266MHZ Beige G3 mini tower buildup

[Green78II]

Over the past couple days or so I've been working on a G3 mini tower I picked up on ebay for $30 shipped. So far all I've done is clean it up a bit, get it running, and check to see what's damaged. So far the only problem is the floppy drive won't read any of my disks so I'm replacing it with a G3 floppy drive I found on eBay for $15 shipped. I haven't tested the USB card yet but I'm sure it will work fine.

I plan on installing a 1 GHZ G3 processor, 768 MB RAM, os 10.2.8, a 80GB hard drive and a 4 MB VRAM card and possibly a new video card later.

Some pics

 

[Mac SK]

ReallyCool Dude! Talk like that got me almost ran off another fourm.The

G5 Intel Elite would tell you to kick that crap to the curb like they

did me. I say stick it to the man and rock that puppy.

 

[Temetka]

Nice.

I love my BeigeG3MT.

Maybe not as much as my 8500, but still plenty of love left over for sharing.

 

[LCGuy]

Very nice. If I may ask though, why 10.2.8? A machine like that is just crying for 10.3 or 10.4...not to mention that you'll be able to run more modern software, too

 

[Green78II]

I thought the maximum OS for it was 10.2.8, but if it'll run tiger, i'll put that on instead.

 

[sircabulon]

as far as running panther or tiger, you have to have the original system discs. It won't install without help from xpostfacto, but i can guide you along if that is the route you wish to take

 

[Green78II]

I have the install discs for tiger that came with my iBook.

 

[equill]

I have the install discs for tiger that came with my iBook.

Those are 'system-specific' installation discs. Are their labels grey? 'Original' in this context means non-specific to any hardware setup but one that supports the installation, and XPostFacto is used to extend the 'support' to otherwise 'unsupported' hardware. Convoluted, ain't it?

de

 

[Christopher]

I have been able to use iBook disks on other macs. Thats the only ones that seem to be workable.

 

[tomlee59]

I have been able to use iBook disks on other macs. Thats the only ones that seem to be workable.

The retail discs are model-agnostic. However, the discs that Apple ships with a given computer are usually model-specific. If you've had success with using them on other models, you've gotten lucky (or those other models are basically of the same type).

 

[Christopher]

I have been able to use iBook disks on other macs. Thats the only ones that seem to be workable.

The retail discs are model-agnostic. However, the discs that Apple ships with a given computer are usually model-specific. If you've had success with using them on other models, you've gotten lucky (or those other models are basically of the same type).

iMac G4, PowerMac G4.... PowerBook G3 :beige:

 

[Hrududu]

I'd see about using xpostfacto to install 10.3 on it. I found that 10.2 was a nightmare on the older G3 hardware (beige G3, Wallstreet Powerbooks). Not to mention, Panther just runs much faster anyway. As far as install discs being computer spacific, I never ran into that until the 10.4 discs I got with my Mac Mini G4.

 

[Green78II]

Ok, I'm still trying to figure out what os to put on, but I'll probably still go with tiger if it installs. I came up short on cash this week so I haven't ordered everything, and the only thing installed is the floppy drive. I'm also ordering a dvd drive and a ati radeon 7000 64mb video card on top of everything else.

 

[tmtomh]

I've fiddled with OS X and XPostFacto on a number of beige G3s, and my conclusion is that you should use either 10.4 Tiger or 10.2 Jaguar. There's no reason ever to use 10.3 Panther with it (unless of course you have Panther disks lying around and you don't have Tiger).

In my experience, beige G3s are either totally stable with XPostFacto-based installs, or totally flaky to the point of being unusable. Whether the install is Panther or Tiger makes no difference.

So install Tiger with XPostFacto. If it works, great. If it's a disaster, then it will be a disaster with Panther too, so you might as well wipe the drive and drop back to Jaguar (which is supported natively and doesn't require XPostFacto).

So either way, there's no reason to use Panther.

M

 

[Green78II]

I'm not sure how I'm going to get xpostfacto on the new drive. Is there a way to run two ide drives at once? I think I read somewhere you can't.

 

[equill]

There were three revisions of the Beige G3 ROM: -A (LROG434-01/02), -B (LROG434-02) and -C (LROG434-03), and all with part no 820-0954. There are five subspecies of the Rev. A, but none of them allows more than one drive on each ATA bus. Loose Rev. B ROMs seem to be scarce, but Rev. B or Rev. C (the latter being far commoner) will allow two drives (master/slave) on a bus. Rev. B does not conflict with the Sonnet Tempo Trio PCI card, which gives you USB, FireWire and ATA-133 on a single card, but that is a very small difficulty if the Trio is not in your plans. That being the case, a Rev. C ROM will suit you, and be more easily obtained.

de

 

[Green78II]

An update: I'm short on cash, but I was able to scrape together enough money to buy everything but the new processor and the video card. I also ended up getting a USB 2.0 card because the installed card is only 1.1. I expect to have the stuff on Wednesday. Also, I pulled off all the keys from the keyboard and cleaned them all individually with rubbing alcohol. The keyboard now looks brand new.

The rom chip says

264v515a

820-0954-01

Wraith ROM

 

[Green78II]

Well, Got some more parts today. (DVD Drive, RAM, VRAM, and USB 2.0 card) Unfortunately the USB 2.0 card isn't compatible with the beige models. It wouldn't even chime at startup. Everything else works fine though.

Now As soon as I get the money for the processor and Video card I'll be in business!!

Oh yeah, I noticed that I have two devices on one IDE channel, the CD drive and the Zip drive. I'm thinking about swapping the zip drive for the hard drive and seeing if it recognizes it and will let me install OSX on it..

 

[jhvaughan2]

Oh yeah, I noticed that I have two devices on one IDE channel, the CD drive and the Zip drive. I'm thinking about swapping the zip drive for the hard drive and seeing if it recognizes it and will let me install OSX on it..

I don't remember the particulars, but I do remember I had some trouble installing/booting osx on a beige g3 when the boot disks were not the master drive. To make it easier on yourself put the dvd on one and the hd on the other ATA bus. I also recommend Tiger over Panther. It runs faster and you can keep itunes and firefox up to date. I also setup a swap partition at 2-3x my memory and move the swapfiles there. (It appears to help, but I have no empirical data.) Search for "osx moving swap files" for more info. Also get yourself a copy of TinkerTool and switch off dashboard, as it sucks up more power that it is worth on a g3.

JHV