quick Macintosh question

[c0ldb33r]

I got a free Macintosh not long ago. It came with an external FDD. I didn't test it until last weekend.

I turned it on and it made a mice little noise, the screen came on and it showed a little floppy with a ? mark.

I don't have any discs for it, nor do I have a keyboard or mouse. I was going to check ebay for this stuff, but before I do that, is there anything special that I should know?

the mouse looks like a normal serial mouse and the keyboard port looks like a modem port. Weird. was this proprietary to appe or were there 3rd party ones?

[phreakindee]

The '?' floppy is asking for the OS disk. You'll need one in order to use it. Judging by the type of machine you have (128/512/Plus/SE/etc) you'll need to choose an appropriate OS and either make a copy of the disk with another Mac or just go the ebay or collector's forum route (I recommend 68kMLA for all your old Mac needs)

The mouse and keyboard are both proprietary. There were third-party devices for later Macs that used ADB ports, but it doesn't sound like yours is one of those. You'll likely need something like the M0110 for the keyboard and M0100 mouse. There are many variations and depending on your model you may want/need otherwise.

[c0ldb33r]

So if it says ? does that mean it works?

[Jorpho]

Weren't you just posting about this six weeks ago?
http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=137158

I shall re-iterate my point that you really can't do anything particularly useful with this Macintosh and would be much better served by pretty much any later model.

It is impossible to say much about the computer's functionality without a boot disk, and even if you can find an appropriate download, it is impossible to make a boot disk yourself without a second functional Macintosh with a floppy drive.

[Tupin]

How odd this topic shows up, I just got an iMac G3/350 today with the same error, and as here, it means it needs a system disc/disk.

[c0ldb33r]

Weren't you just posting about this six weeks ago?
http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=137158

I shall re-iterate my point that you really can't do anything particularly useful with this Macintosh and would be much better served by pretty much any later model.

Yeah I know.

Until recently I didn't know that the system would even boot. I was originally going to destroy it and just use the case for some fun modification, a new PC, etc... but knowing that it might work changes things. I just can't kill the retro computer.

Maybe I'll see if I can give it away.

[boatofcar]

Your biggest obstacle is going to be finding the system boot disks. I did some searching on ebay and came up with nothing.

[Jorpho]

Until recently I didn't know that the system would even boot.

Did you do something to it that changed this behavior? See, now that you mention it, it's possible that the BIOS battery is dead. I've seen Macs that get real finicky when the battery dies, but I don't know if it's a problem with the ancient, original model Macs.

[Soviet Conscript]

i had the same issue with my macintosh SE. had a hell of a time finding an OS disk, acually i never did. i did eventually find a external mac hard drive locally which happened to have an OS already installed on it (7 something maybe? or maybe 6...) anyways it works fine now.

but having a functioning classic mac i'm going to go with Jorpho on this one. its completly useless. the only reason i even leave it out is just cause it takes up so little space and makes a decent "historical centerpiece". there just arn't many titles i can think of that you just can't play better versions of on a newer mac and in color.

[Kitsune Sniper]

Uh, can't you just -download the software from Apple- or something?

http://download.info.apple.com/Apple.../Older_System/

[Soviet Conscript]

Uh, can't you just -download the software from Apple- or something?

http://download.info.apple.com/Apple.../Older_System/

apperently, because of how the disks are formatted or some crap you have to use a mac to download those,a nd an older (pre G3 maybe?) one at that. and even then its not a sure thing it will work.

or so i'm told. as i only recently aquired a "newer" mac (mid 90's model) i never tried it nor do i feel like trying to get the damn thing online.

[phreakindee]

You can make the system disks on pre-G3 Macs with system 7.5.x or lower, so long as you have the right software and proper disk image(s). I used Disk Copy 6 from what I remember:

http://mac.thebasingers.com/software..._6.3.3.smi.bin

And these disk images, I use v1.1 on my 128k Mac (a lot of dead links, but this gives you an idea of what archives to look for):

http://home.earthlink.net/~gamba2/syslist.html

Otherwise you can get a copy made for you if you don't have a Mac to make your own disks. There are people at the 68kMLA forum who will usually do it for free and there's this guy in Canada who made some for me for a small fee... turns how he was a jerk on ebay and has been banned so be careful with the bay, I'd really recommend the 68kMLAers

[Kitsune Sniper]

apperently, because of how the disks are formatted or some crap you have to use a mac to download those,a nd an older (pre G3 maybe?) one at that. and even then its not a sure thing it will work.

or so i'm told. as i only recently aquired a "newer" mac (mid 90's model) i never tried it nor do i feel like trying to get the damn thing online.

Ah, I wouldn't know. I used that site to get system software for my Mac emulators. I dunno how Macs actually work.

[kedawa]

dunno how Macs actually work.

They just do, or so I've been told