Power macintosh 7600 w/pc mointor

I just aquired an old powermac 7600 from someone but I can't get it to boot. I think the problem is that I have no mac monitor, so I am using a "macview lx" adapter by sony to use a pc monitor. Evidently, it has dip switches on it to trick the mac into thinking it is a mac monitor. You need to have the right dip switch settings to make it work and boot. I can't fing the documentation for the adapter anywhere, except at this one site that said you could call sony's faxback system, which claims that all of the fax lines are busy and perpetually puts you on hold. I don't even have a fax machine, anyways.

Has anyone used or know how to use these adapters?

I use the adaptors all the time. The settings are different for every converter. I would reccomend buying 1 on ebay that doesn't have any dip switches. I bought two and they are so much easier to work with.

If you are sure that you have the right settings, your computers PRam battary may be failing to make video output appear. Replace it. U can find them @ http://www.macsales.com

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Yeah, I don't know what settings I should use. It is the macview lx, and I need some kind of guide. Would you be able to link to one of those dipless adapters you mentioned?

I have bought some of these and they work well
http://cgi.ebay.com/Apple-Mac-to-VG...230566438QQcategoryZ25436QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

they only have 1 dip switch, so U are bound to get a working combonation in a jiffy.

On my powermac 9500, I use the rsetting on the right:

VGA/G3
640/480
1600/1200

Good luck and I hope this helps
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Is that definately the same connector as the one on the 7600?

It will work(see my attached picture of a back of a 7600)




BTW congrats on winning the action :headphone

one other question, what is that port called to the left of the network port? I got an extra network adapter with it that hooks into that, but I don't know what the port actually is.

It is another type of network port. It was one that some of the early power macs shipped with. It operates at the same speed as the other network port. If I remember correctly it is called AUI. No one uses it anymore, so i would just stick with using the standard ethernet port.

Yes, that port is an AAUI. You have to have a Transciever that plugs into it and then has a standard RJ-45 jack. I have 3 of them, but since your 7600 unlike the 8100's has a RJ-45 port, you do not need it. A lot of the older Macs used it like even the Quadra 700 I have. Just ignor it and use the standard jack next to it. I have a 7600 also upgraded to a G3-400. That adapter will work perfectally.

Hey, I think this computer has that same upgrade. I know its a g3, not sure what the mhz is. I don't suppose there's any possiblility of putting osx on it. I doubt it since I read that it doesn't support the upgrade cards.

aeiou said:

Hey, I think this computer has that same upgrade. I know its a g3, not sure what the mhz is. I don't suppose there's any possiblility of putting osx on it. I doubt it since I read that it doesn't support the upgrade cards.

Click to expand...

If you load in XPostfacto, you can install OSX on that system. Just make sure there is enough RAM and HDD space. I have Jaguar on my 7600 with XPostFacto and it works well but is a bit on the slow side. The Bus and drives and Video is not very fast and even though mine has a G3-400, my stock 300Mhz G3 B&W blows it away in speed, but it's still useable. I don't know if you can install Panther or not but for sure Jaguar works. XPostFacto is free last time I checked. I have 160Megs RAM and a 4Gig SCSI HDD.

sweet. This one has 384MB(or somewhere in there) of ram, so that should be fine. Its only a 1.2GB drive, but I was planning on getting somthing like a 18GB one anyways.

hmmm... The site says that tiger is supported, but may be buggy... I'm wondering weather I should go for that or just get panther or jaguar instead. I guess I will need to get os9, too, but ohh well...

Well, I think I just answered my own question- it looks like all copies of tiger are dvd's. Is that true? If so, I'll probably just get panther as I don't thingk its worth it to get a dvd drive just to install tiger especially since it may not work quite right.

Panter would be more stable for your mac anyway.(and yes, the 7600 has a CDrom drive,not DVD).

Just a note: Replace your hard drive before you upgrade to OSX. OS X needs at least 1.5gb hard disk space.

Lastly, take note that your floppy drive will not work after you install X.

Don't really care about the floppy, and yeah, I was planning on upgrading the hdd.

Hmmm odd. I found some documentation for the original vga adapter I have (on the back of the adapter, oddly enough ). I set it to settings that it said should work, but I still get no signal. I think os 7 or 8 should be installed on this drive, but it still doesn't seem to be working. I wonder if this adapter only works with sony monitors or very few others... I guess I will wait for th new adapter (hopefully it will be here tomorrow). I hope this still works. My brother said that the guy he got it from had it running when he picked up, but I haven't seen it. He also said that he was probably using a mac monitor.

Ok, I think this is progress.... I took the case apart further and basically just took out and replaced the battery, now when you turn it on it makes the standard mac sound where it didn't before, but still no video. I'm pretty sure I'm using the right settings, but again, maybe we will have to wait untill the new adapter comes.

hmmm. sounds like your computer may be the problem now. It could be the motherboard may be toast.(i hope it isn't). If you used the correct settings, it should produce an image.(the new adaptor should help). Also reset the PRam. I think the keys you push are Command,Option PR.(someone please correct me if i'm wrong.) This resets the system and could possibly help you fix your problem.


Good Luck!

Wouldn't taking out the battery do the same thing?

Could it possibly be wrong settings on the upgrade card? There seem to be dials on the back, presumably to adjust bus speed and other things. It says that the model is a Mactell PN900.411 rev.4