Performa 630 DOS issues.

[Solvalou]

One thought about 7.5.5 vs. 8:

System 7.5.5 officially supports up to a maximum of 4GB volumes/partitions noted here. The page doesn't list specifically what happens on an IDE-having Mac like the 630 or 580, I'll ask @defor if he has guidance on that, at some point.



If you revisit this, I would consider trying the following things:

• 7.5.5 configured with 3+3+2GB partitions
  
• Using 7.6.1
  

The other thing you can do to at least improve boot time and memory usage is turn off or throw away extensions not related to things you're doing. I'll have to look, it's probably time for me to pull this system out anyway, but on my 840 with 8.0 or 8.1 on it, I'm down to around 12 megs of RAM used.

Il give your suggestions a go when I drag it out off the back-burner. I must admit, the thought of doing 3 partitions is kinda messy IMHO. I think I'd prefer to stick with 2 (as that's ideal for me with DOS taking up half of the space).

What is really like to find out is how to get the damn CD drive support in DOS! 

 

[Ries]

Nothing wrong with your "DOS-side" I'am pretty sure that you should use another "Apple-CDrom"

extension!

My "Performa 630 DOS" had the same problem after some update where the CD rom changed to version 5.1.6 and 5.3.3 : In Macintosh no problems but on DOS-side (W95 /W3.11) no CD reading…!

I changed the CDrom extension to the original one: version 5.0.1 and everything went back to normal on Mac-side as well as on DOS-side! 

Succes…

 

[Brett B.]

Interesting... I will have to check and see what extension I'm running.  I imagine it's newer rather than older.

 

[Solvalou]

Interesting... I will have to check and see what extension I'm running.  I imagine it's newer rather than older.

Likewise, thanks for the heads-up.

 

[Brett B.]

Well, this is quite the annoying little issue.  I dug through my pile of system software CDs and found the following "Apple CD-ROM" extensions:

5.0.1 - was on a LC580/LC630 7.5 CD.  Discs are not readable on the PC side OR the Mac side 

5.1.2 - was on a "System 7.5 Update 2.0" CD... Discs are also not readable on either.

5.3.1 - was on a PowerMac 5260/100 CD, system 7.5.3.  Discs are readable on the Mac side but NOT the PC side, same issue as before

I have also found versions 5.3.3, 5.4, and 5.4.2... the latter two being what was installed during the OS 8 installation and 8.1 update, respectively.  5.3.3 was on a 7.6.1 CD and is the only one I haven't tried but since 5.3.1 doesn't work I don't have much hope.  

@Ries, what OS version are you running and what version of the PC Setup control panel do you have installed?  I have 1.0.6.

I feel like this is almost certainly a Mac OS 8 issue but maybe can be resolved with an extension version between 5.1.2 and 5.3.1 but I doubt I have it.  Anyone?

I'm half tempted to toss another hard drive in, load up 7.5.5, and see if it works but that will burn a whole evening and I have so few of those.

 

[Solvalou]

Well after a month of storage, I dig out the 630 and I see I have CD-ROM driver 5.4.2.

And then it died. I think my PSU needs new caps as it powers on to switch off moments after. Plus there's coil whine when I try and power it on.

Ugh, not looking forward to trying to dig that out of there. 

 

[Brett B.]

Dang it.  

I wish there was more documentation on these... or the software requirements, etc.  I am sure that those of us who actually have one of these machines are few and far between - they were certainly not common - so knowledge is hard to track down.

I know for a fact that I had it working at some point in the last 20 years.  It's just been wiped and reloaded and had other hardware changes so often that I don't recall what OS I was running, but I really doubt I ever ran anything other than 8.1 on it for any length of time.  That was my go-to OS for '040 machines and still is.  I know it has to be something real simple because I'm still using the same install disks for everything that I was back in the day when this worked - it's just a matter of finding the right combo of software.

I keep hoping that @Ries will log in and give us some more pointers!

 

[Solvalou]

Dang it.  

I wish there was more documentation on these... or the software requirements, etc.  I am sure that those of us who actually have one of these machines are few and far between - they were certainly not common - so knowledge is hard to track down.

I know for a fact that I had it working at some point in the last 20 years.  It's just been wiped and reloaded and had other hardware changes so often that I don't recall what OS I was running, but I really doubt I ever ran anything other than 8.1 on it for any length of time.  That was my go-to OS for '040 machines and still is.  I know it has to be something real simple because I'm still using the same install disks for everything that I was back in the day when this worked - it's just a matter of finding the right combo of software.

I keep hoping that @Ries will log in and give us some more pointers!

Did you try the earlier CD-ROM extension? I couldn't test it out as my PSU gave up before I could have a chance to transfer some files.

 

[Brett B.]

Yeah... I tried a variety with no success... See my previous post. I don't think I have version 5.1.6 to try but none of the others worked in both environments.