EtherLink III Card and PB 1400 Advice?

[J English Smith]

Hello all, was taking another run at getting one of my PB 1400s to use the 3Com Etherlink III card, as using the Orinoco cards won't work at home - they no longer seem to play well with my home network, but my Pismos and Lombards do, so I don't want to change anything there. I tried this awhile back, no luck, thought I would take another run today as it's snowy and there's not much to do...

I put the hacked driver from Cameron Kaiser in my extensions folder. Normal reboots, but the 3Com card is still not recognized when I put it in. What next? Any suggestions appreciated.

The 1400 I am using is maxed at 64mb RAM. The card is a 3C589D-COMBO, Rev. C.

 

[ClassicHasClass]

That should work ... I think that's the same one I'm using, in fact. Did you try the other PCMCIA slot just in case? Are you sure that card is good?

 

[J English Smith]

I will try it in another machine and see if I can verify the card is OK. Seems unlikely it would be fried, but you never know...

Might try in one of my 5300s and see if I get the same result...

 

[J English Smith]

Just tried it in my PB 5300 running OS 8.5, what I get is same as the 1400, a message saying that the software I need to use the PC Card is not installed, would I like to eject the card now?

Is there something I have to do with Cameron's file other than just put it into the Extensions folder?

 

[ClassicHasClass]

No, that should be it. Does the Extensions Manager register the extension? Does it look "okay"?

 

[J English Smith]

Well, I was making progress - I think the issue was that it needed to be unpacked in old Stuffit Expander, rather than on my Pismo - but on first restart, this process seems to have fried the hard drive on my 5300, I am now getting the flashing disk with question mark. I think I am going to end my explorations here with this hack and leave things the hell alone... I will have to see if the disk is really dead, or just needs an OS reloaded. Pooh! I will treat these as standalone machines, not internet playthings... It's just too hard trying to make these "95-'96 laptops play nicely. I have definitely become an OS X kind of guy, things just work better!

 

[ClassicHasClass]

I've seen that happen with the extension on PCI PowerBooks, but never on a 5300. If it is something due to that, an OS restore should fix the problem.

 

[J English Smith]

Sigh - it's not my day - I pulled out my external SCSI drive (I have an HDI-30 connector) and it is non functional - can't tell whether it is the power supply or the drive itself. Took apart to see if any burst caps, didn't see any. So now I have no way to reload that notebook drive. Taking the 5300 apart, I see this is a 17mm drive, which are now scarce as hen's teeth on eBay. I am thinking of transplanting my extra 1400 drive (12.5") into it, it will flop around but at least I can see if it will boot.

Anyone know of a place to get an external Mac SCSI drive on the cheap? With this shot, I have no way to get software into the 5300s...I no longer have a set of 7.x floppies.

Pooh. Just not my day all around.

 

[J English Smith]

I'm somewhat back in business...managed to get 7.6.1 loaded onto an extra CF card I have, was able to perform a clean install of that OS onto a 1400. Last night, I was able to boot the 5300 from disk tools and managed to create a new system file from the 7.5.3 in disk tools. I am hopeful that tonight, I will be able to get the 5300 back to a clean 7.6.1, and then I think I'm gonna leave it the heck alone!

I'm glad this worked, because if that little 17mm thickness drive was dead, it would have been hard to find a replacement. I should check and see if the side holes on a 12.5mm drive match the side holes of a 17mm. The bottom holes are different, but the 5300 drive side-screws into its caddy.

I forgot how relatively screwed up the innards of a 5300 are compared to the 1400...hadn't been in there for a while. Definitely not as nice to work on! Some really nasty ribbon connectors.

 

[gobabushka]

out of curiosity did you figure out why the wavelan card would not work on your network?

 

[J English Smith]

Not 100% I think it has something to do with the security setting, or it is the type of wireless router. I think before I was still using simple WEP as now, but with a 2-Wire device rather than the current one, which I think is a Motorola. (I am a Qwest/Century Link DSL customer.) The current setup is working for everything else, so I am loath to tinker with it... It's either the router, or it just can't handle the encryption. The Orinoco definitely SEES the signal, just can't complete the handshake.

I was beating my head on this, and then I stopped, and it felt good!

 

[J English Smith]

Final progress report:

I had an extra drive from a 1400, so I got that swapped into the 5300 last night. The 17mm, 750mb drive from the 5300 revived once, then gave up the ghost. Huge thunky sound effects from such a little thing.

Getting the 12.5mm drive mounted was a real beast - I had to drill new holes in the caddy - only to find that there is NO, ZERO room on the sides for screws, it interferes with the refit of the trackpad housing. So drilled top screws and that JUST worked. There is not an RCH to spare. That's why I'm posting this, if anyone else faces this and needs to refit a 12.5 drive in there - top mount is the way to go - two screws in either corner are all you need. The plastic drills easily with a standard bit.

So, at least, that 5300 is working for a little while longer and back running 7.6.1. The 750 drive was circa 1996; this just must have been its time.

Anyone know of a good source for 2gb - 6gb used or NOS drives? So far, my 1400s all are hanging in there, but I suppose they will crap out next...

I am definitely moving closer to ordering one of the 60gb flash drives from OWC for my Pismos...I've been lucky with drives, but this failure reminds me that nothing that spins lasts forever...