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OS 9 and the Apple 56K Modem

E

emtrey

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 9, 2006
41
0
I've got an old school problem I'm trying to find a solution to. Without delving too far into the "whys," the problem is that the internal 56K modem on my old iMac G3 has essentially died. The only external dial-up modems I own are a 28.8K SCSI one and an old Apple 56K USB modem that I picked up with an MBP in 2006.

The hitch is that the iMac is running OS 9.0.4 and can't recognize the USB modem (and I'm assuming, after a little searching, that no official OS 9 drivers ever existed for it). Is there any workaround that would let the iMac recognize the USB modem?

Appreciate the help!
 
G

goMac

Contributor
Apr 15, 2004
7,662
1,694
I thought I remember a lot of the work the Apple USB Modem normally does being shoveled off into software, making it not as compatible as other USB modems.

There probably is not a way to make it work.
 
Soba

Soba

macrumors 6502
May 28, 2003
450
700
Rochester, NY
You said you have another modem that's SCSI, but that's almost certainly a serial modem. Perhaps a USB to serial converter is an option? Many of these worked in OS9, I believe.
 
S

SuperPolli

macrumors regular
Apr 20, 2013
111
0
New Jersey
Try OS X

Go out and grab a copy of Mac OS X 10.3 Panther I would think. Even a PPC version of OS X is better than OS 9. I've had about 3 hours of experience working with Mac OS 9 and I didn't like it. You can find Panther on eBay or Amazon probably. Drivers for Mac OS 9 for your specific issue probably never existed.
 
Intell

Intell

macrumors P6
Jan 24, 2010
18,955
509
Inside
SuperPolli said:
Go out and grab a copy of Mac OS X 10.3 Panther I would think. Even a PPC version of OS X is better than OS 9. I've had about 3 hours of experience working with Mac OS 9 and I didn't like it. You can find Panther on eBay or Amazon probably. Drivers for Mac OS 9 for your specific issue probably never existed.
Click to expand...

The Apple USB 56K modem only works with 10.4.4 or newer. I do not believe it works with PowerPC Macs at all, but I've never tried it.
 
Lil Chillbil

Lil Chillbil

macrumors 65816
Jan 30, 2012
1,322
99
California
I have never had to connect a computer over 56k, maybe once around 2007 when I was trying to get a pentium II to play quake II online.


but may I ask why ?
 
S

SuperPolli

macrumors regular
Apr 20, 2013
111
0
New Jersey
Ah!

Intell said:
The Apple USB 56K modem only works with 10.4.4 or newer. I do not believe it works with PowerPC Macs at all, but I've never tried it.
Click to expand...

Ah. I didn't know that was the case. Going on the assumption that that is the situation I really have no idea how to make this work.
 
S

SuperPolli

macrumors regular
Apr 20, 2013
111
0
New Jersey
That Made No Sense At All

Intell said:
The Apple USB 56K modem only works with 10.4.4 or newer. I do not believe it works with PowerPC Macs at all, but I've never tried it.
Click to expand...

Just letting you know that made no sense. If it only works with 10.4.4 or newer as you say, then it must work with PowerPC Macs because 10.4.4 only ran on PPC Macs, 10.4.4 never ran on Intel Macs. Mac OS X 10.5 was the last OS to use PPC and also the first to use Intel.
 
G

goMac

Contributor
Apr 15, 2004
7,662
1,694
SuperPolli said:
Just letting you know that made no sense. If it only works with 10.4.4 or newer as you say, then it must work with PowerPC Macs because 10.4.4 only ran on PPC Macs, 10.4.4 never ran on Intel Macs. Mac OS X 10.5 was the last OS to use PPC and also the first to use Intel.
Click to expand...

Not necessarily. It would requite a driver that could be Intel only. Not all the drivers in 10.4.4 were compiled for both PowerPC and Intel.
 
Soba

Soba

macrumors 6502
May 28, 2003
450
700
Rochester, NY
SuperPolli said:
Just letting you know that made no sense. If it only works with 10.4.4 or newer as you say, then it must work with PowerPC Macs because 10.4.4 only ran on PPC Macs, 10.4.4 never ran on Intel Macs. Mac OS X 10.5 was the last OS to use PPC and also the first to use Intel.
Click to expand...

10.4.4 ran on Intel and PowerPC Macs. The Intel iMacs introduced in early 2006 ran 10.4.4, and the Intel Mac minis that followed shortly thereafter ran 10.4.5. Tiger was not available at retail in a universal or Intel-only version, as all the retail discs were PowerPC-only, but every Mac model had made the transition to Intel long before Leopard shipped in August 2007, so of course they were all running some version of Tiger.

For the record, the Apple USB modem runs on 10.4.3 later on Intel Macs and 10.4.2 or later on PowerPC Macs. So, it will only run on Tiger, Leopard, or Snow Leopard, as support was dropped with Lion. You can find the system requirements here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4454#

The OP will need to find another solution, it seems. An old-school serial modem with a USB converter may work, or perhaps another USB modem with OS 9 drivers is an option.
 
Intell

Intell

macrumors P6
Jan 24, 2010
18,955
509
Inside
SuperPolli said:
Just letting you know that made no sense. If it only works with 10.4.4 or newer as you say, then it must work with PowerPC Macs because 10.4.4 only ran on PPC Macs, 10.4.4 never ran on Intel Macs. Mac OS X 10.5 was the last OS to use PPC and also the first to use Intel.
Click to expand...

Just letting you know, it does make complete sense to those who know about the inner workings of OS X. Mainly that Leopard has some single architecture extensions. The USB Apple 56Kb modem may be one of those. While 10.4.4 never ran on retail Macs, it did come on the Intell Developer Transition kit. Thus detailing the minimum requirement of 10.4.4. 10.5 was not the first to run on Intell Macs. Leopard came out in late 2007. Almost 1.5 years after Intell based Macs were released to the general public.
 
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