Jump to content

Apple QuickTake 100 Troubleshooting Guide

From RetroTechCollection
Apple QuickTake 100 control panel
The QuickTake 100 control panel, where the "ER" error and the connection rectangle appear (photo: Eduort, CC BY-SA 3.0)

Symptom checks for the Apple QuickTake 100 and the Apple QuickTake 150, which share the same hardware and the same serial protocol.[1][2] Apple did not publish board-level service information for either camera: the Service Sources give specifications and a parts list, and the whole camera was the replaceable unit (661-0880 for the 100, international only; 661-0909 for the 150).[3][4]

The flash circuit holds a charge that can kill. Read Apple QuickTake 100 General Maintenance#Before opening the camera before taking the case apart.

Quick checks

[edit | edit source]

Apple's own problem list, from the "Solving problems" sections of both user's guides:[5][6]

QuickTake 100 and 150 symptom table
Symptom Probable cause Action
Will not take a picture Lens cover closed; camera asleep; flash still charging; batteries low, flat or fitted the wrong way; memory full; camera connected to a computer Open the lens cover. Press the shutter, or close and reopen the cover. Wait for the green light in the viewfinder. Fit fresh cells the right way round or use the AC adapter. Transfer and erase the pictures. Take the picture from the computer, or unplug the serial cable
Nothing visible through the viewfinder Lens cover closed; eye not square to the eyepiece Open the cover; look straight through the viewfinder
Flash does not fire Flash switched off; batteries low or wrongly fitted Check the flash setting; replace or refit the cells
Pictures fuzzy or blotchy Dirty lens; movement; subject closer than 4 ft (outside 10 to 14 in with the close-up lens); low resolution or quality setting Clean the lens. Hold the camera still and use the flash. Keep the distance. Use the high setting
Pictures too dark Not enough light; subject beyond the 9 ft flash range Turn the flash on; move closer
Pictures too light Flash forced on every picture; subject too close; camera pointed at a bright light; light sensors dirty or covered Set the flash to automatic. Keep the distance. Change the angle. Clean the sensors above and below the viewfinder lens and keep fingers off them
Part of the picture missing Fingers, the neck strap or another object over the lens or the flash Keep the lens and flash clear
"ER" on the control panel Error state Check that the right power adapter is fitted and firmly connected; switch off and on; if ER remains, the camera needs service[7]

Things that are not faults

[edit | edit source]
  • The camera sleeps after 60 seconds without use, or after 5 minutes when it is connected to a computer. When it is connected, only closing and reopening the lens cover wakes it; the shutter button does not.[5]
  • The QuickTake 100 drops to standard resolution by itself when there is no room for a high-resolution picture.[5]
  • Pictures survive flat batteries. The clock does not: it stops when the cells go flat or are taken out, and needs setting again from the computer.[5]
  • There is no way to delete a single picture. The Erase All button, and the software's erase command, clear the whole memory.[5][2]

Memory faults

[edit | edit source]

The pictures are kept in a surface-mounted flash EPROM soldered to the board. When it erases the memory the camera overwrites every byte with FF and checks the result. If the memory will not take FF, the camera declares a hard failure, displays an error and stops working.[8] Apple published no part number or board location for the chip.[3][4]

Power faults

[edit | edit source]
  • Check the cell orientation against the markings on the battery door, clean the contacts with a pencil eraser and replace all three cells together.[5][9]
  • Alkaline cells give a very short life. The QuickTake 150 guide says not to use them at all.[6][9]
  • An external supply must be within 4.5 V DC at 1.75 A to 8.0 V DC at 1.0 A. Apple's QuickTake AC Adapter and the PowerBook 100-series adapters (M5140, M5651, M5652, M4662, APS-17adp) meet this.[10]
  • The battery booster pack gives 6 V nominal, centre positive.[11] A flat booster pack behaves like flat cells.

The computer does not see the camera

[edit | edit source]

When the cable is connected and the lens cover is open, an animated rectangle appears on the camera's control panel.[5] If the software reports that the camera is not responding, work through these in order.

