As promised, this is where I have got to updating my 700mhz eMac. The point was to see what could be done to connect the eMac to the modern setting. The short answer is, not very much.
I bought a few pieces. This is what they cost.
Item | Description | Cost $ Not used | Cost $ |
1. | Keyboard A1048 to replace the badly damaged Pro keyboard |
| $35 |
2. | Power cable |
| $15 |
3. | RAM 2 x 512mb PC133 |
| $30 |
4. | Airport Card – not used | $45 | $0 |
5. | Wireless network adapter TP-Link |
| $57 |
6. | Speaker covers – an indulgence |
| $36 |
7. | PRAM battery |
| $12 |
| Total |
| $185.00 |
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The Airport card will not connect to my wireless network, even though it has the capacity to connect to WPA2, unless I turn off all security for the network - not something I will do - and then it connects easily enough. Even then, the card only provides 802.11b connection and so the Internet experience is very slow, as Allan Jones notes. However the TP-Link Wi Fi extender allows the eMac to connect to the Internet using an Ethernet cable at 802.11n and so the Internet experience is much improved, though certainly not lightening fast. And of course any video content requiring a flash player will not play.
It should be possible for my iMac to connect to the eMac over Ethernet using the ‘connect to server’ function – it is another room, I do not have Ethernet cabling and the eMac is too big to fit into my study. But so far, I have not worked out how to do that yet over the TP-Link.
Video chatting seems not possible on the eMac. As far as I can tell, there is no video conferencing app for OS X 10.4.11. I have seen suggestions people have modified old versions of Skype so that they can at least have audio chats. But for me, modifying the software as suggested only damaged it so that it would not open. So there is no point buying an i-Sight camera – the only webcam that will work with the eMac – even though there are plenty available at around $100.
Upgrading to an Intel processor is not possible it seems, because no other processor or logic board of any kind can be fitted to this particular model eMac.
Sadly, I have reached the eMac’s limits, unless one of you has a suggestion for how it’s hardware could be upgraded. Absent that, I am going to unplug it and return the eMac to the peaceful slumber it has enjoyed since 2008.