Memory ?

lowendmac.com says RAM: 32 or 64 MB, expandable to 512 MB using 256 MB 100 MHz 144-pin SO-DIMMs (one must be low profile) in both slots. Most low profile 256 MB modules use high density memory and are not compatible; low density 256 MB modules are compatible.

Tiger requires:

• A PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 processor
• Built-in FireWire
• At least 256 MB of RAM
• DVD drive (DVD-ROM), Combo (CD-RW/DVD-ROM) or SuperDrive (DVD-R) for installation
• At least 3 GB of free disk space; 4 GB if you install the XCode 2 Developer Tools

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_g3/stats/powerbook_g3_266.html

That's a 256 MB on the bottom of the processor card and a 256 MB on the top. I think both must be low profile because the ones that are not low profile have too many chips for a full 512 set.

If you do not observe good anti-static procedures when removing, storing, and re-installing the processor card, you will kill it. It is also a little tricky to get it lined up correctly and fully seated.

Apple suppoorts up through 10.2.8 on that model. If you are adventurous, you can use XPostFacto to install 10.3.

I'm maintaining three Wallstreets for a friend who still uses them daily. All three are running OS10.3.9 via XPostFacto and are very much more stable with 10.3.9 than they ever were with OS 10.2.8.

All three have upgraded RAM. Two have 512MB and the third 386MB. One was upgradede from a 233mHz to a 300 by adding a faster processor daughtercard. They all have either 40GB or 60GB replacement hard drives.

If you have a 300mHz processor, you need to step lightly when trying to max the RAM. In working on my friend's Wallstreets, I found that to use 512MB RAM on a 300mHz daughtercard, the chip density had to match for the two modules required (there is an "upper slot" and a lower slot"). We had several 256MB modules; some had 7 chips per side and the other 8.

Here's what we found:

• If we had two 256MB 7-chip modules installed in the daughtercard, the computer ran fine
• If we had two 256MB 8-chip modules, the computer ran fine
• If we had one 7-chip and one 8-chip and each were 256MB, the computer would not start
• If we mixed sevens and eights with LESS that 2 X 256MB, the computer worked
• If we mixed sevens and eights on a slower processor card that was 233 or 266, there was no problem

So the key to insuring you have the proper RAM to max out a 300mHz Wallstreet is to NOT order a "package" or "kit" with one upper and one lower chip (they are different heights). I found I needed to order two LOWER SLOT modules to get them to match.

I believe you can, theoretically, install Tiger via XPostFacto but, considering how much my friend's menagerie of Wallstreets chops with either 10.2 or 10.3, i'd think it is a little (or lot) too much OS for the geriatric Wallstreet. The video hardware is just barely competent with 10.2.

There is a little hack you can do to slightly improve your video performance, by forcing os x to load an additional kext for the video card. Every little helps!

Is 'kext' a typo?

I have tried installing OS X on the Wallstreet (233 Mhz, 1998 model) and with 512MB or two 256 modules of RAM (8 chips per - but don't know if lower profile or not) and found that the installation proceeded as far as languages and printer drivers before the screen went grey and stayed that way, at least for the 10 mins. before I pulled the plug.

I tried the suggestion to install again minus one of the modules, and removed the lower one, which seemed logical, however the attempt to install met with a nearly black screen, where I could barely make out the install window, and was not able to click through anything. I've yet to try it by removing the top module, but do you think that would help? It also looks like since I've installed OS 9 first on the 7 GB partition (of two volumes of a 12 GB HD) can I install the OS X on this as well, or should I reformat and install X first - or put the 9 on the smaller volume?

I've also gone through updating from OS 9 to 9.2.1 - however I've noticed that the music player software seems to have trouble playing CDs - because it plays for half a second and then stops. I think I didn't have this problem with just plain OS 9...so I'm wondering if there's a fix. I know the player works, and it recognizes software installs OK. What about a Clean Install?

Lastly, the Wallstreet doesn't recognize CD-RW for some reason. Is this an OS 9 limitation?

Sorry for all these questions - hope for some answers, thanks

Hi Keith

Kext = kernel extension - drivers as far as I understand it but I'm not sufficiently techy to know the difference. Kexts live in /System/Library/Extensions. kextstat on the commandline will tell you what is loaded. By default there is no hardware acceleration for video on the wallstreet under os x, but there are kexts that you can force os x to load which seem to help a little. By today's standards however they are pretty poor in truth. Again, it is all too long ago but I have a feeling the kexts you need are only available in Jaguar and need to be copied into panther or tiger. You have to load them each time you boot into os x unless you can write a little script to load them at startup.

