Update on my Beige G3 - Zip disks? - Macintosh Garden

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2012, January 16 - 2:02am

#1

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Update on my Beige G3 - Zip disks?

I *should* be getting the Mac->PC VGA adaptor this week. Looking forward to trying this puppy out.

I believe this is the 266MHz 603 model. Assuming I have enough RAM, I will try OSX as well.

Also, the machine is not 100% mint, as I originally thought. One of the opening tabs at the rear has been snapped off (which is fairly common I reckon).

I am also keen to know whether you can find new Zip disks anywhere? I saw some Jazz disks on eBay a while back, and there are plenty of Sony MiniDiscs out there... anyone know of a source? (I only need 1 or 2).

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2012, January 17 - 3:07am

#2

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@themacmeister: If its a beige G3 it can have a 266MHz CPU but it won't be a 603

Zip disks: Have seen this auction on aus ebay that is right up your alley.

2 days left to run and currently at 0 bids with a $0.99 starting bid. Its for a couple of old Zip drives and 10 Zip disks. And best of all the auction is in Tassie.

I say go for it, you might get it for a $1.

2012, January 19 - 7:55am

#3

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OK, it's probably a 601e

I am watching that auction carefully, still $0.99c

2012, January 19 - 8:41am

(Reply to #3) #4

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A 601e? I hope you've got a RAM cache with that one

2 & a bit hrs to go on that auction now, from where I'm sitting. Best of luck. Hope it goes your way. What'll put many off is the postage fee, but you might be able to pick up in person, in a trip to Hobart

2012, January 20 - 9:38am

(Reply to #3) #5

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I am watching that auction carefully...

and...?

2012, January 19 - 8:38am

#6

soudesune

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Hi themacmeister,
Send me an e-mail and let me know how many zip-disks you need. I also have a scsi internal jaz-drive (without disks, alas) that you can have. If you'd like a scsi MO 640 drive (not mini-discs!) and discs, I can help you there too.
Regards
soudesune

2012, January 21 - 9:42am

#7

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"Missed it... by THAT much!"

Had pressing work to do on the farm. Also, VISA Debit card was dangerously low on funds

2012, January 23 - 7:04am

#8

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OK, bad news. The Beige G3 had a blown power supply. Also missing a mobo battery.

Many thanks to the generous members of this forum who have kindly supplied ADB Keyboard & Mouse, and offered Zip discs. I will be holding onto these in hope of another Macintosh finding.

I couldn't really salvage anything from this machine. I took the 266MHz G3 ZIF card (along with heatsink and ground wire) and G3 Cache.

Cache card has "Wraith ROM" written on the side? 1997.

Amyways, the rest is going to the dump ASAP.

2012, January 23 - 7:20pm

#9

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The missing battery isn't a big deal. I run most of my macs without one. And afaik you can use a regular PC ATX PSU with the beige G3s (there's a jumper on the logic board to switch to a PC supply). Hopefully you haven't dumped it just yet.

2012, January 23 - 8:29pm

(Reply to #9) #10

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Yes, this is the easiest Mac to find inexpensive replacement parts for. It is just a straight swap with a PC ATX PSU (and one jumper change on mobo) for this. As for the battery, $14 from JayCar in Aus & NZ or $3+ on eBay. A "half AA Lithium 3.6 volt" battery is whats required for the replacement.

2012, January 24 - 12:58am

#11

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You may be right, although the PSU looked too small for a PC replacement.

Also, I am not 100% convinced that it is the power supply. Is ATX the standard power supply from circa 2001? if so, I have some high wattage replacements (in tower cases). If you can find a guide on the interwebs, I would be more than happy to give this a try.

PS. I trimmed off the fan guard -- that was a necessity!

PPS. Using 133MHz synch PC-100 Simms/Dimms.

PPPS. Now I have to put it BACK TOGETHER!

2012, January 24 - 10:38pm

#12

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It appears the damage was more insidious than first thought. Two ATX power supplies tried, with jumpers set to PS/2 Supply (instead of Mac Supply). No fan, no beep, no noise, no Mac.

I have given up at this point.

2012, January 25 - 12:34am

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@themacmeister:

I have given up at this point.

Battery? Although a PC/Mac may or may not run with a flat battery, I don't know if it would run if there is no battery present in the case? To me it would suggest there is a circuit break caused by no battery being present, but I don't know for sure.

Just guessing, but it may have some bearing.

Also, the pc-133 RAM, if not tested as working in a Mac previously, may be incompatible. I have a beige G3 and several sticks of RAM that I've tried in it were pc-133 AND not compatible. They definitely caused the symptoms (or lack of) that you're describing. Test with 1 stick at a time to weed out dud RAM (but not before you also add a battery to the mix).

Duh! The Cuda switch. You have to reset it each time you do something radical like swap a PSU etc. Its the little bumpy button on the mobo (near PCI slot furthest away from CPU, IIRC).

Also. You have all the other cards? Specifically, the I/O audio card and voltage regulator cards are there in place?

2012, January 25 - 1:05am

#14

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I believe all the cards are in place. I don't have a battery, but will attempt to get one today (the original PSU may actually be working!). I was testing with a single 512MB pc-133 RAM chip in, so that was not such a hot idea.

I hit the CUDA switch before each attempt. There is no obvious damage, and no swollen or burst capacitors, so I think it may work after getting the battery replaced!

I'll give it a try!

2012, January 25 - 1:09am

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I was testing with a single 512MB pc-133 RAM chip in

Yes there are definite issues with 512 DIMMs in the beige G3 depending on mobo revision. Test with 256 MB or lower if possible.

2012, January 25 - 1:12am

#16

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DANG! I have to pick up the little pieces I threw on the floor... this could get interesting!

