaker chimed, and the hard drive clicked along, but nothing showed up on the display. There wasn't even the familiar "static on" sound that CRTs normally produce. Double checked all my connections. Only cold lifeless charcoal gray.

I noticed there is one of those power out plugs on the back of the 6116 case to plug in a display... is there a chance that I need to use that in order to send a power-on signal to the monitor?

I've also read that some machines will give blank screens if they have dead batteries... maybe that's it.

Also, there is still some yellowing on the case that I couldn't get off with dish soap or GooGone. Usually my solution would be to paint the case, but I have always wanted a pizza box, and I want to keep this one natural. Does anyone have any solutions to fully restore it to its former beige-ness?

Aww you destroyed all the hippy goodness by removing the stickers, especially the Apple one.

Aww you destroyed all the hippy goodness by removing the stickers, especially the Apple one.
Haha. Yeah. I'm the type of person who removes emblems from cars and stickers from motherboards and things like that. They drive me completely nuts. 8-o

..yeaaah you do know people actually break in to cars just for the rainbow apple stickers do you ?

Looks like a nice little machine!

..yeaaah you do know people actually break in to cars just for the rainbow apple stickers do you ?
I don't get it...?

My cars have no apple stickers.

I'm almost certain that you have a dead battery. My PM6100 has the same symptoms when its PRAM battery dies. To test this, power it on and wait for the chime, then turn it off and then back on immediately. The machine should continue booting after doing this.

Good luck! :D

I'm almost certain that you have a dead battery. My PM6100 has the same symptoms when its PRAM battery dies. To test this, power it on and wait for the chime, then turn it off and then back on immediately. The machine should continue booting after doing this.

Good luck! :D
Yes, that worked! Thank you! :) :)

Apparently it has System 7.5, 40mb ram, and Photoshop 4.

I was surprised how quickly it was able to open a 1.8mb jpeg that the previous owner had left behind. (a very poorly drawn picture of Jim Morrison. haha.)

Unfortunately I'm not too familiar with System 7, so I'm not totally sure how to get online through my ethernet connection...

Or even the location of the Apple System Profiler... does 7 even have a ASP?

I was surprised how quickly it was able to open a 1.8mb jpeg that the previous owner had left behind. (a very poorly drawn picture of Jim Morrison. haha.)
Hmm, that's surprising, my 6100 is essentially the same machine and also has 40 MB and is extremely slow, especially with Photoshop. Maybe Photoshop 6 (what I put on mine) is a lot heavier than 4?

For connecting to Ethernet, you should be able to select the Ethernet connection in the TCP/IP control panel and set it to DHCP. (You may have to install Open Transport first as it's OS 7)

..yeaaah you do know people actually break in to cars just for the rainbow apple stickers do you ?
I don't get it...?

My cars have no apple stickers.
alright then il spel it out

those rainbow stickers are both valuable and wanted

you just destroyed a collectors item

Aww you destroyed all the hippy goodness by removing the stickers, especially the Apple one.
I always leave Apple stickers on machines. They actually are appropriate on an Apple computer.

Aphetica

Check out http://main.system7today.com lots of good info on System 7 there, along with a number of good downloads, including Open Transport 1.3. My experience is that you'll need to go to 7.6.1 to get good connections to the net.

Nice little machine you got there.

I have always liked that style of case and someday will own one of those.

Alright then I'll spell it out. Those rainbow stickers are both valuable and wanted. You just destroyed a collectors item
Not... Really.

Maybe in some other countries, but they're quite common, and not valuable, collectable, maybe, but not valuable.

They're only collectable if unused on the original backing paper - stuck on a machine they just make it look messy and ruin the sticker as once it's stuck somewhere it's finished (yes, I know they're supposed to be peeled off and stuck, but that's not the point :p ).

Hmm, that's surprising, my 6100 is essentially the same machine and also has 40 MB and is extremely slow, especially with Photoshop. Maybe Photoshop 6 (what I put on mine) is a lot heavier than 4?

For connecting to Ethernet, you should be able to select the Ethernet connection in the TCP/IP control panel and set it to DHCP. (You may have to install Open Transport first as it's OS 7)
I would imagine it is. They have PS 5.5 on here also and it is considerably slower than 4.

I think my current connecting options consist of something different. I believe it was something like MacTCP? and had no DHCP connection option. I will try to find a copy of TCP/IP. :)

alright then il spel it out

those rainbow stickers are both valuable and wanted

you just destroyed a collectors item
il spel?

okay there, guy.

1. If it serves no functional purpose, I could care less.

2. How am I supposed to get a 12 year old sticker off of the plastic in order to deliver it to one of these collectors anyway?

Aphetica
Check out http://main.system7today.com lots of good info on System 7 there, along with a number of good downloads, including Open Transport 1.3. My experience is that you'll need to go to 7.6.1 to get good connections to the net.
Yes, I've been there while looking for software for OS8 before. It's a nice little site, but their software section doesn't seem to have been updated since the site launched. :/

I think my current connecting options consist of something different. I believe it was something like MacTCP? and had no DHCP connection option. I will try to find a copy of TCP/IP. :)
You can get Open Transport from http://www.info.apple.com/support/oldersoftwarelist.html which should do the trick (or put a more modern OS on there, 7 is not good for PPCs anyway as it's mainly 68k code - Mac OS 9.1 is the newest the machine can take and will have everything you need straight out of the box :) )

Nice little machine you got there.
I have always liked that style of case and someday will own one of those.

