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Thread: Help help drowning in mac land

  1. #1

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    Help help drowning in mac land

    Just brought a drum scanner home. Looks to be in very nice shape. Trying to get it running, well not the scanner, but the old G3 Mac that came with it.

    I got it to sort of boot, but got the question mark on home screen. Been a long time but that usually means it not seeing the boot disk (I think???). Opened the old boy up and found one HD installed with one screw, the other loose in the case. How it made shipping across the country somewhat intact is just lucky.

    One drive is an IBM, the other a quantum "victory"

    Can any one...

    Help me to understand stand my situation with the drives

    Is IBM the boot or the quantum? One of the ribbon connectors looks snagged and ripped. I need to source a replacement.

    The connector to the IBM appears to match the motherboard. The quantum has a different connector, have no idea how to connect the quantum. Ribbon was loose and not connected.

    Can I use a modern Mac mouse and keyboard with it?

    The best of all worlds would to use my Mac Pro with the scanner (howtek 4500) but I don't see how to get scsi into a modern computer anymore.

    Any help I'm drowning.

    Bob

  2. #2

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    Re: Help help drowning in mac land

    You can not use the keyboard and mouse from a modern MAC because the ports are different. Modern MACS use USB ports.

    Do you have a OS boot disk? You probably need OS 9.2.2, though you could also run OSX with some G3 models. And did you get any software to run the 4500?

    You have several options for the 4500.

    1. Get the G3 running in OS 9 and use the software that may have come with the scanner.

    2. Install a SCSI board on a G4 or G5 and buy a copy of Silverfast for OSX (but no newer than 10.6).

    3. Buy DPL and operate the 4500 with a Windows machine.

    4.If you can install a SCSI card on your Mac Pro you could (I think) operate the scanner with OSX (10.6 or earlier) and Silverfast.

    Sandy
    For discussion and information about carbon transfer please visit the carbon group at groups.io
    [url]https://groups.io/g/carbon

  3. #3

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    Re: Help help drowning in mac land

    Thanks for the reply Sandy.

    There is only one circular port/plug for the mouse, no plug in for a keyboard. It does have 2 usb ports.

    the IBM drive has a ribbon connecting the motherboard to the IBM drive, The ribbon is damaged. When I put power to the drive it's a little noisy.

    The other drive (Quantum) has a ribbon with a different connector both at the drive and at the multiple connectors on the ribbon. None which match up the the connector on the motherboard.

    I can find no place where the quantum ribbon should connect. i can locate no female socket where is might plug in.

    I'll be the first to admit I a little clueless and out of my element. Is one of the drives the master and the other the slave? How do they connect is my first dilemma.

    I do not have OS software but it appears a full suite of the Howtek software.

    I don't know whats on the hard drives.

    I stopped upgrading at snow leopard. I did the followon on my wifes mac and it blew out all my Office software.

    bob

  4. #4

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    Re: Help help drowning in mac land

    Macs did not do master/slave. There is a boot up drive, however. You are correct, the question mark means it did not find a system to start up with. I would start by getting both drives plugged in... However, I would probably bring it over to a mac shop and see what they can do. If I had it in front of me I could probably help... They are fairly simple issues, and G3 is not that old. I'd say get a little help...

    Lenny
    EigerStudios
    Museum Quality Drum Scanning and Printing

  5. #5

    Re: Help help drowning in mac land

    Is this is one of the blue and translucent versions?
    As written, find a Mac system 9 start-up or boot CD and it will start from that.

    As for the cable, it should have multiple connectors on it to hook up either 2 or 3 drives if I recall correctly. If it won't plug to the drives that came with it, the drives are wrong. If it does fit, then there may not be system on that hard drive. An appropriate drive can be plugged to any of the connectors on that cable. Try to get it going with onl y one drive at a time. You might have to mess with jumper settings on the drive. The start drive is set in the control panel once you get it running on an installer disk and a system on a hard drive - on restart it will start form the one you choose. Since the cable is damaged don't spend too much time messing with getting it running until you replace that. An old Mac keyboard and mouse should be cheap and easy.

    Just my opinion, but it this was sold to you as working, someone's not telling the real story.
    Obviously its not and wasn't.

    Let us know how it goes.

  6. #6

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    Re: Help help drowning in mac land

    Yes it is a translucent blue Mac. I don't have a boot disk unfortunately.

    The history is; a friend bought it and never had the time to put it into service.. He made me an offer I couldn't refuse, but with no guarantee as he had never set it up. I have a call into him to see if I can find the original owner. The headaches are ok as the scanner itself looks like it is in great shape, came with 2 drums (one new), and also included a near perfect mounting station.

    It seems my first order oif business it to find a boot disk (on CD I assume) and a hard drive ribbon connector.

    I looked and looked and could not find how to attach the Quantum drive to the computer as the connector is smaller than the one on the motherboard and needs to be female not male as is on the MB.

    Anyone have a clue on hiw to plug in the second drive?

    Bob

  7. #7

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    Re: Help help drowning in mac land

    Bob,

    Send me a pm. I can send you a copy of a boot disk if necessary. Check the site below to determine the G3 you have, then do a search on installing a second and third drive. You can probably find a .pdf or perhaps a video that shows how this is done, which should give you some idea how to make the connections.

    http://www.everymac.com/systems/appl...wermac-g3.html

    Sandy
    For discussion and information about carbon transfer please visit the carbon group at groups.io
    [url]https://groups.io/g/carbon

  8. #8

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    Re: Help help drowning in mac land

    I spent time on the issue this morning and here is what I "think" I know at this point.

    The second drive just sat in computer. Why the owner didn't put it in bay 2 I can only guess. He had it affixed with double faced tape to the bottom of computer (tape failed). My guess is he didn't see bay 2 and thought it went in bay 3 but power cable is too short for that to happen. One end of the data ribbon is pulled free, but I think I can use the intermediate connector temporarily.

    The Quantum drive looks like scsi as the cable is terminated. It should plug into the scsi card on MB, but card has a large style connector and the data ribbon does not.

    Should I assume there is an adapter missing??

    Sandy, that site you sent me to was invaluable, big thanks.

    Now where to find adapter, scsi is not so sexy anymore. Hard to find parts. At least scsi cards for Mac Pro!

    Bob

  9. #9

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    Re: Help help drowning in mac land

    Here is the connection I think will solve the issue.

    The larger is on the scsi card, the other is on data ribbon.

    Am I on right path?

    Bob

    Add in 3/9 - I wonder if a different data ribbon would solve issue, assuming it had the proper connectors. I have no history with this generation of Macs, sorry for the simple questions...
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails image.jpg  
    Last edited by Bob McCarthy; 9-Mar-2014 at 08:39. Reason: Additional thought came to me

  10. #10
    Abuser of God's Sunlight
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    Re: Help help drowning in mac land

    lowendmac.com is good resource for this kind of thing.

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