Power Mac 5500/250

[Tiberian Fiend]

I didn't see a section for Power Macs and I don't think this is old enough to qualify as vintage yet, so I thought I'd post here. I picked one of these up yesterday for $75. Our teacher had one of these back in the 90s, though it was probably the Performa variant since it was a school computer. It's in pretty good shape (other than being super yellow) and it wasn't too dirty. I am having a couple of problems, though: the clock battery is dead and the RAM is insufficient to run Clasilla properly (64 MB installed). How do I open her up, and what kind of RAM does this thing take? Also, the microphone doesn't seem to be working. How can I test it?

 

[ClassicHasClass]

Oh, I dunno, they're pretty vintage AFAIK. Arguably any Power Mac is, now. Pretty much anything that applies to the 6500 applies to the 5500 (and, mostly, the TAM).

Anyway, you *could* run Classilla with 64MB of RAM, but you'd need to bump your virtual memory settings up to at least 128MB, and it would not be very much fun. Unfortunately, this unit is limited to 128MB of RAM maximum, so it doesn't get a whole lot better. It takes 5V 168-pin EDO DIMMs, 60ns or faster with 2K refresh. Places like MemoryX still stock this for not unreasonable prices. FPM might work but some sites warn against it. (FTR, my TAM has EDO.)

The 5500 has an access door on the rear secured by two screws to the sides. Remove those screws, reach under the machine for the two latches on either side, and pull the door up from the bottom. It should come off. There is a thin metal handle which should now be visible; pull that down and out to remove the logic board. The PRAM battery (a black "cube" with a wire) and the RAM slots should be easy to see.