PowerBook Model: Duo 250 (A.K.A. Ansel)

Began: 10/21/1993

Terminated: 5/1/1994

Original Price: $2,500

Specs

• 68030 @ 33 Mhz
• No FPU (opt. in Dock) with an integrated PMMU
• Memory: 4 MB on the Logic Board with 1 available RAM slot. RAM sizes come in 4-20 MB chips. Min. 4 MB RAM & a max. 24 MB RAM @ a min. speed of 70 ns
• 0.5K L1 Cache & no L2 Cache
• Data Path: 32, 33 @ 33 Mhz
• Ports/inputs/outputs: 1 modem slot, 1 Dock slot (152-pin PDS), 1 printer port, 1 serial port, 1 built in mono 8-bit speaker and 1 built in mono 8-bit microphone
• Shipped with an min. 200 MB HD (SCSI)
• LCD screen @ a pixel resolution of 640 x 400 4-bit 9" supertwist Active Matrix (16 Grays)
• Electrical 25 watts max., 1.04 Amps, 85.5 BTU's per hr., 100-240 volts, 50-60 Hz. (Freq. Range) with a NiMH Type II battery (softpower supported)
• 4.2 Ibs. @ 1.4" H x 10.9" W x 8.5" D
• OS 7.1 through to 7.6.1 supported*

* According to Apple Computers Inc®. Earlier and/or later operating systems may be supported.

Frequently Asked Questions:

1. Can I upgrade the processor?
2. How large of a hard drive will the Duo 250 hold?
3. What other upgrade options do I have?
4. What is the most functional and effiecient OS to run on the Duo 250?
5. Any defects?
6. Buying advice?

 

1. Processor Upgrades?

"Clock Booster" upgrades available are provided by Digital Eclipse, Dynamic Engineering (831-336-8891) and Bottom Line Distribution. The upgrade consists of a "clock booster", boosting the 33mhz chip up to 40mhz. Also, 100 MHz PPC® processor upgrades are available. In order to accomplish the latter, install a PB 2300c logic board into the PB DUO 250.

2. HD Upgrades?

PowerBook DUO 250 owners are limited to upgrading with SCSI interface only drives.  There are SCSI-IDE adapters available; however, the adapter will not fit in the PB DUO 250.  A SCSI 2.5" x 19 mm drive will work.  Try a Toshiba 230, Quantum 120, 160 or an IBM 120 or 540.  Format the drive at 2:1, as it takes some time for the data to reach the processor from the hard drive. Try The PowerBook Guy for all your PowerBook parts needs. Please note: UP TO 4 GB SCSI HD's will be recognized but at least OS 7.5.5 is needed for such drives. However, there is no upper limit of HD drive in this PowerBook.

Finally, IDE drives can be installed in the PB DUO 250 if it has been upgraded with a PB DUO 2300c logic board. As such, uprgading to a large capacity HD is easily accomplished, as IDE is still the standard interface of laptop HD's. There is an upper limit of 8.2 GB HD sizes when using IDE HD interfaces. Using OS 8.6 or higher or partitioning larger HD in sizes under the upper limit may solve the problem.

3. Other upgrade options?

Max out the physical RAM. Try The PowerBook Guy to find RAM for your PowerBook. The PB DUO 250 can house up to 24 MB of RAM with an optional 20 MB RAM chip.

RAM Charger 8.x: RC uses a technology called Dynamic Memory Allocation.  In short, it enables your trusty PowerBook (or any mac) to allocate whatever amount of ram a program needs “on the fly.”  The result is that you do not have to worry about reserving a specific amount of ram avalaible for programs.  Whatever the program needs, RAM charger will feed it, providing of course, you do not run out of available RAM for use. 

Stack RAM charger with Connectixs’ RAM Doubler 2.x or 8.x in order to get more available RAM out of your machine. RAM Doubler works like VM, only it is faster and more efficient. Furthermore, RAM Charger and RAM Doubler are fully compatible. RAM Doubler can actually increase your RAM by 3x, depending on the users wishes. RAM Doubler requires at least 8 MB physical RAM and a 68030 processor. I suggest using RAM Doubler over Macintoshs’ Virtual memory feature; the latter is extremely slow on older machines. Try downloading the Ram Doubler installer to be found out there somewhere.

Connectix Speed Doubler 2.x or 8.x: Speed Doubler 2.x (requires a 68030 processor and 8 MB of physical RAM) or SD 8.x (requires a 68030 processor, 12 MB of physical RAM and system 7.5.5 or later) will help make your PowerBook soar by speeding up many common finder operations, such as: scrolling menu’s, opening folders, copying files, etc. Speed Doubler replaces the Mac OS disk cache with its own disk cache system, resulting in an improved (speedier) cache memory system. SD 2.x or SD 8.x speeds up the read/write process by storing frequently used HD data in RAM, rather than on the HD. Try downloading the Speed Doubler installer to be found out there somewhere.

