On Wed, Apr 14, 2004 at 09:29:49PM -0400, Gene Ehrich wrote:
> I just acquired a Power Book 170. Hopefully it is old enough to be on topic
> here.
Not sure... I used one in 1996 and it wasn't fresh and new then, so it
should be close.
> It looks to be in great physical shape but I have a few questions.
> When I plug it in there is a mouse pointer and a small blinking diskette.
>
> 1. What do I do next? What disk is it looking for?
It's looking for an operating system.
> 2. Should there be a hard drive in this computer?
Yes... a 2.5" SCSI disk.
> 3. If there is a hard drive why should it be looking for a diskette?
The disk could be blank or it could have crashed. I have a PB170 at
home now that was free because it was dropped... the screen and case
look great. The heads on the floppy were *disloged* (the metal rod
they ride on as a rail was out of its clip) and the HD was crashed.
It works fine (once I repaired the FD), but I've never ordered a
replacement HD - they were too expensive for my tastes 5 years ago.
I use it with an external SCSI HD to dump my Apple QuickTake 150
camera.
> 4. Battery does hold a charge
That's a nice touch. Mine does not, so being tethered to an external
HD isn't so bad (though I _can_ use the PB170 with a SCSI ZIP drive
and I do have a battery backpack for _that_).
-ethan
--
Ethan Dicks, A-130-S Current South Pole Weather at 15-Apr-2004 02:50 Z
South Pole Station
PSC 468 Box 400 Temp -56.6 F (-49.2 C) Windchill -106.7 F (-77.09 C)
APO AP 96598 Wind 12.6 kts Grid 001 Barometer 684.4 mb (10460. ft)
Ethan.Dicks_at_amanda.spole.gov http://penguincentral.com/penguincentral.html
Received on Wed Apr 14 2004 - 22:01:42 BST