Powerbook 520c Screen problem.

Hi,

This article may be of interest to you. I do not know whether speech recognition can be made to work with the PB 520c, though (or if a Power Macintosh model is needed).

If necessary, System 7.5.3 (e.g., the North American English version here) is available for download from Apple.

Jan

Hello again,

68k macs (Which I am guessing the 520c is)

Yes, the PowerBook 520c has a 68LC040 processor.

This laptop is running Mac OS 8.1, would I receive any benefits from downgrading?

Not really (apart from the fact that System 7.5.3 may use less memory). In any case you will have to check whether it is at all possible to (install and) use speech recognition software with the computer in question. Begin with the Installer (Custom Install); do you see any suitable options?

Jan

can the 520c read High Density floppy disks?

Yes, both 1.44 MB (HD) and 800K (DSDD/2DD) Mac-formatted floppies can be used in the PowerBook 520c. The computer can also handle 1.44 MB (HD) and 720K (DSDD/2DD) PC-formatted disks, providing that a PC Exchange control panel is installed and active.

are there any options for remotely controlling this mac? like a VNC

If I remember correctly, there was an old VNC client (but not a server) available for 68k Macs. An appropriate early version of the commercial Timbuktu software could possibly be an alternative (but it may not interact properly with modern versions).

I have an Ethernet adapter.

It is possible to use file sharing (via TCP/IP) between a newer Mac and the PB 520c.

Jan

you can download system 7.5.3 from Apple. It comes in 17 parts, so do I need 17 floppies?

The North American English download (link above) consists of nineteen files. The same is true for the British English version ( here). Twenty files for the International English version ( here).

French and German versions come as seventeen files. However, speech recognition is probably limited to English. In dubio, try the North American English system software first.

Each downloadable file is small enough to (just) fit onto a 1.44 MB diskette. Please note that you are supposed to transfer the files to the hard disk of the PowerBook 520c. You could use separate floppies, or erase one disk over and over again.

Some reports seem to indicate that less space than normal could be available on disks originating from USB floppy drives connected to Mac OS X computers. If this is a real problem, you could alternatively use a PC for the download (and PC-formatted floppies for the transfers). In this case it is important not to decode the MacBinary (.bin) until on the PB 520c.

Use StuffIt Expander to decode the .bin (on the PB 520c). Place ALL the decoded files (one .smi and eighteen .part for the North American English download) in one common folder. Please note that the hard disk has to be formatted HFS (Standard) for System 7.5.3, not HFS+ (Extended).

It is wise to have a startup floppy (the Network Access Disk 7.5 here). You can create this disk in Disk Copy 4.2 (the Make A Copy button) on the PB 520c before installing a new system.

Start from the Network Access floppy. Double-click on the first (.smi) file to mount the total disk image. The installer will be found in the mounted image. See steps 7 and 8 in this document for information about how to perform a clean installation (it is not necessary to update to 7.5.5). Neither Disk Copy nor any other disk image utility is used with the System 7.5.3 files.

Jan