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Code-named 'Blackbird', the PowerBook 500 series came in five models (one model, the 550c, was Japan-only). Over 600,000 were sold. Introduced in 1994, the 500 was available in the following configurations:

PowerBook 520    25MHz 68LC040, passive matrix 4-bit grayscale 9.5" display, on-board ethernet
PowerBook 520c  25MHz 68LC040, passive matrix 8-bit colour 9.5" display, on-board ethernet
PowerBook 540    33MHz 68LC040, active matrix (64 grays) grayscale 9.5" display, on-board ethernet
PowerBook 540c  33MHz 68LC040, active matrix 8 bit (16 bit @ 640x400) colour 9.5" display, on-board ethernet
PowerBook 550c* 33MHz 68LC040, active matrix 10.4" display, on-board ethernet

* Japan only.

PowerBook 540c

The PowerBook 500 was ground-breaking. No Wintel laptop offered all the features of the 500 and PC magazines raved at the availability of 16-bit colour on the 540c. The 500 also introduced a row of function keys (12 of them) across the top of the keyboard, a trackpad (tappable with software; see software listed below), and shifted the Power key to the top right-hand side of the keyboard.

The Blackbirds featured dual battery bays for six-plus hours use, optional internal modem, option PC card cage (left battery bay), 16-bit colour on the 540c, 160-320MB hard drives, 36MB RAM capacities, 16-bit (CD-quality) sound and on-board ethernet via an AAUI attachment. To show you how revolutionary this was (still is), check out a catalogue of the latest Wintel laptops: how many of them have on board ethernet as standard? Two? One? None? None was the answer I got when I recently examined as many as two dozen current Wintel releases from various manufacturers (including IBM's top of the range ThinkPads). Sure, you can add a PC card (then try making it work on a PC laptop). But the 500s, 3400, G3 and Wall Street G3 models all come with standard ethernet.

In many respects, the PB520 was the bargain of the series, given that it possessed many of the 540's enhancements at a much lower price. The 500's ethernet proved faster than the later PowerBooks 5300, 190 and 1400 (via optional PC card) as the 500's ethernet connector was 16 bits wide, versus the 8-bit connection on the 190/5300/1400. The 520 also redefined the 'low-end' PowerBook at Apple. Previously, buyers were forced to choose between low-end (and low-performance) models such as the 100 or 140 versus the 170; or the 145 versus the 160 or 180. While the price differentials between the 520 and the 540c remained significant, most of the items you wanted in a laptop (a fast CPU, large RAM capacity, ethernet, video out, SCSI disk mode) were now available in the entry-level model.
 
 

There are a large number of upgrades for the Blackbirds ? but bear in mind that many of them are no longer manufactured. Some you may find on auction at e-bay or via firms like Sun Remarketing.

CPU:
* Apple 99MHz PowerPC upgrade: provides PPC 603e. You keep your original RAM and receive a bonus of 4MB. Discontinued to my knowledge.
* Newer Technology provided 117, 167 and 183MHz PPC 603e upgrades. The 167 was most widely available. No longer manufactured, but a number of 2nd hand machines appear reasonably frequently.
* Upgrading a 520 to a 540 is also possible via a daughtercard swap. It probably doesn't make much economic sense, unless you find someone who's giving away a 540 daughter card as their 540 has been upgraded to PowerPC.
* A campaign to encourage Newer Technology to manufacture a G3 card is still in progress. Newer apparently are still quoted as saying they will produce such a card should demand warrant it. The limits of the 500's architecture (33MHz bus) will also put a ceiling on G3 performance, but this has not unduly affected G3-upgraded slow-bus models such as the PB1400 and the desktop Macintosh 6100.

Storage:

* Any 2.5" SCSI hard drive will work provided it fits the enclosure. However, large-capacity SCSI hard drives in 2.5" sizes are increasingly difficult to find. However, if you can find one, System 7.5.5 will support up to 4GB.
* The Iomega Zip, Jaz or (now defunct) Syquest drives attach easily to the 500's SCSI connector. These are not portable storage solutions (although the Zip is ? almost), but they make unlimited storage possible. Syquests should now be getting a lot cheaper as they've gone into liquidation. Iomega has bought some of their assets, so it looks like at least for now the media will available in quantity.
* With the optional PC card cage, PC card hard drives might work, although it depends on the card's spec. However, they're expensive and generally small capacity and haven't really taken off.
* An external CD ROM drive is the only way to use CDs on a 500. Buy a SCSI CD-R and burn your own. Really. Truly. You have to max out the RAM and burn at 1x or 2x, but people do it on PowerBook 180s.
 
 

PowerBook 550c with AAUI ethernet attachment

Memory:

* 4MB on the motherboard. Expandible to 36MB
* With PPC upgrade, 64MB is possible. Note largest RAM cards are 56MB.

Software utilities: (for more PowerBook software information, click the link to my PowerBook 190 page).

* EMMPathy: The PB500 uses Nickel-Metal Hydride (NiMH) 'Intelligent' batteries. However, the chip controlling charge may be flawed telling a battery it's dead when it isn't. Using EMMPathy (free from VST [www.vsttech.com]) will rejuvenate your batteries. Apple's Battery Recondition can achieve the same thing on all PowerBook batteries (but not the PB100's lead acid batteries so far as I'm aware).

