Abstract of INFO-MAC archived Text file
   'per/powerbook-5xx-ppc-upgrade.txt'
  Uploaded 03/12/1997   11112 bytes

From: DrBlood@medschool.med.utah.edu
Subject: PowerBook 5xx -> PPC upgrad

This is a summary of my experience upgrading my PowerBook 520c to a PowerPC,
using the 167MHz NUpowr daughter card from Newer Technologies. Bottom line: it
works. No compatibility problems (so far!), and things run faster. However,
video-intensive tasks may not improve since the upgrade did not change video
speed at all according to "System Info 3.1" by Norton Utilities. Disk access was
slightly faster, and the CPU and FPU functions were 4x and 10x faster. I did not
try other benchmark utilities.

I am also including comments I got from some other 5xx users who have
upgraded. 

Jerry Spangrude (DrBlood@medschool.med.utah.edu)


<<<<<< Attached TEXT file named "5xx->PPC Upgrade" follows >>>>>>
Subject: Upgrading a PowerBook 5xx to PowerPC

Submitted by:

Jerry Spangrude  2/19/96
(DrBlood@medschool.med.utah.edu)


Here are the comments I got on PowerBook 5xx upgrades. One person cites a
problem with his hard drive after the upgrade. I have not checked the latest
digests so I don't know if this has been addressed any further. You might
check directly with him. I wonder if this problem is due to not updating his
drivers, as that has been emphasized in all the material I've seen as an
important thing to do after the upgrade. He says he initialized his disk
again, but I'm not sure if that necessarily will add the proper drivers back.
I guess it would depend on the software you used to reinitialize. After the
upgrade you need to use the new "Drive Setup" utility to get the new drivers,
not the old "Apple HD SC Setup" utility.

Other than this problem, all other responses were positive.

My experience:

I got the NUpowr 167MHz board with 8 megs of RAM. I had been advised by the
tech rep to remove my GV internal modem since the supplied software (version
2.08) would not work with the new board. I bought an external 33.6 MHz modem
to replace the internal 14.4 so I was planning to take the old one out. But
when I got into the PowerBook (using the tools supplied by Newer Technologies
with the upgrade) I found I could not get the modem board loose. This is
partly because it was a snug fit in the socket, and partly because there is
really nowhere to grab the card to pull it out; you have to pry it with a
tool. I did not want to break it, so I decided to leave it in. The upgrade
card went in nicely and I added back my memory expansion board and