just.in.time Posted February 9 Report Share Posted February 9 Definitely not worth $500... at least not now. Unless it’s brand new in box, never opened. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Raster30 Posted February 9 Report Share Posted February 9 he posted a ebay for $500. what am I missing here? https://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-Macintosh-PowerBook-3400C-PowerPC-603ev-240-MHz-64mb-256k-tested-working/124559434484?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
just.in.time Posted February 9 Report Share Posted February 9 Looking at eBay sold listings, all went for $70 to $300. That particular link was buy it now or best offer. If on the off chance they do start regularly going for $500 in the near future I’ll definitely put mine up for sale Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rick Dangerous Posted February 10 Author Report Share Posted February 10 I didn't pay $500 for the 240Mhz, he was just asking that. Offered $125 and settled on $175 which i thought was reasonable as the top spec models always seem to fetch more and this one is in really good cosmetic condition and comes with a bigger RAM board than i currently have. Random question guys: My PCMCIA card ejects when i start up my machine. Is there a setting/switch to just let it stay inserted somewhere? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
just.in.time Posted February 10 Report Share Posted February 10 I’m pretty sure my old 240mhz version I had 15 years ago and my 200mhz version I have now both kick out my SD card to PCMCIA adapter at power-on. If I recall correctly, it will not kick out cards like my Orinoco WiFi card. But it’s been nearly 5 years since I used that WiFi card so I may be misremembering. Point being, mine also ejects PCMCIA storage cards at immediate power on. I can do a halfway remove then re insert the card quickly to boot off it if necessary. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
cheesestraws Posted February 10 Report Share Posted February 10 I think that's just the normal 'eject all removable media it can' thing at boot. I think if you set the machine to boot from the CF card, it won't eject it (like CDs) but I could be wrong there. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Raster30 Posted February 10 Report Share Posted February 10 yeah I think my pb 190 and my 3400 ejects on boot. If you're booting from a cf to pc card adapter, I got a cf to ide adapter and installed that on the HD cable with my 3400c. works perfectly. 8GB CF internal storage with 48MB ram is a decent little machine. your thread got me to take a look at my 3400 and found the issue as to why my battery wasn't charging, so now I have a happy battery again. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rick Dangerous Posted February 11 Author Report Share Posted February 11 @just.in.time can you post a link for the SD to PCMCIA card you have? I tried one from Amazon but it didn't work properly. Using a CF to PCMCIA now which is great but SD would be ideal because it would be one less adaptor i'd have to use. Thank you sir! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
just.in.time Posted February 11 Report Share Posted February 11 @Rick Dangerous I bought my SD to PCMCIA adapter way back in like 2003 from BestBuy when I needed to get photos from a 1.3 megapixel HP camera to a PowerBook 5300cs I owned a long time ago. So I don’t have a link for it. That said, I’m looking at it right now and can describe it. It’s branded as “Dazzle” and is a 4 in 1 adapter for SD, MMC, SmartMedia and Sony Memory Sticks. I’ve never used the other 3 card types with it, but for SD cards it’s very important to make sure they are truly SD and not SDHC or SDXC cards. IIRC, anything below 2GB will almost always be true SD. At 2GB it may be SD or SDHC. Above 2GB it’s much more likely to be SDHC/SDXC. In my case, I have a 64MB Lexar Media and a 2GB SandDisk SD card that work great with it. Even bootable (great for installing OS/software). At one point I tried a 4GB card and it wasn’t even recognized as it was SDHC. It looks like you have a 2GB card. Perhaps it’s SDHC in disguise. If in doubt, try to find an old 512mb or 1gb card. Odds are much higher those will be true SD. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
PacNPal Posted February 11 Report Share Posted February 11 Nice find! I got my 3400c last year and I love it. I stuck a SD-IDE card as its internal HD. My advice is to be careful with the mouse clicker. It's a piece of plastic under there that gets brittle with age and can break off. Mine has been repaired, that's how I know. I got very lucky as I bought mine untested. It had a failed hard drive in it but everything else was fine. Best of all, it's the 240Mhz model, and it came with the 128MB RAM upgrade! I paid less than $100 for it, so I'm pretty pleased. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
PacNPal Posted February 11 Report Share Posted February 11 16 hours ago, just.in.time said: @Rick Dangerous I bought my SD to PCMCIA adapter way back in like 2003 from BestBuy when I needed to get photos from a 1.3 megapixel HP camera to a PowerBook 5300cs I owned a long time ago. So I don’t have a link for it. That said, I’m looking at it right now and can describe it. It’s branded as “Dazzle” and is a 4 in 1 adapter for SD, MMC, SmartMedia and Sony Memory Sticks. I’ve never used the other 3 card types with it, but for SD cards it’s very important to make sure they are truly SD and not SDHC or SDXC cards. IIRC, anything below 2GB will almost always be true SD. At 2GB it may be SD or SDHC. Above 2GB it’s much more likely to be SDHC/SDXC. In my case, I have a 64MB Lexar Media and a 2GB SandDisk SD card that work great with it. Even bootable (great for installing OS/software). At one point I tried a 4GB card and it wasn’t even recognized as it was SDHC. It looks like you have a 2GB card. Perhaps it’s SDHC in disguise. If in doubt, try to find an old 512mb or 1gb card. Odds are much higher those will be true SD. Thanks for the recommendation on the SD adapter! I found one for a great price. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dazzle-4-In-1-Card-Adapter-Media-SD-includes-original-sleeve/293563448532 Been wanting to get an SD-PCMCIA adapter for a while but could never decide on which to get, and having bad luck with more recent options. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
