Macintosh 6290cd

10/11/24 - I did this project in 2023, so this is a recap:

I found this little mac on Facebook market place for $140. It powered on and worked okay, but was very slow. 

These Performa series are fairly simple as the motherboard slides out from the rear.

I order two sticks of 32MB RAM from eBay, maxing the system out at 64MB.

The clock battery was bad and I had to set the time every boot.

This type of battery is difficult and expensive to find, so I opted for a 3 AA battery compartment. 

I cut the connector from the old clock battery and connected it to the new battery compartment.

Works great and is far cheaper and easier to replace.

I also removed the 28.8k dial-up modem. This computer has a modem serial port, however, if the internal modem is installed, this port is disabled. Removing it, grants access to the serial modem port. I have a use for the modem serial port.

Next I opted to change the slow 1.2 GB IDE Hard drive. IDE SSDs are hard to come by, so I used a Compact flash to IDE adaptor. 

CF Cards natively support IDE so this is pretty much a passive set up. I did have to buy a male to male IDE adapter as the CF adapter and IDE cable are both female connections.

Next was a matter of installing the software. I went with OS 7.6.3. Big shout out to Macintoshrepository.org for all the required software and answering my questions.

Being from 1996, this computer lacks proper pci ports and USB. There is a Modem Port in the rear. as mentioned before, I did have to remove the internal dial up modem in order for this port to work. Strange, right? lol

To get this machine connected to wifi, I purchased a RS232 WiRSa v2 Serial modem from RetroDisks. I also had to purchase a DB 9 pin to DIN 8 Pin RS232 serial cable.

Instructions were pretty straight forward. Using Zterm I was able to set up the WiRSa Modem up to connect to my home wifi.

Using Zterm and the WiRSa Modem, I am able to connect to BBS! I haven't quite figured out how to use it as a dial-up or broadband modem just yet. I am not familiar with Mac systems enough