Hello folks, With all the recent negative talks about 2400's dying, I'm happy to be the bearer of good news. In my office today, a Newer FireWire2Go card came across my path. Step 1. I stuck it in my PowerBook, which kindly offered me the option to format a 64kb disk... not what I wanted. Step 2. Installing the drivers. I put in the Newer CD, and found two installers... Apple's FireWire installer and Apple's QuickTime Installer... no proprietary Newer installers. Since I am running OS 9 (Int'l), I figured I could skip the QT4, and proceeded to the FireWire installer, which refused to run on my PB. Digging into some subfolders, I found a Disk Copy image which contained the three extensions: FireWire CardBus, FireWire Support, and something else (possibly Enabler). I dragged and dropped, restarted, re-inserted the card... same formatting prompt. (Side note: Firewire extensions were v2.1) Step 3. I then decided to run my QuickTime Update and I found that the "QuickTime Firewire DV" component was not installed, so I did it... restart, re-insert... SUCCESS!!! The PC Card icon appeared with a little FireWire logo and was entitle "FireWire 2 Go". WooHoo! Now, If I only had a device to test... Step 4. Obtaining a device. I contacted a friend at another Apple Reseller and he had a VST drive in stock. Since my PB is a stock 180MHz 603e, I figured testing video capture would be foolish, and a hard drive would be much more appropriate. After going through hell getting the VST drivers onto my PB (I forgot my ethernet cable - had to use LocalTalk), I installed and rebooted, reinserted... (didn't hook up the HD yet) and it had reverted back to offering me the Format option. Damn! (Side note: Firewire extensions were included with VST and were v2.2.2) Step 5. Updating the VST drivers. VST yesterday just posted an update. I applied it, restarted, it failed again. I figured just for testing purposes, give it one more restart, and Voila! The card mounted once again! Now, I was ready to plug in the drive AND IT WORKED!!!! I COULD READ AND WRITE AND IT WAS FAST!!!!!!!! Problems and Limitations: I was unable to boot with the card inserted. Before the machine would even get to the happy mac icon, it would shut back down. The manual eject button would not work either. I would have to stick in the dongle (for grip), and pull the card out. This isn't too much of a drama, as you just have to remember to remove before restart/shutdown. In the event of a crash, you will probably have to revert to the above proceedure with the dongle. The machine also would not wake from sleep with the card inserted. If it was removed before sleep, and re-inserted after... success! Also, didn't test too thoroughly, but I generally had problems ejecting the card. The PB would unmount it, but I would have to manually pull it out via the dongle, which wasn't much of a drama, and I really didn't test that too thoroughly so don't quote me there. Specific Info about my PB2400: 180MHz 603e 80MB RAM 4GB IBM Serial: I57400H3AJN Mac OS 9 Z (Int'l English) The unfortunate part of the story is that both the card and drive have since been returned to their proper owners, so further testing is currently not an option, but I hope this story makes you guys as happy as it did me! Peace, j P.S. Not ONE CRASH was experienced in all of this testing! ---------- Duo/2400 List, The friendliest place on the Net! A listserv for users and fans of Mac subportables. FAQ at <http://www.themacintoshguy.com/lists/DuoListFAQ.shtml> Be sure to visit Mac2400! <http://www.sineware.com/mac2400> X-Router | Share your DSL or cable modem between multiple computers! Dr. Bott | <http://www.drbott.com/prod/MIH120.html> Midwest Mac Parts <http://www.midwestmac.com> | After-market parts for Macs. Fix your ticking dock for $59 w/ trade-in of PS. 888-356-1104 PowerBook Guy is | Click here! Everything PowerBook! | http://www.powerbookguy.com