just.in.time Posted February 12 Report Share Posted February 12 @PacNPal that one looks identical to mine. So long as you use a true original SD card with it, should work great. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rick Dangerous Posted February 12 Author Report Share Posted February 12 The second 3400c came in; very first thing i did was pull the PRAM Battery. I swear the hardest part is getting it off the double sided tape; stuff is the stickiest surface i've ever encountered. Took all my finger strength plus an exactor blade to slowly get the battery off of there... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Trash80toHP_Mini Posted February 13 Report Share Posted February 13 Which KBD do you prefer, 1400 or 3400? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rick Dangerous Posted February 13 Author Report Share Posted February 13 I like the 3400 better; just seems like a sturdier machine all around. The 3400's all have the active matrix screen, and the processor and ram ceilings are higher. Built in Ethernet is really nice as well. A few things I will say for the 1400 though: -Keyboard is way better. If i had to go write the great American novel; i'd take the 1400 as a pure writing machine over the 3400 just because of the keyboard. -Slimmer profile; would likely travel better. -ADB and Audio In/Out on the back is better than on the left side like the 3400; i also like having the 3.5/CD bay in the front on the 1400 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rick Dangerous Posted February 16 Author Report Share Posted February 16 So the second powerbook I got; the 240mhz model; the sound doesn't work. It's very strange, i opened it back up and checked the ribbon cable. When it starts up; you hear the chime, but then during the "starting up" screen there are a few crackles and pops from the speakers. The Volume and Brightness switches work. I updated it to run 9.2.2 via OS9 Helper; wondering if I have the wrong extensions turned off? Or a missing driver somewhere? I play a CD, Play a game, mess with the alert noises, nothing. Going in and turning all extensions on and seeing what i can get working. Don't think it's a hardware problem. Anyone encountered this? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Daniël Oosterhuis Posted February 16 Report Share Posted February 16 6 hours ago, Rick Dangerous said: So the second powerbook I got; the 240mhz model; the sound doesn't work. It's very strange, i opened it back up and checked the ribbon cable. When it starts up; you hear the chime, but then during the "starting up" screen there are a few crackles and pops from the speakers. The Volume and Brightness switches work. That indicates to me at least that hardware wise the sound is working. The brief pops/crackles when OS 9 is loading extensions is normal, every Mac will do that (my iMac G3 Flower Power does it too, even out of external speakers). I believe that's the OS initializing the sound system. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Byrd Posted February 16 Report Share Posted February 16 I'd start with a fresh install of OS 9.1 to rule out sound issues Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rick Dangerous Posted February 16 Author Report Share Posted February 16 Getting up to 9.2.2 was just an experiment, I think this machine was happiest with 8.6. What's the best way to format the hard drive and do a full fresh install? My only concern is the machine doesn't like to boot from CD when you hold C so I'd hate to brick it by not being able to load the new OS. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
just.in.time Posted February 16 Report Share Posted February 16 Do a minimal install on your CF card, and make sure you have the cd rom extension. Then you can boot from that, single click the hard drive icon on the desktop, special -> erase as Mac OS Extended and then install again from the CD. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rick Dangerous Posted February 16 Author Report Share Posted February 16 (edited) Trying to install on my CF Card, but as soon as it gets started it says "The Application "Drive Setup" could not be opened" EDIT: 9.0.4 is cooperating so guess i'll use that to install that on the CF HD Thanks guys! Edited February 16 by Rick Dangerous Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rick Dangerous Posted February 16 Author Report Share Posted February 16 Formatted the HD and did a nice full fresh install of 9.0.4. I think that is going to be this machine's happy place. Sound works perfectly. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
just.in.time Posted February 16 Report Share Posted February 16 That’s awesome, glad it all worked out. Mine currently has 9.1. With adequate RAM, the 3400 series definitely makes for a decent OS 9 machine for most tasks, main limiter being low graphics performance for things such as 3D gaming. Otherwise a solid machine Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rick Dangerous Posted February 16 Author Report Share Posted February 16 Thanks! Fully sorted as of today; and everything works great. After years of upgrades and mucking about; a fresh install really is the way to go. Much more room on the HDD now and it's running faster all around. Now the long wait for the 128MB ram upgrade begins.....luckily i have a 64MB card in there, so i'm working with 80MB total. Any tips on where to find such an upgrade, beside ebay? I've emailed a few old school apple sellers in hopes they might have one collecting dust on a shelf somewhere; but they are all long out of stock. Oh well...going to have to keep an eye on those system profiler pictures on ebay when people actually bother to post them! One other thing i'll say for the 3400....both the main batteries still hold a decent charge and keep the time if it's plugged in or even not for a while. Both my 1400 batteries are dead dead...like beyond worthless. Not sure much can be done about that since no one is rebuilding them. Surprised no entrepreneurial spirit with the capability has offered this service for the old laptops/etc. of the world, seems there would be only growing demand given all the things that have started using rechargeable batteries from 1990-present. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rick Dangerous Posted Sunday at 06:04 PM Author Report Share Posted Sunday at 06:04 PM (edited) Found a 128MB RAM Module! https://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-Powerbook-3400-128MB-RAM-memory-module/233844487896?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 Got it for less than posted but took a bath on shipping because it's in the UK. Oh well; wasn't sure how often they pop up anymore so decided to go for it. Now.......am i really stuck at 3.0 GB for this HDD? Edited Sunday at 06:06 PM by Rick Dangerous Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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