gizmobuster said:
I just acquired a Powerbook Duo 230 and I don't know what to do with it.
I've had quite a few Duos (including a 230) and I am currently using a Duo 2300c as a school system. They are very nice systems.
As for what to do with it... that depends on a number of factors. First being RAM and hard drive space... When I had my 230, it had 12 MB of RAM and a 120 MB hard drive, which was enough for most of the things I needed it for. These days, I would suggest maxing it out to 32 MB (
this is a good place for RAM).
As for a power supply, they can be found on ebay, and even one from a 3400 would work (
here is one place to look).
I would highly suggest getting a dock. In your case any dock should work because it is a grayscale version (the color versions are thicker and needed a different dock lid). This would give you the floppy drive you need and you would also have ethernet and two Nubus slots.
The next question would be software. That system should handle up to System 7.5.5 without issue (with enough RAM) and that is a free download from Apple (we had a
on this for a PowerBook 170).
Other software can be found at [url=http://hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/HyperArchive.html]MIT's Info-Mac HyperArchive. I would also suggest
Nisus Writer 4.1.6 (free). Also ClarisWorks 4.0 worked great on that system (ebay).
Other options include upgrading to a 280 logic board (68LC040 at 33 MHz) or a 2300 logic board (PowerPC 603e at 100 MHz), but as you said this is a really nice example, it might be better to keep it in stock condition.
A nice site for Duo info is
PowerBookDuo.com.
Anyways, best of luck with your new system. Duos are great little machines!