The blackscreen is vaguely familiar- have you tried hitting the brightness key? Silly question I know. It could also point to your PRAM battery being faulty- see here-

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1688815?start=0&tstart=0

If it is the issue I remember you may be able to still install os x without the backlight- try shining a torch on the screen and see if there is anything there to respond to the prompts, then after a successful restart rebooting into OS 9 which generally cures backlight trouble.

I didnt notice before that you are on a 233 MHz machine- I guess that your experiences may be slightly different but the other concern is the speed of the machine. My 300MHz is slow enough!

Good luck nevertheless.

Cheers

Matt

Thanks Matt, I guess the torch on the screen gambit is one I'll have to try. As for the PRAM battery, I'm sure it's long gone, as the date and time always resets to 1904 on the boot-up. A very helpful website, iFixit gave me the impression that the battery is nearly inaccessible - reachable only when you get to the difficult logic board replacement level - and RAM replacement is as far as I intend to go.

Any clue about about the CD player not playing music discs? My feeling is that it may have something to do with the player's application start up.

Would like to have it with OS 9...But maybe with OS X I'd have better results. (installed on 7 GB partition?)

Keith wrote:

As for the PRAM battery, I'm sure it's long gone, as the date and time always resets to 1904 on the boot-up.

That could be the key. I've replaced PRAM batteries in two of my friend's Wallstreets. Both were doing VERY odd things in the presence of a dead PRAM batt. One would not charge a known-good battery with a known-good charger until I installed a new PRAM batt.

The other WS would not boot from any valid OSX installer disk until I changed the PRAM batt. As nearly as I coudl tell, the dead battery was preventing the computer from remembering a screen resolution that supported the startup screens for the OSX installer. That a guess, but a new battery fixed whatever was hapenning.

This is the PRAM battery:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/PRAMPBG3WS/

Installation is mostly getting the palm rest case cover off; the battery lives in a bracket mounted to the underside of the palm rests. I used the instructions here to pull off this changeout:

http://www.ifixit.com/Device/PowerBook_G3_Wallstreet

Allen, thanks, as always. You can't help wondering if the designer was in a particularly sadistic mood when he positioned the Wallstreet's PRAM battery. After step 26, it's "abandon all hope, ye who enter here" I mean, why can't the darn thing be easy to get at, like it is on my PM G4? Step 1, remove battery, step 2 replace battery.

The other WS would not boot from any valid OSX installer disk until I changed the PRAM batt. As nearly as I coudl tell, the dead battery was preventing the computer from remembering a screen resolution that supported the startup screens for the OSX installer. That a guess, but a new battery fixed whatever was hapenning.

And I'll bet that's the issue I'm having, too. I don't suppose there's any way of testing the PRAM battery, just to make sure it's dead?

My recollection is that the PRAM battery is connected with a red and a white twisted-pair of wires. If they are showing under the keyboard, you may be able to disconnect them (there is a tiny connector in the wires) and try it that way to check the battery.

Grant The Great!

Thanks. I'll check it out. I wonder why iFixit doesn't say this...we'll see.

Grant wrote:

If they are showing under the keyboard, you may be able to disconnect them (there is a tiny connector in the wires) and try it that way to check the battery.

It's been several years, but my recollection from slaving over my friend's Wallstreets is that the connector is not accessible from the keyboard area in the Wallstreet. I think it is accessible on the Lombard and Pismo.

Keith, some of the steps in the iFixit guide take longer to read that to do. The trick for me was using a spare plastic ice cube tray to keep the screws sorted. Like you, I found the instructions daunting on first read, but the WS is laid out reasonably well and, as long as I set aside enough time that I don't have to rush, the task proved not to be too much of a leap.

Well, that's encouraging, Allen, it becomes less slaving if you can think of it as a pastime - maybe occupying an hour a day..with the reward at the end being a restored and enhanced laptop - not something destined for the landfill.

Thanks for the tip about the ice cube tray. The person I'm doing this for paid for the HD and RAM and said go ahead...see what you can do. If successful, I can expect some professional drafting work from them in exchange...so there's an incentive.