Macintosh

[edit | edit source]
  1. Check the cable at both ends, that the lens cover is open and that the cells have enough charge.[5]
  2. With System 7.0.1, AppleTalk must be on for the QuickTake software. If a LocalTalk device is on the printer port, use the modem port; if anything else or nothing is on the printer port, set the Network control panel to Remote Only.[5]
  3. On later systems, if the port is shared with another device and AppleTalk is on, turn AppleTalk off.[6]
  4. On a Macintosh IIfx, Quadra 900 or Quadra 950, set the Serial Switch control panel to Compatible.[6]
  5. On a Power Macintosh G3, use the modem port. Apple's G3 Read Me says the printer port does not communicate reliably with the QuickTake 150.[12]
  6. If the system software has been upgraded since the camera software was installed, reinstall the camera software with Apple's Installer. Software dragged to the hard disk does not work.[6]
  7. Under Mac OS 8.5, the QuickTake 150 installer replaces the newer QuickTime PowerPlug with version 2.0. Move the newer PowerPlug out of the Extensions folder before installing and put it back afterwards.[13]
  8. If QuickTake 1.0 quits or reports "Unable to view the slide because of an error", replace QuickTime 2.1 with QuickTime 2.5.[14]
  9. An "out of memory" alert on connecting a QuickTake to some later computers is cured by QuickTake software 2.0.2.[15]

Windows

[edit | edit source]
  • If the camera is on COM3 or COM4, check the Advanced Settings in the Windows Ports control panel: COM1 3F8 IRQ4, COM2 2F8 IRQ3, COM3 3E8 IRQ4, COM4 2E8 IRQ3. With several serial devices, add IRQSharing=ON to the [386enh] section of SYSTEM.INI.[16]
  • If the computer reboots while talking to the camera, it cannot take the data at the speed the camera sends it. Run the QuickTake Serial Ports application, test at 9600 baud and raise the rate one step at a time, dropping back one step if the computer reboots. A serial card with a buffered 16550 UART cures it.[16]
  • Windows for Workgroups 3.11 on some Pentium computers freezes because of a serial driver problem. Microsoft's updated SERIAL.386 driver (WG1001.EXE) fixes it.[17]
  • A computer with a 25-pin serial port needs a 9-to-25-pin adapter.[18]
  • Apple did not test Windows 95 officially, but reported no problems in its own unofficial tests of the QuickTake 100 and 150 software.[19]
[edit | edit source]

With a modern computer and a USB serial adapter, the link can be tested by hand. The camera speaks first: open the port at 9600 bps, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity and no flow control, raise DTR and then lower it. A working camera answers with a seven-byte greeting beginning A5 5A.[2] In Colin Leroy-Mira's cables the computer's DTR line drives pins 2 and 7 of the camera's mini-DIN-8 socket.[20] Once the session is set up, this command checks that the camera is still listening; it replies with a single 00 byte, or 02 if it rejects a command:[2] 

Computer sends:  16 00 00 00 00 00 00
Camera replies:  00
  • If no greeting arrives, check that the camera is awake (close and reopen the lens cover) and that the cable carries DTR to the camera.[2][20]
  • If the greeting arrives but the camera ignores the computer's first command, suspect the camera's receive line. This was the fault in the repair below.[21]
  • A reply of 02 means the camera rejected the command; check the bytes and the order of the set-up steps.[2]

Serial connector repair

[edit | edit source]

Colin Leroy-Mira repaired a QuickTake 150 that sent its greeting but never answered the computer. Its receive line was open, and so was pin 2, both at the serial connector on the small I/O board. He could not repair the connector itself and bridged the two pins with wires.[21] His notes map each socket pin to the board. Next to two ICs, U309 and U310, is a row of alternating 0 Ω and 27 Ω resistors; the socket pins join the right-hand side of the 27 Ω resistors. Pin 1 of each IC is at its top right corner. He says the same applies to the QuickTake 100.[21]

Serial socket to board, QuickTake 100 and 150 (Colin Leroy-Mira's notes)[21]
Socket pin Resistor IC pin(s)
1 R385 U309 pin 10
2 R393 U310 pin 10
3 R381 U309 pin 14
4 Ground, no resistor –
5 R389 U310 pins 7 and 15
6 R383 U309 pin 15
7 R387 U310 pin 1
8 R391 U310 pin 14

With the camera unpowered and the flash capacitor discharged, check continuity from each socket pin to its resistor and on to the IC pin.

