What to do with a J700?

[Vard]

OK....need some advice.

A buddy of mine just gave me an old Umax SuperMac J700. What I recieved reads as follows:

J700
233 Mhz 604e
208 MB ram
Keyboard
Mouse
SCSI Zip 100 drive

No monitor, but not really a prob...I have my own.

So what should I do with it? It's got 9.1 installed, but the installation was very minimal and I am getting errors on startup constantly. I went to Everymac.com to check out the original system specs. It says it can't take up to 8.1, or rather, that's all that is supported. Anyway, I want to put my copy of 9.2 that is not being used on it. But it keeps telling it can't install on that system. Is there something I need to do first?

I have only been on a Mac for about 10 months, and 99% of that time in OS X, so using 9 is very new.

I have thought about upgrading the whole system.
20 gig HDD
1 gig of ram
and apparently there is a 800 Mhz G4 upgrade card for it!

What do you think? That would blow the doors off a dedicated OS 9 system, no? I am thinking of keeping it OS 9 for a couple of reasons...

My bro wants to record music...Protools free is, of course, free....GOOD! If I go this route, I may not need to upgrade anything beyond the harddrive for recording.

Just want some ideas for the Mac community....is it worth upgrading anything, or have I inherited a paperwieght?

One other thing...Is there a way to network my G4 and the J700 together? I am pretty sure the Umax has an NIC, but where would I find the settings to get these two computers on the same network?

 

[Cheryl]

You do not have a paper weight.

There is 16 MB of ram on the motherboard. You can max it out at 1040 MB with 168 pin 5v EDO or FPM DIMMS with minimum speed of 70ns. You have 8 slots.

The hard drive that came with it is 2.1 GB. And you have 4 PCI slots.

While OS 8.1 is the latest OS that is supported, you should be able to install OS 9.1. I believe that 9.2 is looking for the G3 or G4 processor.
To stop those errors what you need to do:

Check the hard drive and see if there is any program worth keeping. Save them to a Zip disk. Trash all the ones that you do not want. Check the amount of drive space available after you have trashed and emptied the trash. You should have enough to do a clean install of OS 9. Start up the computer with the CD holding down the C key when you insert the CD, select restart.
Now go to the Utility folder and run Disk First Aide. Let it repair any problems. Go to the OS 9 install and at the second install screen there is an option button. Click on that and select Clean Install. This will put a new fresh System folder on your hard drive and label the old one Previous system folder. When it is done, you must restart the computer, then you can trash the Previous system folder.
You can download Stuffit Expander and the Zip driver. Then install your applications.

To network the computer, you need to turn on File Sharing and AppleTalk. You will also need to get Farrallon's serial to Ethernet adaptor, Cat 5 Ethernet Cables, and an Ethernet Hub. When you get to that point, file sharing on both machines must be on, then you'll be able to share printer and files.

Do you have a Modem on it? If it does, it came with a 33.6K modem. You might want to upgrade that.

 

[Vard]

Thanks Cheryl....

Yeah, a bit more research after I sent this thread led me to see that 9.1 is the newest OS that will go on there. So I have to get a copy.

I am pretty stoked about this. I think a bit of ram jump and a new harddrive and I'll be doing quite well.

The J700 has an ethernet, thinking back now...it was used as a file server before beign retired....so, I should be able to get it and my G4 working together. I have a hub set up and already am pretty familiar with OS X's intenet sharing.

Woohoo!

Gotta get that HDD now.

Later,
Eddie