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The Productive Mac

New Homes for 3 WallStreet PowerBooks

- 2006.04.07

A few days ago I had an opportunity to get some WallStreet PowerBooks. They were from one of my local suppliers, and he was offering me a whole box of them and a bunch of parts for one price.

I thought about it for a while, then decided, sure, why not. I'd never owned a WallStreet before, and I thought it would be really cool to have one. With all that expandability, the cool looking case, and a large screen, what's not to like?

So I called him back up and said, "Bring them on over." A few hours later they were at my house, and I was pleasantly surprised with what I found in the box. There were three WallStreets: one 250 MHz model and two 233 MHz models.

There was also a ton of extra parts: a bunch of CD-ROM drives, a DVD-ROM drive, some floppy drives, extra power adapters, batteries, extra screens, sticks of RAM, and a whole lot of extra case parts.

PowerBook G3 Series The first 'Book I pulled out was the 250 MHz model. When I opened the screen, it immediately fell back down. Darn, the hinges must be worn out. I was glad I had all those extra parts - I found a new pair of hinges in the box. So I removed the display, took it apart, and replaced them. It was good as new.

Then I powered it up for the first time. It was running OS 8.6 and it had 64 MB of RAM. Thinking I would probably keep this machine, I went ahead and did some upgrading. I first upgraded the RAM to 128 MB, then did a clean reformat and install of OS 9.2.2. I'd like to upgrade the RAM eventually and possibly install OS X to see how it runs, but for right now it's a nice speedy little machine running OS 9 that's great for Internet usage and word processing. In fact, I'm typing this on it right now.

After messing around with the first unit for a few hours, I decided I'd move on to the next WallStreet. When I opened this one up, the hinges were still nice and tight. I'm glad, because it saved me some work. This unit was a 233 MHz model with 32 MB of RAM. I went ahead and put in another 32 MB stick, bumping it up to 64 MB. I also installed OS 9.2.2. While I can't run as many applications at the same time as I can the other one, it's still plenty fast and works fine running the Classic OS.

There's a lady from our Mac user's group, MacCORE, who's been asking me about a portable computer for a long time. She was running on a Beige G3 minitower for a while, until I upgraded her to a Rev B iMac. She still wants a laptop computer, and this would be the perfect machine for her. I'll offer it to her at the next meeting.

While a haven't installed many applications on the one I want to keep yet, I have found myself using it more than my TiBook. It's quite a great machine for basic tasks, and I think it will get a lot of use in the future and will probably be a machine I'll hold on to.

If you ever get an opportunity to get a WallStreet cheaply, I urge you to do so. The WallStreet is a remarkably good laptop (with the Classic Mac OS) that I'm sure you won't be disappointed with.

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Mac of the Day: 17" iMac G4/800 MHz, July 2002 - The iMac 'grows up' with a 17" 1440 x 900 display.
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November 8 in LEM history: 99: OS 9: I think I like it - 01: The simplified Mac life - Soured on Windows - Flea market Mac - 02: Little room for improvement in new 'Books - Combo drive upgrade for iceBooks - 04: Re-Porter - 05: Fix the old iMac or buy a Mac mini? - Apple's Copland project - 06: MacBook Core 2 - MacBook value equation - Cheap is as cheap does - 07: Problems with Classic mode in Tiger - The G4 Power Mac that won't run Leopard

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Best 15" MacBook Pro Deals, 11.02. Used 2.0 GHz, $800; 2.2, $900; 2.4, $1,000; refurb 2.53, $1,449; 2.66, $1,699; 2.8, $1,949; 3.06, $2,169; new 2.53, $1,579; 2.66, $1,799; more.
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