Pictures will not open

[edit | edit source]
  • Mac OS X cannot open QuickTake 100 and 150 pictures saved in the camera's own compressed format, because the decompressor does not exist there. Convert them to another format under Mac OS 9 or earlier, with the QuickTake Image extension installed.[22]
  • On Windows, the PICT QuickTake (.QTK) file is not a standard PICT file. Save pictures as JPEG or TIFF for other programs.[23]
  • Today, dcraw decodes the raw QuickTake 100 and 150 formats.[20] See Apple QuickTake Software.
[edit | edit source]

References

[edit | edit source]
  1. ↑ Apple Computer, "QuickTake 100: Upgrade to QuickTake 100 Plus (Discontinued)", Tech Info Library article 18091 (TA34002), in the archive.org collection Apple's Technical Information Library Articles, https://archive.org/details/APPLE_TIL_ARTICLES, file TA30000-TA39999. Source for: the 100-to-150 upgrade being a firmware change only.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Colin Leroy-Mira, "The Apple Quicktake 100 and 150 serial communication protocol", colino.net, 29 October 2023, https://www.colino.net/wordpress/archives/2023/10/29/the-apple-quicktake-100-150-serial-communication-protocol/ (retrieved 2026-10-02). Community reverse-engineering notes. Source for: the shared protocol; 9600 bps, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity and no flow control at the start; raising and lowering DTR to wake the camera; the seven-byte greeting from the camera (A5 5A 01 01 01 00 02 on his QuickTake 100); the speed request and the camera's ten-byte reply; even parity after negotiation; the ping command and its one-byte reply; 0x02 as the camera's rejection of a command; deleting all pictures as the only erase command.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Apple Computer, QuickTake 100 Service Source, from the Apple Service Source 2.0 CD (1996), hosted as File:Apple QuickTake 100 Service Source.pdf. Specifications pp. 1-4; Parts 1-15, including Whole Unit, QuickTake 100 (International Only) 661-0880.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Apple Computer, QuickTake 150 Service Source, from the Apple Service Source 2.0 CD (1996), hosted as File:Apple QuickTake 150 Service Source.pdf. Specifications pp. 1-4; Parts 1-20, including Whole Unit, QuickTake 150 661-0909.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 Apple Computer, Apple QuickTake 100 User's Guide for Macintosh, 1994, part number 030-6161-A, hosted as File:Apple QuickTake 100 Users Guide for Macintosh 1994.pdf. Resolution switching when memory is short p. 14; pictures safe when batteries run out p. 14; sleep p. 16; connecting and the animated rectangle p. 18-19; clock p. 36; Erase All p. 38; solving problems p. 52-54; Appendix D, QuickTake Setup, p. 63-64.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Apple Computer, Apple QuickTake 150 User's Guide for Macintosh, 1995, hosted as File:Apple QuickTake 150 Users Guide for Macintosh 1995.pdf. Installation and the warning against dragging the software p. 5; reinstalling after a system upgrade p. 8; close-up lens range p. 12-13; solving problems p. 44-47, including the Serial Switch setting for the Macintosh IIfx and Quadra 900 and 950 on p. 45.
  7. ↑ Apple Computer, "QuickTake 100: LCD Panel Showing "ER" (6/94)", Tech Info Library article 15681 (TA31974), APPLE_TIL_ARTICLES collection, file TA30000-TA39999.
  8. ↑ Apple Computer, "QuickTake 100: Information Stored on Flash EPROM", Tech Info Library article 16881 (TA33034), APPLE_TIL_ARTICLES collection, file TA30000-TA39999. Source for: non-volatile flash EPROM; erasure by overwriting with FF; a hard failure and error display when the memory will not erase; the EPROM soldered to the board.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Apple Computer, "QuickTake Camera: Battery Life Improvement Hints (6/96)", Tech Info Library article 19381 (TA35102), APPLE_TIL_ARTICLES collection, file TA30000-TA39999. Source for: replacing all cells together; cleaning contacts with a pencil eraser or cloth; alkaline cells giving about 50 images.
