First post, by ragefury32
Okay, so the purpose of this thread is to discuss some of the tools that can be used to potentially make your life easier working with legacy laptops/thin clients, and it can potentially be of use for desktops.
So, here's a few that I've used on recent projects that made my life a little easier:
1. USB2 dual-input Y-Cable
Used on repairing/rebuilding an Aluminum Powerbook G4/15.
What was the issue?
When I got my PBG4/15, the DVD/CDRW combo drive was not working, and as part of an SSD swap, I have to reinstall MacOS X Tiger. Unfortunately, the USB2 ports on the Powerbook G4 series did not put out enough power (~400mA) to run my LG slimline external DVD burner.
How did this device solve the problem?
This is essentially a Y-Cable that lets you use one USB plug (colored black) as the data plug, and the other plug (colored red) as a power plug, and it all terminated on a MiniUSB port, which went into the DVD burner (with a copy of the MacOS Tiger install DL-DVD). The red plug went into a power bank I have on hand, the black went to one of the USB ports, and the drive was detected/functioned just fine.
2. JMicron JM20330 based mSATA to IDE adapter, 9.5mm 2.5" HDD enclosure sized.
Used on multiple recent legacy hardware projects, including the PBG4, the Thinkpad T21, the Latitude C600, and others.
What was the issue?
So, several things. I am not a fan of mechanical drives - especially not ones that left the factory almost 20 years ago on a standard that has all but become extinct. After years of being on PCIe based SSDs, going back to HDDs are just so...icky. While long term viability of SSDs are...still a matter of debate, they are solid state, non mechanical devices. When you consider that a 128GB mSATA SSD can be had for about 20 USD, even spending another 15 on an enclosure is not terrible, considering that you'll be getting lower latency access, usually better throughput in most scenarios and all that.
How did this device solve the problem?
Slap a cheap mSATA SSD on, format it to about 1/3 to half the capacity (so not having TRIM Isn't a big deal), and watch boot times decrease by half. Granted that the device is likely hamper by the throughput on the IDE controller, so you'll never get the full SATA speed of the SSD drive, but at least you'll still be getting some improvements
3. AKE BC168 USB2 to Cardbus adapter (based on an NEC chipset)
Used on multiple recent legacy hardware projects, including the Pismo Powerbook the Thinkpad T21, and the Latitude C600.
What was the issue?
Most of the legacy machines in my stable hail from ~1999-2000, and as such, either they don't have USB ports, or they have USB1.1 ports (USB2 isn't a thing until 2002-2003). Some of these hardware have only 1 USB port, making it difficult to plug more than a single device in. If you need to transfer files you'll need to do it on USB 1.1 speeds (12Mbps) or use Ethernet (if it's built-in...often times it's not). Considering that most of my modern hardware have 5GBps USB3.0 ports and flash drives that can copy at nearly native SATA speeds, stepping down to something that is 1/416 of that just seem...really archaic, while the 400Mbps transfer rate of USB2 (slightly more than 1/12) is a more acceptable preposition.
How did this device solve the problem?
It ran on an NEC chipset, so drivers exist in Win98SE - Win98SE in DOS mode will work just fine for 99.99% of the oldschool games out there. The USB ports (2 of them) are recessed onto the Cardbus slot so the card doesn't stick out like an ugly sore thumb. There is also a power lead that will allow you to inject 500mW (through an external source) onto the card so you can power stuff like external USB hard drives or optical drives. Oh yeah, I should mention that it is natively supported in MacO SX Panther, TIger and Leopard on the PowerPC machines with Cardbus ports (any Powerbook G3 and Titanium PowerBook G4s) so you can download old-school games on a thumb drive in modern hardware (I use the Sandisk Cruzer fit series) and then transfer it to a machine with the Cardbus-to-USB2 adapter installed.
4. PQi Air Pen Express
Used to bypass the need to support old legacy Wifi or run excessive amounts of ethernet cable around the house.
What was the issue?
Once again, this is an issue based on old hardware. Either my laptops do not have native embedded wifi cards (Latitude C600, Thinkpad T21) or it uses old Wifi standards that are either slow, or insecure (in the case of 802.11b+WEP, both). Those hardware do have 10/100 MBit ethernet built-in for the most part.
How did this device solve the problem?
The PQi Air Pen can run off the USB port using about 2-400mA (power it using an external USB power source, or a power bank). What it is meant to do is take the network from the Ethernet and create a small NATed Wireless access point (802.11n 1x1 on 2.4Ghz band, so 150Mbps max) so you can have wifi in your hotel room while travelling. What it can also do is work as a base station, associating wirelessly with an 802.11n/ac access point, and NATing the traffic back to the ethernet port, creating a wireless bridge . So you could plug one end of the Air pen to your USB port, one end to your ethernet port, and as long as you configure the Air Pen correctly through its embedded web interface, you can use it to access your wireless network through it (and the internet). It works in a pinch if you need to, say, access an older SMB1 fileshare on your network, or hit oldschool sites on an outdated browser to grab software. (
...to be continued.)
