APPLE Powerbook 1400

[NA4BH]

Tell me about the Powerbook.

My son inherited an APPLE Powerbook 1400. He turned it on and it comes up to a screen that shows a floppy disk and a question mark. Is this thing so old that you need a program disk to complete the boot?

[K7SGJ]

No, it wants to see if you know what the picture is. Type in "floppy disk" and hit enter.

[NQ6U]

Tell me about the Powerbook.

My son inherited an APPLE Powerbook 1400. He turned it on and it comes up to a screen that shows a floppy disk and a question mark. Is this thing so old that you need a program disk to complete the boot?

It means that the OS install is trashed. Could just need to be reinstalled or it could mean that the HD is dead or dying. I probably have a copy of the correct OS disk around my place somewhere and I'll dupe a copy if I can find it. I wouldn't put any money into the thing, though; That's a PowerPC Mac so there's not a lot of software for those anymore. It won't be good for much other than simple web surfing and e-mail.

[n2ize]

Reef it and get a new machine.

[NQ6U]

BTW, the newest Mac OS you could run on that beast would be OS 9, the last version of the "Classic" Mac OS. Not only would that be pretty much useless these days, it would probably have anyone used to a more modern operating system banging their head against the wall in short order. I think that IZE is on target here—best use for the thing is as a doorstop.

[K7SGJ]

As you said, he could always use it for surfing the net, email, and digital ops if any of the software like fldigi or something like that would work. I have an old IBM laptop that isn't good enough for much else, dedicated to just that.

[NQ6U]

As you said, he could always use it for surfing the net, email, and digital ops if any of the software like fldigi or something like that would work. I have an old IBM laptop that isn't good enough for much else, dedicated to just that.

I sincerely doubt that anyone has written digital mode software that will run under Mac OS 9 but I suppose he could try loading one of the Linux distros that will run on PowerPC machines. I'd be surprised if even that would run on a fifteen-year-old computer but one never knows about these things.

[N8OBM]

I sincerely doubt that anyone has written digital mode software that will run under Mac OS 9 but I suppose he could try loading one of the Linux distros that will run on PowerPC machines. I'd be surprised if even that would run on a fifteen-year-old computer but one never knows about these things.

Could you run Mac OS 9 or Linux on it? The answer to both is most likely yes IF and it is a big IF, you can give it more memory. The max memory on board is 64 meg. You can however use memory through the PCMCIA slot. If you give it 256meg to 512meg, you could make it work pretty well. It might almost be useful with 512 megs of ram and Linux. It will take a lot of tinkering to get it up and running but, there are versions of Linux running on just about anything this side of a graphing calculator. My router is running Linux. The real question is how much work do you want to put in it? Depending on how you look at it, this could either be a great learning tool or a horrible time suck. My advice? Load Mac OS 7.5.3 and use it as big clock. You should be able to re-size the clock to fill the screen. I have a friend who kept an old Mac SE30 running for many years past what he should have. It did two things. It ran his x10 home automation system and it was an easy to read clock.

Archie N8OBM

[WØTKX]

I have an old PowerMac clone that was "stuck" with OS9. I have not booted it in about two years, but I trashed OS9 and put a flavor of BeOS on it that ran very well for general Internet surfing and such. YMMV.

[K7SGJ]

Or, he could just use it to surf, period.

11367

Hang Loose

[KG4CGC]

You could install Win7 on it.