Run OS 8.x on Unsupported Macs: A program called Born Again will allow certain 030 macs to run OS 8.1. The PowerBook DUO 250 is supported. Try it out.

RAM Disk: Load the operating system onto a Ram disk (bootable) to increase both the speed and efficiency of your PowerBook DUO 250.  It also results in longer battery life (25% more), as the hard drive is not constantly spinning.  Check the help section within your Operating System for instructions on setting up a RAM Disk. RAM disks are particularly important to have in case your computer crashes. Upon restart, it will boot from the RAM Disk and you can diagnose problems with the HD from there, provided you included both a system folder and a copy of Norton Disk Doctor on it (3.5.2 works well with the 2300c).

Battery Information: Replace the battery via BTI. Upgrade your DUO's battery to a type II or III, as each of the latter batteries are last longer than the Type I battery that shipped with the PB DUO 250. Further, buy more batteries as spares for more power on the road or try an external 7.2 volt NiCad battery pack (approx 5 hours running time under heavy usage).  Try Lind to purchase one. Want even more portable power or don’t want to use a battery?  Try a solar panel called the “Sun Catcher Professional” made by Power Quest.  You must have your PB plugged in to boot, however.

You can also try a program called amnesia to help recover a non-chargeable NiCad or NiMh battery.

You can also try to reset the Power Manager to help your battery charge if you are having chargeing problems, your ac adapter is not recognized, your computer will not wake from sleep, and the like. Go here for instructions on how to reset the Power Manager.

FPU addition (68882): FPUless processors, like in the PB DUO 250, elicit slower performance on the web and when working with graphics programs compared to those processors with an FPU. Solution: Plug the PB DUO 250 into a DUO DOCK to get an added FPU (see DUO DOCK section).

More Powerful AC adapter: Try a higher wattage ac adapter to speed up battery charging, like a 45 watt ac adapter as used on the PowerBook Wallstreet for example. However, you may decrease the life of your battery by undertaking the latter method.

Keyboard Upgrade: Apple shipped 5 different keyboards for the PowerBook Duo line; from A-E. Each model was better than the last (i.e. ‘A’ being the worst and ‘E’ being the best). Too bad letter grades in school do not mean the same thing.

Add an Active Matrix Screen Upgrade: Take a PB DUO 2300c, 280c, 280, or a 270c screen and install it on your PB DUO 250.

Goodies to Add on: The PowerBook DUO 250 is ready to be furnished with all sorts of peripheral devices and will also support external monitors. 
 
The PB DUO 250 will support external zip drives, scanners, printers, cd-roms, cd-r's, floppy drives, etc (most plug into the SCSI port - a SCSI adapter will be needed).  In order to make your PB DUO 250 floppy capable, attach a DUO floppy adapter or plug the machine into a Mini Dock or DUO Dock. For the rest of the periheral devices - excluding printers - you will need to have the DUO attached to a Mini Dock or DUO Dock. The Mini Dock gives the PB DUO SCSI and floppy ports and the DUO Dock, DUO Dock II and DUO Dock + (both of the latter are made for color PB DUO's - 270c's, 280c's & 2300c's*) endow the DUO with the following: Floppy drive port, ADB port (i.e. for an external keyboard), SCSI port, optional VRAM 512K with VRAM SIMM card, an FPU, Local talk (available on its own) & 2 NuBus slots for ethernet or a more powerful video card. Furthermore, a SCSI HD can be installed in the Dock of any size as an option. Use an HDI-30 SCSI peripheral cable when connecting your PowerBook to external SCSI devices of the aforementioned sort. The DUO's included serial port will support Appletalk Laserwriters and regular serial port printers with its 8-pin mini DIN port.

*All DUO Docks are compatible with all PowerBook DUO computers. However, the original DUO Dock , in order to be compatible with PB DUO color screen models, requires a replacement lid.

Use Windows Printers with the DUO: A cable and driver kit called Powerprint allows the DUO to connect to many popular windows printers (i.e. HP Deskjet 340).

Internet/Networking
 
Add an Internal (faster) or External Modem: See the tips section on speeding up browsing to improve the PB DUO's Internet performance (or any mac for that matter). External modems can be used via the serial port (try US Robotics 19.2 external modem for reliability).  Note: the serial port on the PowerBook DUO 250 has a data transfer rate ceiling of 57.6 kbps. Internal modems can be installed (TRY a 56k); the optional internal modem when the PB DUO 250 came out was only 19.2 kbps data/14.4 kbps fax courtesy of Global Village and faster modems may not work properly.
 
