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Compact Flash booting on PowerBook 500 series - need help!

MacMan

Well-known member
Those of you who have been following my RetroChallenge blog will know that recently I have been trying to get my PowerBook 520c to boot from a Compact Flash card installed via a PCMCIA module. The PCMCIA module is a revision "B" Apple unit.

I haven't been having much success with large, fast cards like the iPro 512MB 40x, Agfa 1GB 80x or Kingston 1GB (speed unknown). The iPro and the Agfa just make the PowerBook hang when they are plugged in and I can get no furthur with them. The Kingston will show up on the desktop and it is possible to copy some files onto it, but when copying more than a few MB of data it also makes the PowerBook hang. This happens in both PCMCIA slots and with different PCMCIA to CF adaptors. I have a suspicion that this might be something to do with the high speed of the larger cards, rather than their capacity, but I may be wrong.

On the other hand, both 32MB cards I have tried, (one Jessops branded, the other Canon), work fine and it is possible to copy the System folder onto them and boot from it. The trouble is that 32MB is really not a very useful size since I would like to have some applications available too!

I should note here that all of the cards I have mentioned so far work perfectly in my PowerBook 1400.

So I would like to know if anyone has managed to get a 500 series with PCMCIA module booting from a large compact flash card, and if so what make and model of card is it?

 

Byrd

Well-known member
Hi MacMan,

I've been successful in booting off a Powerbook 540 with the Rev C PCMCIA module installed; this is with using three different, but very generic CF-->PCMCIA adapter cards. The cards used were 1GB Kingston and 2GB "40X" Adata CF cards, all booting without issue. The same card and adapters have been used in my Newton 2100, Powerbook 3400, Powerbook 5300.

All I can suggest is to check the pins for any damage in the PCMCIA harness, and perhaps try another $2 eBay special CF --> adapter.

JB

 

register

Well-known member
If you did not format the flash cards using the PB540 you probably need to reformat the cards prior use. If you format the cards using the PB1400, make sure to use a formatting software that works on the PB540, too. As far as I remember the PB5xx do not like HDT 2. You know the PB540 likes HFS, so double check the card is not HFS+ formatted. Be so kind to report any results on the Wiki page Flash Drive Test Results, please.

 
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