🚀 go-pugleaf

Well, since I got most of my information from the net, I figured I'd
give some back.  I hope the signal to noise ratio isn't too low.  

I just upgraded my Mac from a 524 (that's a 512e with a Dove 1Meg
upgrade) to a 548S (that's a 2Meg upgrade with SCSI), and replaced my
old Tecmar 10Meg serial drive with a Jamine 20Meg SCSI drive.  Here's
my experience (summary first, then the details, please see disclaimer
at the end before intiiating lawsuits):

Conclusions: A good experience overall.  I'm glad I saved the $160 a
local store was charging (over the mail order price) to install the
Dove board.  Dove is a very winning company with a winning product.
Jasmine makes a very winning product.  Programs+ and ComputerWare are
suitably winning companies, but I'm not dedicating any shrines.  The
Dove and Apple logic boards are tough.  Given all the force I put on
those things, you could probably sit on one (carefully) and still have
it work.  If you can take a chip out of a socket without breaking any
pins, you can do this upgrade.

Morals: 
Moral 1: Don't order over the holidays.  Your stuff will just
sit in the shippers's warehouses.  

Moral 2:  It never hurts to ask.

Moral 3:  Accidents happen.  Sometimes even the net is accurate. :-)

History:  Since I had the 1Meg upgrade done at a local store, I
already had a fan installed (probably a necessity for the Dove memory
upgrades).  

Ordering: I got the Dove upgrade from Programs+ since their price was
$20 to $40 less than MacConnection (depending on which ad you look
at).  I got the Jasmine drive from ComputerWare, because, although
their price was about the same as ordering direct from Jasmine,
ComputerWare was shipping immediately, and Jasmine had an 8-10 day
delay.  
	I ordered on 30 Dec. '87.  I paid the extra $3 to Programs+
for "Rush-Air-Delivery" from Fed Ex, and asked if this was a one day
service.  The woman taking my order told me it was.  It wasn't.  I
called Fed Ex, and they had never heard of "Rush-Air-Delivery" ("We
have one-day service and two-day service.")  Big deal.  The Dove
upgrade arrived the second working day (4 Jan. 88).  ComputerWare
charged about $15 for second day air from UPS (blue label) and the
drive arrived on 6 Jan. (4th working day, one week real time).  (see
Moral 1)

Products: The Dove upgrade came with the wrong manuals.  There was a
software manual (for users) inside the box, and an installation manual
that Programs+ had sent along with the box.  The installation manual
was for upgrades to machines with the old ROMS (somewhat confusing,
since both that upgrade and the SCSI upgrade involve a second board
that fits over the ROMS).  I called Dove, and talked to a very
competent woman who told me what manuals I needed (in addition to
chatting with me about some of the nuances of the upgrade board).  I
asked if they could be sent next day (UPS red label this time) and she
said they could send it that way collect.  I asked if the error was
Dove's fault or Programs+'s, and she said it was probably Dove's
packaging.  I asked if Dove would foot the bill, since they had
packaged the wrong manuals, and after checking with her superviser,
she said "yes", again. (see Moral 2).  The manuals did indeed arrive
the next day (5 Jan.).
	The Jasmine drive is everything it's said to be on the net
(see Moral 3).  Most of the advertised "9 meg of PD software and
shareware" is stuff most net.pack.rats already have, but it's still
*very* nice.

Installation: Good clean fun.  I have a little hardware experience.  I
did a few breadboards and one wirewrap project in college; I've made a
couple of cables; and with the help of a friend, I replaced the power
supply in my Tecmar.  As I said, If you can take a chip out of a
socket without breaking any pins, you can do this upgrade.  My only
regret is that I didn't have a multimeter handy to test and adjust the
voltage while I had the Mac open, but since it ain't broke....
Anyway.  Step 1, opening the Mac.  Easy, just use the tools in the
MacSnap toolkit and follow the directions.  I'm not making any
recommendations here, but if I were, I would definitely recommend
having a look inside the Mac.  The signatures on the inside of the
back of the case make it pure Apple, inside and out.  Step 2, removing
the Dove 524 upgrade: about what you'd expect from a daughter board
that takes about 30 pounds of pressure to snap on.  It is removable,
but your heart will go up into your throat when you hear it start to
come loose.  I just took it slow and careful, and it wasn't too bad,
if a little violent.  Step 3, installing the SCSI board.  Piece of
cake.  The only gotcha is to be careful pulling the ROM chips out of
their sockets -- it's easy to bend pins (having done this before, I
was ready).  Step 4, installing the new MacSnap board.  I nearly broke
my thumbs on this one.  It takes a *lot* of pressure to snap that
puppy down.  I finally wound up using a pair of padded channel-lock
pliers to squeeze part of it together (something I do *not* recommend,
but it worked well for me), and even that didn't completely do it (see
below).
	The Jasmine drive was plug and go.  Slick.  Slicker 'en snot.

Debugging: First law of computer science: Nothing works right the
first time.  Symptom 1: Dark Screen.  Bug: I forgot to reattach the
power and floppy drive connections to the mother board (wetware
error).  Symptom 2: Funky stripes and no disk with "?" or sad mac on
power up.  Bug: Damn board still wasn't all the way down.  The black
things that fit over the logic board chips have to be *flush* with the
logic board, and it's tough to see all of them.  My only clue was a
slight bulge in the bottom of the logic board.  Push that down (again)
and "wallah:" one 2Meg mac with SCSI.
	The Jasmine was shipped with System/Finder 4.1/5.3 (brother!
my head spins trying to keep up with the possible combinations), but
replacing them with 4.2/6.0 was no sweat.  There's nothing special
about the Jasmine-supplied system.

Thanks to everyone who has reported their experiences, good and bad,
so I had some things to go by.  

Take care,			ARPA: brad@pheasant.cs.utexas.edu
Brad Blumenthal			UUCP: {ihnp4, harvard}!im4u!pheasant!brad

Disclaimer: I am making no recommendations here, either for or against
doing any of this.  Use this information at your own risk; I make no
warranty about its reliability or suitability for any purpose.
Opinions contained herein are my own and are just that: opinions.