Powerbook 180c issues

[Bunsen]

It sounds as though the Powerbook is booting from the internal drive still. You can't format or erase the disk that you've booted from, as that could potentially leave you with a non-booting Mac. You need to go into the Control Panel called Startup Disk, and change it to boot from the first installer floppy. Once it's booted from the floppy, you can proceed with formatting and installing.

SCSI ID 0 for the internal drive is normal.

7.1.x would be a better bet than 7.6 in 8MB of real RAM. However there are advantages to 7.6, such as improved networking and stability. 7.6 is not available for free download, so an ebay CD would be required, and a CD drive, or as mentioned the rare and annoying stack o' disks. There is a free downloadable upgrade from 7.6 to 7.6.1, but that will not change the language set.

As you say at the top, stickers or memory are your keyboard solution. I used a Lombard G3 with a Japanese keyboard layout - the Roman alphabet was marked, but some of the special characters were in the wrong place. Using just memory is doable, if a little annoying.

 

[ryan55]

I got 7.1 pro installed. Should i get the update from apple or is it pointless? Its gonna have to wait till i get some floppy disks... My hard drive icon changed from the little laptop to Pink Floyd hammers (best way to describe it), i like it! I forgot how basic system 7.1 is tho . More as it comes, maybe pictures if i find my camera.

 

[JRL]

To be frank, it's not basic at all with the right software.

Here are some useful addons:

http://home.earthlink.net/~gamba2/71more.html

 

[ryan55]

It probably takes a bit of getting used to, this is the first time i've ever played around with any pre os 7.5 system so it should be fun. On another happy note, the PRAM battery seems to be working again , must have been cause it was plugged in for a while now. Will confirm tommorow if it is good or not, but considering it didn't jump around while i was seting it, I'd say its a definite improvement. Anyways I'm off to bed for the night, its amazing how time flies when doing stuff liek this (its 1:45 am here). Also, whats the difference between the 1.4meg and 800k versions of update 3?

 

[LCGuy]

The 1.4MB and 800k versions of System Update 3.0 are exactly the same, but on different size disks. There are some Macs that can run System 7.1, such as the Mac Plus, early SE's, and Mac II which only have 800k floppy drives, so Apple had to release disks for those Macs. Your PowerBook 180c has a 1.4MB drive, so you're best off going with the 1.4MB version, which requires less disks.

 

[ryan55]

Thats the plan once i get some, use 1.4's. Anyways got Ramdoubler, bomb shelter and MS Word 5.1a on it for now, it should make a nice little note taking machine. Thats it's official use so that it is not useless, therefore not subject to disposal by people in the family who tend to think these things just take up room :O . In extention i need the 7300 to put stuff onto it, and it'd be crazy not to have a backup or 2 . And now I'm really gonna hit the hay... don't think i can stay awake any more.

Ryan

***Edit*** Forgot to mention (I am really tired) that so far the time has kept and the hard drive sticks less. When i first got it, it would click a good 5 times before going silent, its down to 1 now, go figure. I still don't trust it too much, so I'll be saving onto floppies for the time being, but go figure, give it a month and the whole thing might fix itself (hopefully upgrade too, dual core would be nice :beige: ).

 

[JRL]

Well, still, you may want to open the case up and give the hard drive a good whack.

 

[register]

In case you frequently deal with stacks of floppy disks, consider to copy them onto a harddisk drive. A System 7.1 installation runs great from a harddisk, as long the contents of the floppy disks are stored inside folders with the same names as the floppy disks. All of those copied floppies should be in the same folder (the installer will assume to find any of the folders in the same folder).