My last G4 Died, and prices are increasing on ebay

[CC_333]

The 1.5 GB limit is in the process of being broken over at the MacOS9Lives forum, so it may very well happen one day that OS 9 can use the full 2 GB that an MDD (or, indeed, even a Sawtooth) can provide.

That being said, if you go with an MDD again, a single CPU will suffice (ideally, a 2003 re-release model, as those are slightly newer and may be slightly less prone to failure) as OS 9 can't natively use the second CPU outside of a few special applications (such as Photoshop). Unless you want to run Mac OS X at some point (in which case, a Dual 1.25 or 1.42 would be ideal).

Otherwise, I second the Quicksilver suggestion.

As Quicksilvers go, I suggest finding a 2002 model if you can, as they were available with slightly faster processors, and they can natively support drives larger than 128 GB on the internal IDE interfaces.

Sadly, based on my eBay search, everyone is overpricing both models substantially. Your best bet therefore would be to find someone semi-locally on either here or LEM Swap, or perhaps Craigslist.

To repair what you have now, are you sure it's the logic board? If so, it might be most cost effective to simply get a new one of those.

Whatever ends up, I wish you luck!

c

 

[uniserver]

what ever happened to "iMic"  and the G4 Mac mini & Mac os9... They were making some pretty huge levels of progress.

a 1.5 / 1.6 ghz mac mini would...  Run MacOS9 like a dream. 

 

[uniserver]

ah here is the progress..  https://www.thinkclassic.org/viewtopic.php?id=46&p=7

 

[EvilCapitalist]

I second checking Craigslist.  Looking at my local one right now there are a handful that can be had in working condition for $30-$100 and I've seen many times before people getting rid of them without RAM or HDs for under $30.

 

[flashedbios2012]

what about good video cards.  I figure when I do buy the tower, I'm going to have to buy a better video card and replace the DVD Burner.  Never in my life has a used mac I've purchased come with a working dvd burner.  The lasers are always shot.

 

[Elfen]

Considering the technology of the time, you are going to get the best there is for then. You are not getting a top-of-the-line AGP or PCI from PC and make it work on a 10 year old Mac. Even if you flash the Video card's ROMs for it to work on a Mac.

Why OS 9? Why Why such a system - 2GB on a superfast G4? Why not a G5 if you want speed? And 4 - 16 GB depending on the G5 Model. OS9 is not going to see all that RAM for one. An old G5 XServe on ebay is only going for as low as $200.

My daily driver is Powerbook G4 and I have a G5 Tower and a Mac Mini (Intel though) and they (not the Mac Mini) run both OSX 10.4 and OS9.2. For me there is some specific software I need to use OS9 on (like FreeHand and a couple CAD Programs and maybe a few games) but everything else I use OSX. I also have a MDD G4 that has that special card that runs the 25in Hi-Res Apple screen that does not plug into the wall; and that card does not fit into my G5! (Damn.)

As for your G4 Towers? Considering their age, I can almost bet that they have cap failure like the older Macs suffer from. You need to look over the boards and see what can be done to fix them. CPUs fail because they over heat. But the rest of the board can be fine, you need to find out.

Also, you can take a slower machine and put your G4 CPUs from your MDDs if you saved them; this is within reason. Read:

http://www.jcsenterprises.com/Japamacs_Page/Processors.html

You need to sit down and look before it is not too late and a couple of fixable Macs end up in a Garbage Truck's Crusher.

 

[khannonnd]

A couple of days ago, I emailed my old high school to see if they had any old Apple products sitting in a closet somewhere.  Apparently they have a G4 and (the person thinks) a cheese-grater tower of unknown provenance.  I know nothing other than that (i.e., I don't know if it is a MDD, Quicksilver, or even older).  I will be picking them up tomorrow.  If the G4 looks like it fits what you need, I will drop you a line as I am not that far from you.  

 

[flashedbios2012]

I like the way OS9 looks and works.  As for why such a machine, G4s are the last machines that run os9.  G5s will not run os9.  OS9 reminds me of the days I was a kid, and it lets me hide from growing up.

 

[Elfen]

I like the way OS9 looks and works.  As for why such a machine, G4s are the last machines that run os9.  G5s will not run os9.  OS9 reminds me of the days I was a kid, and it lets me hide from growing up.

Funny, G4s are not supposed to run OS9 directly either but can under OSX 10.4 (which is what I do). And the G5 can also run OS9 under OSX 10.4, which I also do as well on my Dual G5 2.1GHz tower and have done it on an Xserve long ago. But to boot straight off into OS9 without OSX on a G4, personally, I never seen it done and believe me I tried doing it myself so many times.

Note: I'm not discrediting you or what you did on your system. I'm just saying that I never saw it done or did it myself directly. On a G3 - yes. That I seen and done many times but not on a G4. What I am saying is that I seen and done OS9 through an OSX underpinning layer through a G4 and OSX 10.4. Now accepting that If you got a way to Boot OS9 directly on a G4 without OSX, I want to know how it's done so I can do it myself.

 

[trag]

ah here is the progress..  https://www.thinkclassic.org/viewtopic.php?id=46&p=7

Wow! Thanks for the reference. That lead to a couple hours interesting reading.

 

[khannonnd]

Funny, G4s are not supposed to run OS9 directly either but can under OSX 10.4 (which is what I do). And the G5 can also run OS9 under OSX 10.4, which I also do as well on my Dual G5 2.1GHz tower and have done it on an Xserve long ago. But to boot straight off into OS9 without OSX on a G4, personally, I never seen it done and believe me I tried doing it myself so many times.

Note: I'm not discrediting you or what you did on your system. I'm just saying that I never saw it done or did it myself directly. On a G3 - yes. That I seen and done many times but not on a G4. What I am saying is that I seen and done OS9 through an OSX underpinning layer through a G4 and OSX 10.4. Now accepting that If you got a way to Boot OS9 directly on a G4 without OSX, I want to know how it's done so I can do it myself.

It definitely can be done -- One of the computers my family had growing up was the first-gen G4 systems with AGP graphics.  It shipped with OS 8.6.  My college computer was a 2002 Quicksilver (933mhz) and shipped with 9.2...  

 

[Unknown_K]

OS 9 can be run up until the FW800 MDD G4 model towers natively. Powerbooks G4's are a different story (not sure why Apple did that).

 

[Elfen]

I see. That clears up a lot of things. The only thing I see is that it may be limited to a few specific models, which is fine.

Time to research the CD/DVDs I have and see what I can do with it.

And thanks.

Now Q: Did you throw out the dead Macs or mummified them? I hope you mummified them, in the least you can get another board and put your CPUs and cards on it.

 

[flashedbios2012]

As for the dead macs, I saved their CPUs and power supplies, and gave the cases to a computer nerd kid

 

[khannonnd]

Well I thought one of the machines I was picking up today was a G4, but it wasn't, it was a 1.8ghz dual processor G5.  The lowest OS it can run is 10.3.4, I believe, so I don't think it will match what you're looking for.  Sorry

 

[flashedbios2012]

Id still be interested in the G5.  Especially since its a Dually and I have plenty of DDR 1GB Sticks laying around to max that thing out at 8GB like it was meant to be used.  

 

[flashedbios2012]

Plus it will still run OS9 under Tiger as classic mode.

 

[khannonnd]

Can you make it up to the SF area any time soon? Or part of the way?

 

[rezwits]

Get a job at a computer recycle center.  You'll love it!

 

[Brett B.]

I have a dead QS G4 that you can have if you pay the shipping...doubt if it's more than $30 or so.  It for sure has a bad power supply but I think the logic board is OK, it's been a while since I messed with it.