page
4
The
Ultimate PowerBook 1400 Upgrade guide (also the PB 2400 & 3400)
Reach out and
touch someone – cont'd.
As you may have noticed,
Modem PC Cards have virtually vanished from stores, even for PC notebooks.
There still are 10/100 Ethernet PC Cards available, but finding a Mac
model is pretty tough too.
Click
on pictures for enlargements
Once again,
eBay and other Mac used hardware sites to the rescue. I easily found
late model Viking Components 56K PC Card Modems on eBay for $45. Others
that are good choices, but make sure that they include drivers and the
correct dongle, are Global Village and 3Com. Both of these brands frequently
were also combination 56K modem/10baseT Ethernet PC Cards. Searching
eBay, I found these also in the $30 to $70 range. My favorite is the
Global Village 56K Modem/Ethernet Combo PC Card which uses less power
and is one less card to carry around.
This
Asante 10BaseT card is still available new
There were also individual 10baseT or 10/100 Ethernet only PC Cards. I found a used Dayna CommuniCard 10BaseT for $ 21.00 on eBay and a Farallon brand for $28.00. If you can find a used combo card, it will save you battery life and is worth paying more.
Not many existing
PB 1400 owners realize that their little pet is capable of going wireless!
There is a catch though and that is you must use an 802.11b PC Card
(the 1400 – 2400 – 3400 do not support CardBus cards) and
you must use a card that has it’s own Wi-Fi software package.
No matter which version of OS you run, you can not install Apple Airport
Network software, believe me I’ve tried 6 ways to Sunday to trick
the installer to install it.
Here are the only choices
you have and all but one are used or NOS (New Old Stock) left-overs that
can easily be found on many hardware trading sites. Any of the old Lucent/Agere
ORiNOCO Silver/Gold/Turbo 802.11b PC Cards. The Wavelan PC Cards, Cabletron
branded cards (which were made by Lucent) and Dell even had a private
labeled version of the ORiNOCO Gold cards called “TrueMobile”
1150 Series. I bought one of the Dell cards on eBay for only $32, plus
$7 shipping and used the ORiNOCO 7.2 Communications Application for OS
8.6/9.1 to run it. Not a single problemo!
You may even luck out and find the rare Farallon Skyline II 802.11b PC Cards (also the same looking early D-Link PC Cards) which had the odd-looking antenna section (so did D-Links PC version, D-Link made them for Farallon).
If you need to go mobile with your PB1400 or 3400, there were many Auto DC Adapters made for Apple PowerBooks, some are even built for use on commercial aircraft. I found a Lind Electronics 24VDC auto adapter that not only works with my PB1400, but also my favorite G3 Wallstreet PowerBook.
Going in deep,
cover me –
OK, I saved the best, most costly and possibly the least rational upgrade
to last. More Power, Sunday at beautiful US 30 Dragstrip! Well you won’t
really turn the PB1400 or any late model PowerBook into a monster hotrod,
but if you care little about the cost and you enjoy using your old friend,
it then might make some sense.
Can you justify $250
to $300 to bump up your Motorola 603e RISC powered PowerBook to a G3 466Mhz?
Only you can answer that. Certainly a lower powered 112Mhz or 133Mhz 1400c
model is easier to justify than a perfectly acceptable 603e 166Mhz 1400c
model. I would say you’re nuts to spend the money on a 1400cs model.
There were many
companies making G3 kits of various speeds available for the 1400 and
3400 models. NewerTech’s NuPower, Vimage Vpower, and Sonnet Technology’s
Crescendo™ PB/G3 were the prominent G3 upgrade kits for the 1400,
2400 and 3400 PowerBooks. They ranged from 233Mhz to 466Mhz and cost as
much as $800 when they first appeared. Of the companies, only Sonnet is
still making their G3 kit, which retails for $300.
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