TAM upgrade to OS 9.0.4 or OS 9.1 - FM tuner? Front buttons?

[shifuimam]

I received a TAM for my birthday this year and am already looking at upgrade options. Of course I'd love a Sonnet Crescendo/L2 upgrade, but I'm not going to hold my breath on that one. Even a bigger L2 cache card would be nice, but that stuff is getting super hard to find.

I'm already planning on getting 128MB RAM and putting in an SSD with an IDE adapter (did the same thing on my 12" PowerBook G4 and it works wonderfully). It came with a 10/100 ethernet Comm II card and the PCI riser, so I'm planning on getting either a FW+USB card or finding a PCMCIA/CardBus adapter that works in OS 9.

And therein lies my biggest question thus far - how do I get the front panel buttons working in OS 9? I have a 9.0.4 retail CD including the 9.1 upgrade (also the retail version), and everything works fine except the FM radio and the brightness control on the front of the machine. The volume and mute controls do work in 9.0.4.

I'm not going to do much with trying to get the TV tuner to work since everything over-the-air is digital now, plus I live on the side of a mountain so our OTA reception would be nonexistent anyhow. That being said, I want to keep the FM radio working. Does anyone have a confirmed method of upgrading to 9.0.4 and/or 9.1 while maintaining FM radio functionality?

What about the front panel buttons?

Are there any known PCI-to-PCMCIA adapters that work in OS 9? I'd prefer to go this route over a FW+USB card because it would give me more hardware flexibility if I wanted to use a wireless card, a media card reader, or other stuff.

I'm looking forward to playing with this guy for many years to come!

 

[Byrd]

Hi,

I'd try a fresh vanilla install of OS 9.1, it's what I've always run on my TAM and things like the buttons/Apple Video Player have always worked fine.  

I'd be interested if you find a good PCMCIA to PCI adapter card - I can't say I've heard of one that works under Mac OS, you might have better luck with a good USB 1.1 card with a few ports as that'll also give you wireless, media card readers.

JB

 

[shifuimam]

I already did a reinstall of 9.0.4 (new system folder). I don't have a 9.1 retail install CD, just 9.2.1 and 9.0.4. I know that Apple recommends disabling virtual memory prior to upgrading 9.0.4 to 9.1, but I can't do that right now (with 32MB installed RAM the Memory control panel won't let me turn off virtual memory). Should I go ahead and try installing 9.1?

My other option is to find a retail copy of 9.1, if that's what I need to do, of course.

Do you know anything about changing the FM radio region? I hear it's technically possible in that the Apple FM radio uses the firmware to set the frequency range. Since my TAM was originally sold in Japan, it doesn't allow most of the FM frequencies used in the United States.

 

[Byrd]

Yes, I'd find a retail version of OS 9.1 (not hard ...) and install fresh from there.  The TV/FM tuner in a TAM is region specific, I'd imagine you would need an NTSC tuner to get the full frequency range in the states.  There are devices made though that extended the frequency range of Japanese car radios ... maybe a hack somewhere?

 

[ScutBoy]

I have OS 9.something on my TAM, and I don't recall having to do anything to get the front panel buttons working.

 

[shifuimam]

Yes, I'd find a retail version of OS 9.1 (not hard ...) and install fresh from there.  The TV/FM tuner in a TAM is region specific, I'd imagine you would need an NTSC tuner to get the full frequency range in the states.  There are devices made though that extended the frequency range of Japanese car radios ... maybe a hack somewhere?

Yeah, we saw a couple of those adapters on Amazon. I think that's what we'll try. Worst case scenario I'll try to find an as-is TAM on the cheap and gank the tuner board from it.

Turns out I'm just an idiot about the front buttons. They work; I was expecting an on-screen display like in OS 9 on my iMac G4 and my G3 laptops.

 

[ScutBoy]

Yeah, we saw a couple of those adapters on Amazon. I think that's what we'll try. Worst case scenario I'll try to find an as-is TAM on the cheap and gank the tuner board from it.

Turns out I'm just an idiot about the front buttons. They work; I was expecting an on-screen display like in OS 9 on my iMac G4 and my G3 laptops.

Glad it was that simple