Resurrecting a Powerbook 520c

[Emmilicious]

Hello,

I've just unearthed my husband's old Powerbook 520c and am wondering to what uses I can put it. We are Mac users since 1986. I'm the fix it person in the house.

I was thinking about buying an eeePC to keep in my car and use while I am handing out while our daughter rides her horse-- but seeing this machine made me wonder if perhaps I could do something to allow me to use it instead of buying an Asus.

It has the pre-USB ports for everything. Can I convert them? Can I hook this up to the home network? Is there anyway it can be hacked to allow for wireless use?

I'm excited-- I love the old interface and think this could be a great place to keep my writing. But how to transfer files? Maybe keep them online at Google docs?

Any ideas?

I feel like I am starting an adventure and would greatly appreciate some tips.

Thanks,

Emine Fine

[madmann]

You should head over to info-macs sister site

system7today

look under the powerbook section. Their is a lot of info for these old machines.

most of the posts deal with the pb 1400 but the 520C is also found. I would say system 7.6.1 would run the best for this old powerbook

[Turboladdade]

If you're looking for something to simply type on or use to keep track of records or notes, the 520 would be fine. However if you're thinking internet and stuff, you'll be very disappointed in the performance of the 520.

Yes, you can connect it to a home network. The slim port on the back that almost resembles a modern day HDMI port is an AAUI port - Apple's old skool universal ethernet port. You need an inexpensive transceiver for it - like this one to connect to a modern RJ-45 ethernet network.

No, you cannot "convert" any of the ports to USB - you'll have to find older peripherals designed to work with those older Mac ports - SCSI, ADB, Mac Serial, etc... thankfully such old devices are usually cheap to come by on eBay or Craig's list.