PB1400c CF Card Success

[jwmcfarlin]

I got a 1400c today in the mail. I popped it open, and after the obligatory fire it up and see what's on it (OS9.1, Photoshop 4, some other stuff) I got out the windex wipes and the compressed air and the screwdrivers and got to work field stripping it.

When I got the keyboard up and saw the hard drive just sitting there, I was like, "Oh, yeah. I got that CF card adapter. Let me give that a try."

So, I pulled the drive, got the adapter--the Addonics dual card model, and basically did what's featured here:

http://lowendmac.com/reviews/07/flash.html

I had two cards, a SanDisk 2GB and a DaneElec 2GB, which I installed into the adapter. The SanDisk card occupied the Master slot, and the DaneElec the slave. It went in just fine, sitting nicely in the bay with plenty of clearance in all directions. A spot of hot glue would secure it, but for now it's just sitting there on a bench.

I grabbed my OS8.5 G3 install disk, my 8.6 upgrade disk, and fired it up booting off of CD. The SanDisk card was immediately recognized, and I formatted it as a Standard volume due to compatibility issues with older Macs (I have a PB180 and a IIci). The install went fine, with the 20 minutes for install passing in 10--I am guessing that the CF card is faster than a set of platters.

On reboot, the DaneElec card in the slave slot was not recognized, but what was funny was the machine presented me a dialog asking me what I wanted to do with a 600MB unformatted drive...I puzzled over that for a moment, wondering why the 2GB card would show up as 600MB, then decided what the hell, 600MB is better than nothing, plus I could throw Japanese 7.6 on there because I study Japanese. I selected standard, then I got a dialog stating that the CD ROM drive was unwritable... :lol: Uh, yeah.

Of course it was nice and quiet, and the whole assembly is a bit lighter, noticably so.

Right now 8.6 is going on the CF card, I am sure it's finished by now, and I'll pull the DaneElec and put it in a PCMCIA adapter for some additional storage. I could try again with another SanDisk card, and maybe I'll give it a try sometime. I have a 16GB and a 32GB card not exactly lying around but usable with some arrangements.

So, now I got two 1400cs. One's a little short on the RAM at 32MB, but it's cosmetically very nice. I have to decide what I want to do with it. Probably CF card it and send it to the same friend I'm nostaligia bombing with a PB180 later this month.

Quite pleased thus far with this nice easy procedure. Any tips, techniques, procedures you want to share?

Best,

John

 

[jwmcfarlin]

A few more observations...

The NuTech card is a PPC G3 version, which I am guessing makes the 83 MhZ difference even more pronounced in terms of performance over my original PB1400c/166.

PB1400c/166 603e 32MB RAM with spinning platter 2GB hard drive vs. PB1400c/166 603e 64MB RAM with 2GB CF Card. Both machines running identical installs of OS8.6.

Winner: CF Card. I was on the desktop making things happen at 1:20 while the hard drive on the other machine was chugging away until 2:20. Putting the NuTech extension back into the extensions folder only increased the gap. I was making things happen at just over one minute. I'm not going to use virtual memory as a nod to the cf card longevity/endurance/mtbf controversy, though, but well worth it in my mind.

Best,

John

 

[Bunsen]

I'm not going to use virtual memory as a nod to the cf card longevity/endurance/mtbf controversy, though

With a second PCMCIA adapter, you could throw any old CF cards in there that are too small to make useful hard disk substitutes - like 32MB ones - and set them up as VM drives. Treat them as consumables and thrash them till they die

 

[jwmcfarlin]

Right on. My only question there is how do you set up a PCMCIA CF card as a VM drive?

I am currently going through the process of transferring OS9.1 from the Hard Drive that this machine came with to a bootable CF card. I have also put a 32GB CF card in as the primary solid-state hard drive. I have another of the Addonics adapters on the way so I can set up another 1400c/166 with it for a friend.

I'm debating the merits of 9.1 vs. 8.6 for a G3 250Mhz 1400c with 64MB of RAM...any personal observations anyone?

Best,

John

 

[jwmcfarlin]

Slight update. Now have a three-partition 32GB CF Card with a 2.5GB OS 9.1 partition, a 2.5GB Japanese OS 7.6 Partition, and the rest with OS 8.6. It works well, I just need to get the wireless working again and then the Audion software working and I'll be in business.

 

[jwmcfarlin]

And success. The PB1400c is working perfectly. Now all I have to do is explore the differences between 9.1 and 8.6, work with Audion some, figure out how Classilla works, and other things.

Best,

John

 

[ClassicHasClass]

FTR, the 1400+G3/466 that I test Classilla on is RAMDoubled to 120MB. You should set your VM to at least that size. However, it should run acceptably with a 250MHz G3 (it's tough slogging with the original 603, though usable).

 

[Bunsen]

how do you set up a PCMCIA CF card as a VM drive?

From memory (pardon the pun) you format it as a Mac drive, then do some trickery in the Memory control panel to use it as the drive for VM. Sorry I don't have any more details to hand. It may be necessary to format it as FAT16 in a PC, then reformat it in the Mac. One note about old CFs is that they may be slow.