5260/120 Mactintosh Performa

I have used Windows PC based computers since the beginning. I have heard great praise about macs in the past...they're terrific mac owners say, better then PCs. Now I have one (5260/120) that someone gave me when they were moving. They said it worked perfectly but didn't want to take it. Now I have it all hooked up and cannot get it turned on. Where is the powerswitch? Is it the switch on the back of the computer? This really seems foolish to me. The most simplest of procedures and they have seemed to confuse the situation right from the get-go. I'm not impressed. Also there is 4 slots on the front of the computer. One is for a cdrom and the other a floppy but only the cd has a button underneath it. How do you eject the floppy once you put it in the computer? "Being Sarcastic".........Wow!! Now I see why everyone ran out and bought mac computers instead of Window PC based computers!!!! How do you turn on this computer?

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Dimocules said:

"Being Sarcastic".........Wow!! Now I see why everyone ran out and bought mac computers instead of Window PC based computers!!!! How do you turn on this computer?

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Speaking of sarcasm, you do know that the Mac you're talking about is pretty old, in computer ages I would even say pre-historic?

Back in that time, Macs were switched on with a key on the keyboard. That key has a triangle on it.

But, as I said, this is an old computer, not even closely comparable to an actual Mac or PC.

I would hesitate to give him a Mac of this vintage. It will not run the "Latest and Greatest" and will be fairly slow at everything else. If he is coming from the PC world, even from a bad experience, this will simply put him off to Macs right away. Find a nice used G3 or G4 Mac and start him there.

To your other question, the floppy was ejected by dragging the floppy icon on the Mac desktop to the trash and the disc would eject. The pinhole by the floppy drive is simply for emergency manually ejecting the disc if it got stuck. The CD is ejected the same way. The button is there, but it will not eject as long as it is mounted on the Macs desktop.

That Mac you were given is an Antique. It will not run any modern Mac OS nor software. Do not judge a Mac by that old Mac. It's like me going out and getting some Pentium 75 and loading windows 3.11 and saying see, windows Reeks. Both Baggss and Avalon gave you great advice.

Hi guys
Well I got the old mac up and running and of course it isn't up to todays standards but that's the fun in getting an antique computer. Luckily I was given 15 cdroms to use with it. I have a Pentium 100 as well so I'm not going from my P4 3000 to do any comparisions. I am just interested in all computers. I just have never owned a mac before but from looking at this mac I would not take one computer mac or pc over the other. It fine with me. People use macs and they use PCs. I do have a question for you. I curious to why they don't have onscreen help. Is there help built into the mac? Like at the top menu? When I start it up it says the clock is wrong and to reset it but how do I do this. On pc I just double click it and it opens for resetting but this one just switches over to the day and year which is set to something like 1956 so how do I do that as well?
Thanks you guys have been good........I had to put the sarcasm in before...it's my nature..... :spook:

If the Date is reverting to 1956, the PRAM Battery is dead. You can get a new one at Radio Shack and lots of people sell them on Ebay.

You click on the Apple and open Control Panels and there should be a Date and Time control Panel to set it.

Dimocules said:

I do have a question for you. I curious to why they don't have onscreen help. Is there help built into the mac? Like at the top menu?

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There is. There should be a "help" key on the keyboard. Alternatively, there should be a "Help" menu, which might actually say "Help," or it might be an icon that looks like a ?.

If the Help system doesn't work, then someone probably deleted it to save space.

I suspect this thing is running something old as far as the OS goes, so HELP might be a bit sketchy.

What OS IS it running? Anything past 8.5 or 8.6 would run fairly slow at best.

I just have never owned a mac before but from looking at this mac I would not take one computer mac or pc over the other.

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That's because they're both crap!

Hunt for an old OS 8 user guide on ebay or something, or go into a shop and try a new Mac. That'll make you want to throw your computer from 1993 or whatever in the bin

You can find out some info about your Performa if you click here .

This computer is an antique of sorts. You could dabble in the world of Macs using it. The only thing is that the world of Macs has entered a totally new realm since then.

If you don't have the uppermost Mac OS supported you should try and find it on eBay or somewhere....I was lucky enough to find the install disc for Mac OS 8.6 sitting on the shelf at the local 2nd hand shop for a few dollars, when I needed it for my old Mac 5500/225 PowerPC.

I remember I wanted a Mac Performa when I was in 7th grade (1994)! Apple aired an infomercial about the computers and this young kid (about my age at the time) using his Performa at home and at school, using a Zip drive to transfer his files between the computers. I was hooked... lol