PowerBook DUO 250 and Ethernet/Networking:  It is possible to connect a PB DUO 250 to an Ethernet network.  To achieve the latter, try one of the following: (1) Buy a Local-talk-Ethernet-Bridge adapter made by Asante, Focus or Farallon.  Etherwave by Farallon is a popular one which attaches to the serial port (printer/modem port) on the PB DUO 250. The result of the latter is a serial port converted to a standard RJ-45 Ethernet port.  Furthermore, the driver supplied with the Etherwave boosts the serial port speed by 5x (5x 230.4 kbps). 
 
Try Etherwaves “Multi Printer Adapter” which allows multiple devices to be connected to the PB DUO 250 at any given time (i.e. printer, scanner, Ethernet, etc.) (2) Dayna and Asante make SCSI-Ethernet adapters (RJ-45 connectors). You will need to have the DUO plugged into a DUO DOCK or a Mini Dock to acheive the latter.  (3) Simply use the built in ethernet on the DUO Dock to connect to another mac or ethernet network. (4) Use another macintosh to connect to an Ethernet network and then connect the PB DUO 250 to the latter computer. To connect to another computer via Asante's SCSI-Ethernet method, make sure you have the required Asante driver. You will also need the following files on your system 6.x or 7.x folder:

*Asante EN/SC - driver for the EN/SC
*AppleShare
*AppleSharePrep
*AppleTalk Control Panel
*EtherTalk Phase 2
*Network
*Responder

Get the above files here

(5) One can also connect to another SCSI equipped mac by using a SCSI HDI-30 docking cable (SCSI - SCSI connection). (6) Newer macs, like an imac for example, can be connected to older PowerBooks as well. To acheive the latter, try Asante's USB-to-local talk adapter (will not talk to printers) or an ethernet-to-local talk adapter. (7) Furthermore, use a printer cable to connect to another compatible macintosh computer or, (8) if the PB DUO 250 has an internal modem, connect to another computer via the modem cable. Connecting to another Mac is useful if you want to install software from a CD but your PowerBook lacks a CD-ROM. Simply connect to another CD-ROM equipped Mac by trying one of the aforementioned ways , mount the disc image on your PowerBooks desktop, and install the software.

4. Best OS?

Non-PPC upgraded PB DUO's should run OS 8.1 (with Born Again) as it is stable and feature rich. PPC upgraded machines should run OS 8.5. Click here to get detailed instructions on installing 8.5 on a PPC upgraded machine. OS 7.5.3 (upgrade it to 7.5.5 once installed) works well with the PB DUO 250 and is a free download from Apple. 7.6.1 is another viable option as well. I recommend using OS 8.x if at all possible.

Recommended Compatible Software (not an exhaustive list)

*Aldus Pagemaker up to v. 4.0
*QuarkXpress no later than v. 3.3
*Photoshop v. 2.0-3.0
*Claris Resolve
*Claris Emailer v. 1.0 or 2.0
*Appleworks 5.0
*Word 5.1
*Eduora v. 1.5 or 3.0/3.1
*Nisus Writer
*Mac Write Pro
*Mariner Write
*Write Now
*ClarisWorks/Appleworks 2.1-5.0
*Excel (up to v. 5.0)
*PowerPoint 2.2
*Toast Cd burning software (might work)
*Internet:
*Netscape 2.x or 4.0, 4.01 or 4.08
*ICab
*Wannabe 68K (FAST)

Click here for a list of more useful software/utilities for older macs.

5. Any Defects?

None to report.

6. Buying Advice?

The PB DUO 250 is a useful machine for spreadsheets, word processing, emailing and light web browsing.

PowerBook Readme Rankings: DUO Series Buyers Guide

1. Best choice:PB 2300c. Bad: Ø. Good: Bright Active Matrix color 9.5” screen (1000’s of colors), PPC 603e 100 Mhz under the hood, max 56 MB RAM and an IDE HD interface (upgrades easily acquired).

2. 280c. Bad: Small screen (8.4”). Good: 040 66 Mhz processor, bright Active Matrix screen (1000’s of colors), max 40 MB RAM.

3. 270c. Bad: Small screen, slow 030 33 Mhz processor. Good: Active Matrix color screen, 32 MB RAM ceiling and a built in FPU.

4. 280. Bad: B&W screen. Good: 040 66 Mhz processor, 40 MB RAM ceiling, light 4.2 lbs.

5. 250. Bad: B&W screen, slow 030 33 Mhz processor, low RAM ceiling (24 MB). Good: light 4.2 lbs., Active Matrix screen, long battery life.

6. 230. Bad: B&W screen, slow 030 33 Mhz processor, low RAM ceiling (24 MB), crap screen (4-bit 16 greys 640x400). Good: light 4.2 lbs.

7. 210. Bad: B&W screen, slow 030 33 Mhz processor, low RAM ceiling (24 MB), crap screen (4-bit 16 greys 640x400). Good: light 4.2 lbs.

Please note: Comments about machines in Buyers Guides are relative to their respective class.