Biege G3!!

[iamdigitalman]

nope, at least I don't think I do. Maybe in this one big box of computer parts. I did have 3-4 52x drives I got cheap, and a 32x sony drive...

-digital

 

[LCGuy]

I also noticed the ATI video card has a SGRAM slot, which is odd, because I do not know of any older ATI Rage cards with expandable memory. I will ID it in ASP as soon as I am done copying files.

Ayup, they sure did. All Beige G3s and tray load iMacs with either a Rage IIc, Rage II+DVD or Rage Pro came with an SGRAM slot on the mobo that could take a 2 or 4 MB SGRAM DIMM. Later machines (such as Rev. C G3s (IIRC) and Rev. B, C and D iMacs) already came with a 4MB DIMM in the slot.

 

[iamdigitalman]

I installed the ATI utilities, and it recognises the PCi card as a Rage Pro. The built in stuff is a Mach64, and ASP identifies that as having 4mb of VRAM. No idea how much the card has. The slot on it is empty.

Makes me wonder what revision the ROM is, not that I care...

-digital

 

[LCGuy]

The BIV would be a Rage IIc...the Rage II was basically a redesigned Mach64. On top of that, those were the only three chips that Apple used on the Beige G3s: The Rage IIc, Rage II+DVD and Rage Pro. Rage IIc machines got a Rev. A ROM, so yours would most likely be Rev. A

 

[alk]

People say "Rage IIc", but they really mean Rage II+DVD (the two are virtually the same thing, and the underlying 2D/3D acceleration of the II+DVD is the same as the IIc). I've never actually heard of a Rev A machine with a straight Rage IIc. My two Rev A boards have Rage II+DVD. But all that is a fancy way of saying Mach64, and it's a silly distinction. ;-)

Rage IIc was used on the x500 Gazelle motherboards (about time, too, as the Valkyrie was getting a little dated). IIc/II+DVD/Mach64 was also used on Rev A Bondi iMacs.

The Rage Pro was used on Rev B beige G3s and on Rev B/C/D iMacs.

The video card is probably an ATI XClaim 3D Pro. (More here: http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/Graphics/index6.html )

Peace,

Drew

 

[iamdigitalman]

all I know is my head is spinning with all of these video card names. I know about them all, but when you list them all in one post, and connect them, that's a major brain fart

I got office 2k1 installed. Going out to find a USB->PS/2 adapter, so I can use the existing keyboard and mouse, and they have a descent pentium killer.

-digital

 

[Temetka]

Beige's are great machines. I have one that has been working great for me for years. Good quality machine. Almost as good as my 8500, almost.

 

[iamdigitalman]

alright, I got it all set up, hooked up, and I am typing on it now in iCab 3.03 under OS 9.2.2.

One issue I am having is I can not get the Deskjet 812c to work. It's hooked to the USB card, but the HP utility can not find it, even though it is hooked in properly (tried both USB ports), and it's on.

Any thoughts? I always seem to have trouble with printing in OS 9. I don't know why.

other than that, it's a great fast little box, virus free (thanks to norton systemworks), which I think my dad will get a lot of use from, a lot more than the slow as molasses windows 98 pentium 166 box, which would always crash. I have only had 2 type 11 errors on boot, but only after installing something, and a nother reboot fixed that problem.

Oh, and I love how GURU (guide to RAM upgrades), the little app put out by newer does not seem to think Apple made a Beige G3 in a 233mhz tower config, but made a 233 in a desktop config. It's not there.

-digital

 

[iamdigitalman]

hello from the beige. I popped 10.2.8 on it tonight. Runs like a champ with 384mb, quite a nice rock stable machine, until my dad figures out how to KP the thing. He already locked up 9.2.2 hard more than a dozen times, so I figured I may as well pop X on it.

Now I just need Office 2k4 and a working printer, and USB -> ADB adapter, and away we go.

-digital

 

[alk]

You'll probably want to stick with ADB on that machine as the USB card requires drivers (it doesn't have drivers in the ROM like later machines) to work and thus won't work until the OS boots past a certain point. If you ever need to trouble shoot, ADB is indispensable.

Are you using the Rage Pro for video? I would recommend putting at least a Rage 128 in there as it has better support in OS X. Rage 128s should be cheap ($20 or less) on the used market.

Peace,

Drew