Are you sure it is 1/2 AA? The battery enclosure looked too narrow for those stubby little fellas.

2012, January 25 - 1:19am

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Yes, "1/2 AA Lithium 3.6 volt" to be precise.

2012, January 25 - 6:39am

#18

Durandall

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I'm not sure what model you have, but I have a G3 minitower here I don't want anymore.

2012, January 25 - 10:23am

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@Durandall:

I have a G3 minitower here I don't want anymore

I'm tempted, but I live in NSW (Australia), and if you don't, then postage costs would be an issue for me.

2012, January 25 - 11:14am

#20

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Afraid not. I live in the US and the G3 "minitower" is certainly not mini and is quite heavy!

2012, January 26 - 8:20am

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@Durandall: too bad (we're not in the same state & country)... themacmeister also is an Aussie denizen, so is in the same boat as me.

2012, January 26 - 12:49am

#22

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OK. 100th time lucky!

http://i.imgur.com/J92DI.jpg

I have a 512MB, 256MB and 128MB DIMM installed, for a total of 640MB available.

I have disabled the startup RAM check, but it still takes a long time to start up.

The only real issue now is the loose power supply, and video RAM.

I was also thinking of dropping a PCI Realtek 8139D NIC card into the box, to possibly get 100baseT speeds (instead of 10).

PS. My USB card must be USB 2.0, as it doesn't work at all

PPS. Thanks people! you helped me get it working, when I had almost given up hope!

2012, January 26 - 5:29am

#23

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OK, some issues:

Toast 5.2.3 does not seem able to burn DVDs (although it might create DVD images).

Startup is abnormally long, leading me to think disabling the startup RAM check had no effect.

I am worried that the lack of a fan sucking air from the motherboard will lead to overheating. I did use some thermal grease when replacing the CPU (it had a dry pad on the heatsink).

The existing CD-ROM vibrated so much, I was worried the machine would shake apart. I have since put in a DVD-RW.

QUESTION: Can I burn DVDs under OS9? How?

2012, January 26 - 9:11am

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@themacmeister: congrats on getting this up an running. Already some issues?

The long startup check; you might think that you've disabled the long RAM check but its still going to build a humungous RAM disk each time it boots with all that RAM installed. You can either disable virtual RAM, or ditch the 512 MB DIMM to speed things up.

512 DIMMs on this Mac is asking for trouble IMO. If you suddenly start getting intermittent crashes, ditch the 512. This Mac is rated for 384 MB max, yes we know it can handle more but issues with RAM I've had on this Mac model also include 512 MB DIMMs - FLAKEY. Besides if you're only going to run OS 9 on it then 384 is loads of RAM.

As for the vid RAM. I tried earlier to point you towards a very suitable card for this Mac (it went for $6 in the end)...

I haven't used Realtek NIC cards in a Mac to date, I've always favoured Kingston Nics and their drivers are easy to come by. But yes upping the throughput to 100 Mbit really does help.

A USB 2.0 card can still be useable in this Mac it just needs to be backwards compatible with USB 1.1 - Check the main chipset on any USB card you want to use. Look for: "NEC D720101GJ". If it has that chip on the board, it will be Mac compatible regardless of manufacturer of the card. However you also need to install the Mac USB PCI card drivers (available from Apple), version 1.4 for Mac OS 8.6 - 9.2.2 are the best.

Toast will burn DVD's, it may only have a setting under the criteria for CD, but if your data exceeds 700+ MBs it will burn it anyway up to the capacity of the DVD. Caveat is that no individual file should exceed 2 GB - So I wouldn't bother attempting .ISO creation of DVDs here. Burning a bunch of files 2GB or less each in size to a single DVD shouldn't be a problem if all you need to do is archive files. - I prefer to use ImgBurn on Windows for all of my burning needs these days, for Mac & Winders archiving.

Cheers.

2012, January 26 - 10:34am

#25

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Typing this from my new machine Internet Explorer 5.17

I hear what you are saying about the new graphics card, but I am strapped for cash, and I need to top up my VISA debit card at the bank (no online access).

I will disable Virtual Memory, and see if that speeds things up.

I just saw Tiger running on this (XPostFacto4) and it looked pretty sweet. There is still a lot of OS X software that will run on Tiger, so it may be worth a try (with 640MB RAM!).

I have had a few random crashes (during startup) BUS Errors mainly. I will remove the 256&512 and stick to three matching 128MB DIMMs.

Without a real Mac monitor, I am stuck with a fixed resolution. I will get this fixed at some point I hope. When I found the three Macs (Beige G3 Desktop, 12" iBook and 60x0 Server), I was shocked to discover no matching Mac compatible monitors!

Can I write DVDs using Apple's CD Burner extension/app (packet writing?)?

Otherwise, I'll stick to Toast.

Haven't had this much retro fun in AGES!.

PS. Now the PRAM battery is charged and working, I might reinstall and test the original power supply.

2012, January 26 - 11:12am

#26

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Also note:

While testing 4-port PCI USB adaptor, I was missing USBHID extensions (x2). While testing, with a MOUSE, the mouse flashed, and was then non-functional. I will give it another try, now I have all the USB extensions in place.

2012, January 27 - 1:04am

#27

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Update: packed neatly away for now. Was taking up way too much space. Searching for:

1. New graphics card
1a. New combo drive/dvd burner
2. 80GB HDD (I know where to find this )
3. Tiger PPC install CDs/DVD (I think I have this backed up somewhere)
4. PCI 2/4 port USB card

Need to test:

old power supply (may still be working)
USB PCI card (may still be working)

On the back-burner for now, all software and hardware I have has been applied. Taking a little time away from it.

Cheers to everyone here who helped me get this working!