a Completely Scatterbrained Thread About the Beige G3/266

[jhvaughan2]

Next thing I'm considering is maybe overclocking from 266 to 300mhz... has anyone here done that?

I have lots of pages on how to do it, but I think it would make me feel better to hear some success stories first.

Go for it. I've been successful getting my 266 to 300 (pushed it a bit higher but it hung a couple of times) and my 300 to 420! (Too scared to push any more.)

Just get something that can check your CPU temperature. I used the one from powerlogix but it only runs in os9.

See details on the temperature subject at http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/tips/G3_temp.html also http://www.wmld.com/tech/wierdg3.html has some good info.

I don't know how the MT or Desktop are but the AIO design, closing the case is critical to the airflow over the processor. It will heat up to scary levels if you leave it open while you test.

 

[Temetka]

Ahh, the G3.

I still have my BeigeG3 MT sitting in the closet. It's an awesome machine.

Instead of overclocking the machine (which works fine on most boards. I OC'd my 300 to 366 for a while before I bought a ZIF G4), I would suggest picking up a faster processor off of e-bay for cheap.

 

[Unknown_K]

I have 2 Beige G3's, I removed both stock chips and replaced them with the 1MB cache ones (400 oc to 433 in the tower, and a 300 in the desktop). 1MB cache seems to make them decently faster then the older 512K versions they started with (266 I think they were).

 

[aphetica]

Ahh, the G3.
I still have my BeigeG3 MT sitting in the closet. It's an awesome machine.

Instead of overclocking the machine (which works fine on most boards. I OC'd my 300 to 366 for a while before I bought a ZIF G4), I would suggest picking up a faster processor off of e-bay for cheap.

I'm planning to do that, but I just thought this would be fun (and a learning experience) right now, while I'm utterly broke.

Are there any problems with adding a G4? Any loss of compatibility in OS9? One of my main reasons for having this machine around is to have something with functional scsi and OS9 gaming, etc.

 

[aphetica]

The last OS to support the Rage chip was 10.2.

By the way, I had no problems getting 10.4 installed without a video card. Did you mean official support?

 

[aphetica]

Next thing I'm considering is maybe overclocking from 266 to 300mhz... has anyone here done that?

I have lots of pages on how to do it, but I think it would make me feel better to hear some success stories first.

Go for it. I've been successful getting my 266 to 300 (pushed it a bit higher but it hung a couple of times) and my 300 to 420! (Too scared to push any more.)

Just get something that can check your CPU temperature. I used the one from powerlogix but it only runs in os9.

See details on the temperature subject at http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/tips/G3_temp.html also http://www.wmld.com/tech/wierdg3.html has some good info.

I don't know how the MT or Desktop are but the AIO design, closing the case is critical to the airflow over the processor. It will heat up to scary levels if you leave it open while you test.

Do you remember what jumper settings and bus speed you used? It seems like there is more than one way to get to 300mhz.

In the desktop model, the fan is almost directly over the processor, so I don't think heat should be too much of a problem, although if it is, I could always redirect some airflow or... I'm sure I have a larger heatsink around somewhere.

 

[aphetica]

Just ran into a minor problem.

I used the G3 in 10.4 all last night and earlier this afternoon, shutting down several times and everything was fine.

I went to start it up late (2am?) today, and it loaded to the happy mac icon and simply hung there perpetually.

Following the troubleshooting file included in Xpostfacto, I rebooted into OS9 by restarting with the option key held down. (the timing was kind of tricky)

I relaunched Xpostfacto from within OS9 and chose my 10.4 partition and rebooted and everything worked fine once again.

Not a big deal, but I figured I'd post my progress / troubleshooting in this thread incase anyone else runs into the same issues.

I believe I initially ran into this problem because my battery is slowly dying... (it won't keep the system time and date) I'll have to replace that eventually.

 

[iMac600]

If you're using XPostFacto for OS X, a good PRAM battery is crucial. I found that with almost every machine i've run it on, running without a good battery can cause the machine to hang on boot, restart into OS 9 constantly, etc.

 

[aphetica]

Do you remember offhand approximately how much they cost?

Does anyone know if there is a firmware update available for the 266, and if there is, will updating the firmware effect the way xpostfacto works?