  10. ↑ Apple Computer, "QuickTake: Can Use PowerBook 100 Series AC Adaptor (12/96)", Tech Info Library article 16700 (TA32872), APPLE_TIL_ARTICLES collection, file TA30000-TA39999.
  11. ↑ Apple Computer, "Apple QuickTake Cameras: External Power Q&A (10/96)", Tech Info Library article 20491 (TA36067), APPLE_TIL_ARTICLES collection, file TA30000-TA39999.
  12. ↑ Apple Computer, "Power Macintosh G3 Read Me", Tech Info Library article TA21807, APPLE_TIL_ARTICLES collection, file TA20315-TA29994. Source for: the QuickTake 150 needing the modem port on the Power Macintosh G3; some PhotoFlash 2.0.1 scripts not working.
  13. ↑ Apple Computer, "Mac OS 8.5: QuickTime PowerPlug Version", Tech Info Library article TA38741, APPLE_TIL_ARTICLES collection, file TA30000-TA39999.
  14. ↑ Apple Computer, "QuickTake 100 & System 7.5.3 Incompatibility (10/96)", Tech Info Library article 19990 (TA35661), APPLE_TIL_ARTICLES collection, file TA30000-TA39999.
  15. ↑ Apple Computer, "Macintosh: "Out of Memory" Error When Connecting a QuickTake Camera", Tech Info Library article TA38369, APPLE_TIL_ARTICLES collection, file TA30000-TA39999.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Apple Computer, "QuickTake 150: Windows Troubleshooting (4/95)", Tech Info Library article 17650 (TA33653), APPLE_TIL_ARTICLES collection, file TA30000-TA39999. Source for: COM port address and IRQ settings; IRQSharing=ON; computers rebooting because they cannot take data at the camera's speed; testing at 9600 baud in the QuickTake Serial Ports application and raising the rate step by step; fitting a serial card with a buffered 16550 UART.
  17. ↑ Apple Computer, "QuickTake 100: Serial Driver Problems Using Windows 3.11 (7/94)", Tech Info Library article 15909 (TA32155), APPLE_TIL_ARTICLES collection, file TA30000-TA39999.
  18. ↑ Apple Computer, Apple QuickTake 150 User's Guide for Windows, 1995, hosted as File:Apple QuickTake 150 Users Guide for Windows 1995.pdf. Connecting the camera, port settings and the 9-to-25-pin adapter, p. 22-23.
  19. ↑ Apple Computer, "QuickTake Cameras: Not Supported Using Windows 95", Tech Info Library article 20172 (TA35799), APPLE_TIL_ARTICLES collection, file TA30000-TA39999.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 Colin Leroy-Mira, "Quicktake for Apple II", colino.net, https://www.colino.net/wordpress/quicktake-for-apple-ii/ (retrieved 2026-10-02). Community software and cabling notes. Source for: the computer's DTR wired to pins 2 and 7 and ground to pin 4 of the camera's mini-DIN-8; the QuickTake 100 starting to talk only when DTR is cleared.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 21.3 Colin Leroy-Mira, "Fixing a Quicktake 150 serial connector", colino.net, 21 June 2026, https://www.colino.net/wordpress/archives/2026/06/21/fixing-a-quicktake-150-serial-connector/ (retrieved 2026-10-02). Community repair report. Source for: the fault (greeting sent, no reply to the computer's first message), the open receive line and pin 2 at the connector on the I/O board, the bodge-wire repair, the row of alternating 0 Ω and 27 Ω resistors beside U309 and U310 with the serial pins joined on the right-hand side of the 27 Ω resistors, the pin-to-resistor and resistor-to-IC maps, and the statement that this applies to the QuickTake 100.
  22. ↑ Apple Computer, "Mac OS X: Unable to Open QuickTake 100, 150 Pictures", Tech Info Library article TA26494, APPLE_TIL_ARTICLES collection, file TA20315-TA29994. Source for: the QuickTake codec being unavailable in Mac OS X; symptoms (missing compressor alert, white frame, unrecognised file); converting under Mac OS 9 or earlier with the QuickTake Image extension installed.
  23. ↑ Apple Computer, QuickTake for Windows 1.5 README.TXT, archive.org item quicktake_windows_1.5 (retrieved 2026-10-02). Source for: COM3 and COM4 settings; the PICT QuickTake (.QTK) format not being standard PICT; moving pictures between Windows and the Macintosh.


Retrieved from "https://retrotechwiki.com/index.php?title=Apple_QuickTake_100_Troubleshooting_Guide&oldid=24545"