It's so... odd-looking, and cute. I named it Evil Calvin because the drive icon was Calvin's angry-looking face from Calvin and Hobbes. ;D

You can get Open Transport from http://www.info.apple.com/support/oldersoftwarelist.html which should do the trick (or put a more modern OS on there, 7 is not good for PPCs anyway as it's mainly 68k code - Mac OS 9.1 is the newest the machine can take and will have everything you need straight out of the box :) )
Do you think I'll see a considerable loss/gain in speed if I switch to 9?

Opinion seems quite divided on it, some people say use older OSes whereas others (such as me) always run the absolute latest-and-greatest OS that a machine can take. 9.1 will be slower than 7.5 as the extra features outweigh the more PowerPC-native nature of 9, but I feel the trade-off is worth it as it is so much more modern and 7 is not really a PPC OS. If you wanted to meet more in the middle between speed and modern-ness, 8.1 or 8.6 might be worth a look as they are lighter than 9 but have more PPC-native code and are still somewhat more modern than 7.x. This machine will never be a speed demon though (unless maybe if you install some serious upgrades like a G3 card), I have a 6100 with OS 9.1 and the OS itself is reasonably responsive but it takes literally minutes to boot and apps are slow on it - since getting my G3 I don't use it any more, it's too much of an unpleasant experience and there's no reason to use that rather than the G3, which I've been enjoying even more since getting a G4 upgrade for it. I haven't used anything other than 9.1 on it so I don't know how much slower 9 is than the older ones though. If you have a spare hard drive you could always try 9.1 on that and see what you think of it though :)

alright then il spel it out

those rainbow stickers are both valuable and wanted

you just destroyed a collectors item
Nope, not at all a collectors item.

They're on ebay all the time, unused, unlike the one he had, which was used and probably not in such good condition. I have like, 10 of them still on the sheet, all of which I got for free at different points in time.

So today I went back for the 6400...

It cost me $25, but I really couldn't just leave it there to fend for itself.

Knowing the kind of abuses that the 6116 suffered, I knew it had to be saved... and plus when I asked the woman how much ram it had, she told me 512.

Knowing a 6400 tops out at 136mb, I did a search for "Performa 6400" and "512", and I got a bunch of returns about upgrade cards, so I thought maybe that was what she was talking about.

So anyway, I brought it home along with yet another monitor, printer, and scanner, which I don't need. All of them were disgusting and looked like they had never been cleaned.

I pulled the mobo and discovered a 56kmodem, a whopping 8mb of ram, a 1.4gb hdd, and a stock processor. Crap. :(

Nevertheless, I cleaned the case and gave it a fresh install of 8.6.

Anyone have any ideas about what I should do with this thing? I already have a 6400 with better specs than this one.

Keep it for spare parts.

Keep it for spare parts.
Usually that would make sense, but the only thing I could use from this machine is the motherboard. (if anything should ever actually happen to my good one)

I guess I could always put the 8mb stick in one of the 63dozen ram slots in my 7600. I never understood why those had such a high ram capacity... :?:

If the modem is really 56k and you have no desire to keep it, you might try selling it on eBay; internal 56k modems for pre-B&W G3 Macs are relatively rare. Somebody out there may be in need of a CS II 56k modem for their old box... I may have one of these at most in a beige G3, the rest are 28.8 or 33.6, though of course I don't use dialup anymore (except when I use my 540c as a fax machine).

As for the rest of it, I can't think of anything I'd do with it. I'd probably keep it for parts - you never know when you may need a spare drive, or power supply (if you can get it out of there, haha). The motherboard is also interchangeable with a number of models if fitted with a different rear plate and PCI riser (6360 and 5400-series), plus more if the power system is modified (6200/5200, maybe the 630).

If the modem is really 56k and you have no desire to keep it, you might try selling it on eBay; internal 56k modems for pre-B&W G3 Macs are relatively rare. Somebody out there may be in need of a CS II 56k modem for their old box... I may have one of these at most in a beige G3, the rest are 28.8 or 33.6, though of course I don't use dialup anymore (except when I use my 540c as a fax machine).
As for the rest of it, I can't think of anything I'd do with it. I'd probably keep it for parts - you never know when you may need a spare drive, or power supply (if you can get it out of there, haha). The motherboard is also interchangeable with a number of models if fitted with a different rear plate and PCI riser (6360 and 5400-series), plus more if the power system is modified (6200/5200, maybe the 630).
Speaking of different PCI risers, was there ever a model with a single-slot riser?

And I think the modem probably was 28 or 33, I never really checked what speed it was since I don't really have a use for one.

The 64/6500s were the only ones with dual PCI risers - the 6360 and the 54/5500-series had single PCI risers.

Although I believe the single risers from the 54/5500 and the duals from the 64/6500 are interchangeable, as the motherboards are identical.

mp.ls