 

[bluekatt]

if i recall they cost no more then a fiver

and what do you want a firmware upgrade for ?

 

[Quadraman]

You got real lucky bumping that 300 to 420. Most beige G3's don't have the parts necessary to do that. I know my two don't.

When overclocking in general, though, you want to bump the bus as high as you can get away with even if it means knocking down the CPU multiplier. A slightly slower CPU on a faster bus makes for a faster machine overall. If you can bump both the bus and the multiplier then you're golden, but more often than not that won't happen.

 

[aphetica]

if i recall they cost no more then a fiverand what do you want a firmware upgrade for ?

Just so everything is up to date.

 

[Temetka]

The last OS to support the Rage chip was 10.2.

By the way, I had no problems getting 10.4 installed without a video card. Did you mean official support?

Yeah.

There was a lawsuit against Apple relating to the video capabilities of the beige g3's in OS X.

From what I remember, when I upgraded to 10.3 I had to get a new video card. This is when I also had to use Xpostfacto, as X.2 Jaguar is supported on the Beige G3. I recall there being an option in Xpostfacto to 'force old nddrivers' or something like that. Basically it was telling Xpostfacto to re-load the old video driver and tell X to use it.

My memory of events could be off. I have been blessed for the last few years in owning machines that do not need to be hacked in order to be OS X compliant.

 

[aphetica]

Okay, so I got it to boot at 292mhz w/ 83mhz bus. I tried 300mhz w/ 66mhz, but I couldn't get the machine to boot...

How do I know if I am running at a safe speed? Is there any way to test for stability? Temperature sensing apps or benchmarking? What do you prefer?

Also, is there a specific type of jumper that I should be using? I just used some spare HD jumpers I had.

I probably should have done benchmarks before I overclocked.

 

[Bunsen]

One thing to do is to replace the thermal goop between the CPU die and the heatsink. It will almost certainly have dried out. There are guides.

 

[Quadraman]

Okay, so I got it to boot at 292mhz w/ 83mhz bus. I tried 300mhz w/ 66mhz, but I couldn't get the machine to boot...
How do I know if I am running at a safe speed? Is there any way to test for stability? Temperature sensing apps or benchmarking? What do you prefer?

Also, is there a specific type of jumper that I should be using? I just used some spare HD jumpers I had.

I probably should have done benchmarks before I overclocked.

Just because it is booting doesn't necessarily mean it is stable at that speed. You should give it an intense break in like running folding@home for a few days straight without powering down. If it survives that, it should be good for anything else you need. Oh,and some Arctic Silver and an oversized heatsink/cooling fan would be nice, just in case.

 

[aphetica]

Also, it's reporting my vram as 8mb despite everymac saying that this machine's max vram is 6mb. I do not have a video card installed.

I've had it up for about 40 minutes total and installed the new Tiger updates. It seemed to get a little warm then and the HD temp went from 22c to 26c, but I really don't think that's indicative of ambient temperature.

I have some fans around that I can use until I can get some thermal paste. I wonder what the chances are that I can get a quieter / higher airflow fan to replace the PSU fan.

 

[aphetica]

Just because it is booting doesn't necessarily mean it is stable at that speed. You should give it an intense break in like running folding@home for a few days straight without powering down. If it survives that, it should be good for anything else you need.

Will do. I'm still trying to find some kind of temperature monitor though.

 

[Temetka]

As for replacing the fan in the PSU, the is easy.

Open 'er up. Measure the fan and take note of the connection type (or if the wires are soldered on to the PCB). Next thing is to visit your friend google, and get to work.

My BeigeG3 runs stable at 83MHz. It is a Rev A board with a Rev B ROM and a Raytheon VRM for G4's.

 

[aphetica]

As for replacing the fan in the PSU, the is easy.
Open 'er up. Measure the fan and take note of the connection type (or if the wires are soldered on to the PCB). Next thing is to visit your friend google, and get to work.

My BeigeG3 runs stable at 83MHz. It is a Rev A board with a Rev B ROM and a Raytheon VRM for G4's.

I know how to replace a fan, I just hate shopping for them. :/ You don't happen know what dB the PSU fan runs at, do you?

What difference does the rev. B ROM make?