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shifuimam · Aug 9, 2009, 10:17 AM

I recently picked up a PB G3 on eBay for some stuff I want to try out with my Macintosh Classic II.

I don't know much about these things, and I've got a couple specific questions that are failing my awesome Google-fu.

I know that the G3 PowerBook line supported CPU upgrades. Can Pismo or Lombard upgrade cards work in a Wallstreet, or am I limited to Wallstreet-specific cards?

Do expansion bay modules for the Pismo or Lombard models work in the Wallstreet? I saw something on xlr8yourmac that makes me think otherwise, but I wanted to make sure.

What's the real RAM maximum? Apple says 192MB, but my experience with Macs is that they tend to be extremely conservative on that particular specification.

macfix · Aug 9, 2009, 12:14 PM

I don't believe the pismo/lombard upgrade cards are compatible with a wallstreet.
The expansion bay modules for pismo/lombard do not fit the wallstreet.

amazing · Aug 9, 2009, 01:07 PM

Mactracker says the RAM can go to 512

SSharon · Aug 11, 2009, 07:12 PM

If memory serves me lexapro has dealt with G3 upgrade cards in the past. Maybe PM him and see what he knows.

ickystay · Aug 25, 2009, 04:55 PM

No, you can't use a Pismp/Lombard cpu in a Wallstreet. In fact, you can't use a Pismo cpu in a Lombard.

I lived on a Wallstreet for a long time. It broke my heart when peripheral device and software advances made me have to finally ditch OS8.6 and my trusty Wallstreet.

Max out the ram. Low profile 256 under and normal size 256 on top.

There are two pci card slots. I had a USB card that really made life easier. I guess you could get an airport card for the other? I was on dial up and never tried.

Watch ebay for Wallstreet processors. I started with a 233, then found a 300 card for cheap. When it died, I went back to 233 and it wasn't a big deal.

RAM was the very best upgrade for my Wallstreet. Of course, there may have been a third party G4 card that was too expensive for me to ever try out.

shifuimam · Aug 25, 2009, 05:52 PM

I definitely can't find ANY upgrade cards above 266MHz right now. I bought some parts from a guy on eBay a couple weeks ago; he was very nice and said he'd let me know if he acquired any Wallstreet CPU upgrades. I do believe there was a G4 upgrade card for this at some point, but I don't think OS X would be particularly useful on something this old.

Right now, I'm using a Cisco Aironet 350 PC card for wireless networking (Airport cards won't fit in standard PCMCIA slots; thanks, Apple!) and a PCMCIA-to-CF adapter with a 256MB CF card as a quick way to transfer files. I also picked up a floppy module from the aforementioned eBay seller for around $6.

I'm definitely going to upgrade the RAM; just haven't gotten around to it. It came with like 192MB installed. Fortunately, I had a couple 128 Crucial DIMMs laying around, so it's running at 256MB at the moment. I'll bump it up to 512MB soon.

I'm liking OS 9 well enough, although it has some frustrations. The official AIM client has inexplicably quit working; attempting to run it causes the entire machine to completely freeze up. It also doesn't always come out of standby without shitting itself. I'm hoping the Classilla project will come up with a newer version of the Mozilla engine soon, too...

ickystay · Aug 25, 2009, 07:03 PM

Originally Posted by shifuimam

... and a PCMCIA-to-CF adapter with a 256MB CF card as a quick way to transfer files.

Cool! I depended on an external CD burner for moving files off the old beast. A scsi cable can really come in handy for that and for old scanners and external drives.