Removed all of the ATX extension cables routed to one of the back slots on the G4.
The SFX power supply is now sitting on top of the optical drive bays and the case closes! The ATX and P4 power connectors are attached to the MDD-ATX adapter cable.
I need to get some Velcro or 3M command strips...
The SFX power supply arrived today. Compared to the ATX power supply that was connected to it, it's really small. Unfortunately, the SFX power supply has no Molex power connectors.
Despite the vast amount of cables I have lying around, I don't have any SATA to Molex power adapters. I have...
I finally ordered a SFX power supply made by a company I have actually heard of. I'm hoping I will use it more once I don't have to worry about the ATX power supply falling off the top of the case.
I sent the power supply back to the seller of the ATX adapter cable for a credit. It didn’t work and having someone else service it was going to be around $90 - a bit much for me at the time.
I ordered a couple of SATA to IDE adapters that plug directly in the logic board, but haven’t tried...
I removed all outer plastic parts from the case, and there was some hair and dust. Most of it was near the air intake holes on the front panel and behind the optical bay fan, but eww :) .
I bought a StarLink SATA to IDE adapter instead of a SATA PCI card. Given how small 2.5" SATA drives are...
A dual 867mhz G4 processor card arrived today. Woohoo!
I want to replace the original hard disk with an SSD and install MacOS 9 and X to it before doing the processor swap.
After a few weeks, I have the MDD working.
ATX adapter cable
Replacement logic board (ripped off a capacitor with the pad and trace while removing it to clean the case) (soldering iron died while trying to fix the original logic board)
SATA to IDE adapter (haven’t used it yet, but will this...
Right now the power supply is on top of the case.
I won’t be able to use it until I build or buy an ATX adapter cable, fix the power supply or buy another power supply.
The PRAM battery arrived a day early, so I went ahead and installed it. This time it booted to MacOS 9.2. The fans sounded like they were going to behave initially, but sporadically started to spin up to full speed a few times before the system went into suspend mode.
Definitely sounds like the...
I hope to get it working again. I found out who the original owner was, only to find out they died in 2022. It made me feel different about the computer.
I ordered a battery for it that will arrive in a few days.
I'm also looking at one of the cables to allow it to use an ATX power supply...
Reapplied heat sink paste since it appeared to be original. Same issue when powering on the system.
It doesn't power off completely, but goes into sleep or suspend mode. Pressing a key on the keyboard turns on the power LED on the keyboard for a second and then turns off.
The speaker has also...
Apparently "working" is something of a misnomer.
I tried booting from the original drive one last time before removing it. The fans started at full blast, it got to a desktop after several tries, and then powered off.
I'm hoping a reinstall will fix it.
I wouldn't mind upgrading the memory on it, but I took all of the older memory DIMMS I had to electronics recycling a few months ago. I think that I only have DDR3 and DDR4 memory in my stash.
I didn't expect that I would find a computer that would actually use memory that old.
Once I reload...