* ClickPad II: Dan Wright's shareware utility permits the trackpad on your previously-handicapped PB500 or 5300 to become clickable. It's not quite the hardware equivalent but it works well. ClickPad II gives you tap, double-tap and dragging capabilities. It's all customisable using a control panel and uses very little RAM. It can also be set to have sound as well (yes, just like OS 8.5).

* RstPwrMgr. The Power Manager can become corrupted over time. This is usually indicated by a machine refusing to boot. Although this can be cured manually, RstPwrMgr automates the process, forcing a 'soft' reboot (like pressing Apple-Control-Power so the hard disk isn't damaged). Of course, if your PB is not starting up, you have to do it manually. Here's how:

1. Plug in the AC power.
2. Pop out the battery (or batteries).
3. Put the cat out [please don't email me; it's a *joke*].
4. Hold in the Reset button on the back of your PB for *at least* 45 seconds (preferably a minute). The machine will then boot. Put the battery back in. All should be cured.

* TechTool. Freeware from Micromat. Current version (1.1.8) supports Mac OS 8.5 international and 8.5.1 US. TechTool zaps your parameter RAM (PRAM), rebuilds your desktop, checks your system, checks system hardware and software configuration and cleans your floppy drive. Importantly, TechTool will also (maybe) tell you how long the PowerBook you're looking to buy has been used. Caveat: TechTool will only measure hours of use since the PRAM battery was last replaced. It's unlikely too many 500s would still be on their first battery. Nevertheless, it may give you an idea of its usage and how many hours a PB might have been left on all day, which gives you a rough guess about screen life.

System software:

The 500s originally came with System 7.1 OS 7.5, 7.5.1, 7.5.3, 7.5.5, 7.6, 7.6.1, 8.0 and 8.1 are all supported systems by Apple. These are also the only ones that will run on a 68LC040 PB500.

However, PowerPC upgraded PB's require a minimum system of 7.5.2. I don't recommend it because it's buggy as hell. Go for 7.5.3 at least, available now as a free download at ftp.apple.com
A three-disk upgrade to 7.5.5 is also available at ftp.apple.com

PPC upgraded 500s *will* run OS 8.5/8.5.1 (and I've heard reports of alpha versions of OS 8.6 running on 500s). However, you have to fool the installer to do it. Using a utility called 'Wish I Were', you can tell the installer a different Gestalt number which will identify the 500 as a 5300 or something. It works, but it's unsupported.
 

HFS+

HFS+ is a new file system introduced by Apple with OS 8.1. Essentially it uses disk space far more efficiently than the old Apple HFS. You can format hard drives, Zips, Jazs, Syquests and so on to use HFS+. On large hard drives (1GB+), the gains in space are most noticeable, particularly if you have a very large number of smaller files.

On a PB500 running OS 8.1, the Mac can use both HFS and HFS+ disks. However, the 500 *cannot* use a HFS+ disk as a startup disk. But it can read a HFS+ external or non-boot disk.

PPC upgraded 500s *can* boot from the new disk format though. A utility called Plus Maker from Alsoft will convert existing hard drives to HFS+ without reformatting. Be warned, however: although I've successfully converted several drives this way, a power blackout or something while you're formatting could destroy everything. I advise at least keeping a backup. Better still, backup, reformat as HFS+ and restore.

PC card cage:

The optional 500 series PC card cages are now difficult to find, and therefore command relatively high prices at auctions and on the 2nd hand market. However, they give your 500 greater expansion capabilities. 56K modems work well with the 500 and the choice is far greater than the Global Village modem available as an internal option. It's also possible to attach PC-card enabled CD ROM drives via the cage, but there's no reason to do it when you have built-in SCSI.

DOS/Wintel Compatibility:

As with all Macs since the IIx and SE/30, the PB500 includes a built-in SuperDrive capable of reading and writing both PC and Macintosh formatted floppy disks. PC Exchange (on OS 8.5 called File Exchange), standard with OS 7.1 and later system software, permits transparent interchange of files between Macintosh and PC software and disks. OS 7.0 users on earlier Macs can also use PC Exchange.

PC Exchange also allows the Mac to read/write/copy PC Zip, Jaz or Syquests disks, or create, read and write PC or Mac/PC hybrid CD ROMs. Note, however, that on systems prior to 8.1, PC Exchange is limited to reading 1GB of space on a PC formatted disk. Owners of earlier systems (7.5, 7.6) should have no trouble with later versions of PC EXchange on their systems though.

The PB500 series is fast enough to use older versions of SoftPC from Insignia Solutions. SoftPC is now discontinued (replaced by SoftWindows 95 and 98), but for users who need to work in DOS occasionally, SoftPC is a viable solution.

PowerPC-upgraded 500s can run SoftWindows 4.0 or SoftWindows 95, or Virtual PC 1.0 from Connectix. At least 32MB RAM is needed. I have run SoftWindows 95 and Virtual PC 1.0 (not 2.0) on low-end PPCs using Windows 3.11. I suspect Windows 95/98 would be horribly slow. DOS 6.22 is fast, while programmes on 3.11 are usable if slow. Put it this way: you'll probably think you're working on an LCII. Nevertheless, if you need to run the odd Windows app that isn't available on the Mac (I use some lighting design programmes for instance), then SoftWindows or VirtualPC may be for you.

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