A couple of months ago I purchased a Umax S900 225Mhz-604e/64mb/2gb with System 8.5 at Goodwill for a whopping five bucks. I have several Macs and clones in various states that I tinker with but this beast seemed so elegant, so full of possibilities, that I just HAD to get to work on it. So... Upgrading I go:
Software was the 1st order of business. I bumped it to 9.0 then downloaded the 9.1 update (on another Mac, then transferred it to the Umax via Appletalk) I do not have the weird NIC on an extended PCI card for that 1st slot. Instead there is some strange NIC and serial/appletalk plug on a pinned riser card. Anyone know what this thing is? It plugs into a thing that looks like a IDE pin-out on a Socket 7 x86 motherboard. It is only 10bT though... Well that 2gb drive looked mighty lonely and small so... Added another 2gb SCSI drive I had laying around. That was then setup in Jaguar via Xpostfacto. So now 9.1 on one drive. 10.2 on the other. Just in case, then I copied the 9.1 System folder to drive #2 (you must do this AFTER the OS X install on a 2gb drive due to size constraints of the OS X install). Now that I have a bootable in either operating system 2nd drive, I reformatted the primary drive and cloned 2 to 1 via Carbon Copy Cloner. Always pays to have a backup... Hummm dismal video and I HATE spending money on something...so....look in the junk box... Hummm...What's this? A PC Voodoo III card. Fire up another box, find a floppy with a firmware flasher... BINGO! 8mb "unsupported in OS X" video card. Now will it actually WORK in OS X? yes. seems to..btw, I have it in slot #3. cards cards.. All these slots...need cards. Slot #4 added a USB 1.1, slot #5 a Firewire (this was a left over Firewire card from a AV package at a local store. returned opened and sold cheap; Toss the PC software, kept the card. Now for some SERIOUS upgrading: I added a Sonnet 450Mhz G3. Next, memory. Dig in the EDO/FPM DIMM box... 2 128s, some 64s 32s, a 16... FILL that puppy! Total now: 500 some odd. btw..you CAN boot into 10.2 with only 64mbs of memory, but do NOT try starting Classic! ;) Ok what else we got? A home made PowerDomain card (Aha-2940 from a server flashed with the Mac firmware) and a left-over 17gb drive from another project.. Well it comes up (yes, don't try to boot from one, but for storage an older Adaptec AHA2940 WILL work in OS X) but by today's standards....it is blasted slow... Room.. room I need elbow room! Disk space..... Well I worked a deal with a feller for a used ATA-133 Sonnet card. NOW YER TALKIN! put some spare older 20gb, and a couple of 6gb drives in. Shoe-horned a drive where it should not ought go, but it works. humm. Added a spare extra fan from an old Power Tower Pro. ohh yeah and one other mod: The side door on the Umax was bent. I discovered it is EXACTLY THE SAME as the side of a Dell PC tower. One naked Dell later and it is back to beautiful! ;) Last minute tuck and trimmings: Use the Sonnet OS X tune-up, also the PowerLogix L2 cache software to turn off the 512 on motherboard so the CPU cards 1mb is recognized. Toss in a Farallon 100bT card for faster networking... Done for now. One sweet G3 that is actually a bit faster then my late model Beige and with far more capabilities. -Bart Keeper of the Network from Heck. -- SuperMacs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | Service & Replacement Parts [EMAIL PROTECTED] | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> SuperMacs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/supermacs/list.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/supermacs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- >The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
