I got a Power Mac "Performa" 5500/275 but a few problems.

[laserspot1]

Hello,

I recently got one of these in almost new condition with everyting $40 total (remote control audio/video slots, keyboard( however the screen wasn't showing up, even though it could turn on. When i gave it to the repair store I saw the screen show up for a bit and then i left. (that's about all) when i heard back i was told that that the hard drive is dead and when i tested it the screen wasn't working

I eventually gave it to another place to fix. these are both mac supported places. Got a week till i hear from them

What should I do if the hard drive doesn't work? where can i get one from? that has system 8.1 to 9?

Is it worth keeping/ searching for? Pardon my ignorance but i have no clue what the tv connection is used for? I should do more research but it would be helpful if someone knows a bit about it this performa. This might be the directors edition. I know performas are used for education and you can watch tv on it. Would appreciate some more info.

Any uniques softwares/program or games to own/run from this era with this comp?

 

[Rodus]

Unless you are a hardcore fanatic/collector then it's not worth putting any money into this (basically worthless) machine. You can track down OS 8/9 on ebay but no modern software will run on it and forget the Internet, this chugs on even mid-range G3's which anihilate the 603e in your Performa, unless you can source parts for free or dirt cheap and do the work yourself then I'd honestly get rid of it.
The TV card is a specific one but it only good for analogue, not digital.

 

[rossip]

I found this about your Mac:

http://www.apple-history.com/5500

It's that all-in-one, right? Seems like a pretty cool machine, has one of the first 3d accelerator in it, so you should be able to play some classic games!

You'll find tons of games/software and Mac OS versions here:

http://macintoshgarden.org/

If you got a relatively modern mac, you can download the disk images of old OS versions and burn them to CD using Disk Utility. That is if the hard drive is not broken.

You know, a dead clock battery in those old macs would cause all kinds of problems. You might want to replace that first to see if hard drive is really the issue.

 

[Dr. Freeman]

Just in case you get this one running, I suggest getting a better hard drive, the one that came with your Performa had just 2 GB, you should get one at least 8 or 20 GB big so you can install OS X 10.2 on it, it'll run rather slow but is cool to see an old machine like this one running OS X.

 

[rossip]

Just in case you get this one running, I suggest getting a better hard drive, the one that came with your Performa had just 2 GB, you should get one at least 8 or 20 GB big so you can install OS X 10.2 on it, it'll run rather slow but is cool to see an old machine like this one running OS X.

Max OS is 9.1

 

[MacTech68]

I actually liked the 5500 when it was introduced.

As rossip mentions, it was one of the first with a hardware graphics accelerator, and that certainly improved things over it's earlier 5200 and 5400 cousins.

With it's age, anything is possible in terms of it's present fault but certainly checking the PRAM battery ( a 4.5V alkaline) is worth the trouble. If it's falling below about 4.1 volts then it's probably time to replace it. Leave the motherboard out without a battery overnight before re-fitting to ensure any corruption in PRAM is cleared.

Other common issues these would throw up (back in the day) were:

1. A failed CPU fan. Fairly easy to replace.

2. Poor connectivity in the wiring harness/interconnect. This is a real problem, requiring special attention to clean the edge fingers of the motherboard (they tarnish surprisingly easily) & the CDROM plug as well as the sockets that these plug into.

3. The same as #2 applies to the memory DIMMS, with poor connectivity causing random freezes & power-up problems.

I did see failures in later years of the display analog board and power supply boards, which are a little tricky to repair and were rarely the same fault, sadly. I would hope that this isn't your present machine's fault but it is highly likely given it's age. As Rodus suggests, it's not worth throwing good money at this kind of fault unless you're a hardcore collector that really wants this machine working.