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help with Power Macintosh G3 400 (Blue & White)

mraroid

Well-known member
You don't, but this is probably something where you should just try a few configurations, get yourself a 2TB or smaller USB drive to back up data from your Power Mac, and then just have fun rconfiguring it and trying different things.

At this point, because every single person has a different personal idea on how to do things, you're never going to decide anything if you shift gears after every single post.

I would hold off on buying anything else, except perhaps an under-128GB IDE hard disk and just start trying things out. If I'm reading correctly you already have almost two or three whole machines worth of parts and you have yet to get it to boot into an OS.

It's great to bounce ideas around, but at some point you either have to

1) think about the advice and synthesize what you think might be the best strategy

2) given that you've laid down money and have hardware in your hands, start doing things.
I have a plan, but still waiting on parts.  The B&W G3 is up and running on the mechanical hard drive that came with it.  I am enjoying playing with the more modern OS 8. 5 something. 

I like to play with hardware.  I found a Yikes! motherboard for under $20, and a G4 500Mhz processor for just under $20.  I am looking for jumpers to set the CPU on the Yikes board.  I am trying to figure out the speed of the CD burner in the B&W and may upgrade it.  I have decided to run a version of OSX  - I think it will be fun.  I bought a PCI card that will give me two USB 2.0 ports if I run it under OSX.  My friend is mailing me some CDs of 9.22 and a version of OSX for a G4.  I will not know the details until they arrive.  I have a 128 GB solid state drive on hand.  But I am not going to install that until the Yikes! motherboard and CPU arrive.  And then I hope to use the G4 CDs my friend has in the mail to me.

My B&W G3 motherboard is V2.  I thought that many some folks here that are running a V1 motherboard might want to buy mine.  It is a 400Mhz board and I am going to sell it with the processor.  I do not expect much for it. I am going to pull the CPU and use the brand of thermal paste I like (Arctic MX-4) to re instill it.  Nuts I know - but this is my idea if fun.

I have built most of my computers and build super fast computers for kids that like to play on line games (two high end video cars, two ethernet ports, etc).  It is really fun for me to play with older Mac hardware.  I prefer something old and broken that I can take apart and play with.  As soon as I am set up and working I would like to grab a few things on Macintosh garden for my Mystic.  After that, I want to set up FTP or something similar so I can move files over the network from the Yikes! to the Mystic.

mraroid

 

mraroid

Well-known member
I want to put this in a separate post to double down on these two points:

- You have hardware in your hands, start trying it!
I am using it right now.  Things are running fine on the old mechanical hard drive.  I am learning my way around 8.5.  Installing a PCI card today.  Just pulled some ethernet to the B&W last night.

 - Mac OS 9 will never render the Macintosh Garden "correctly" - you can perhaps get to "slightly less bad" if you use Classilla, but that's not the point - and more importantly, it sounds like part of your issue is that you don't want to wait for pages to load on your CC.
The down load speeds seem fine to me (on the Mystic), but moving from page to page take quite some time.  I feel like I could go outside, rake some leaves, and mow the lawn before it loads.  OK, that was an exaggeration - maybe just rake the leaves.  :)

There's actually some other potential creative solutions for this, but the real thing you need to do before wasting more money on upgrades for literally the worst Power Mac G4 is to just try it!
Will do, just as soon as it arrives.  Plan to get internet up and running on the mechanical hard drive on the G3 under 8.5 and play with it.

If you are side-stepping the advice a few of us have been continuously offering and are still dead-set on using CDs to make backups and load software, your money is probably better spent on a SCSI CD burner for your CC. Especially if you've got data volume on your CC big enough to download 600 megs worth of data, then put it into a disc image file. (So, count on needing around 1.2 gigs to burn a cd, worst case scenario.)
I have a few things I want to get for the Mystic right away.  Like day one.  After that, I want to post some questions about how to set up FTP.  I am holding off on that subject until my hardware is installed. 

mraroid

 

Cory5412

Daring Pioneer of the Future
Staff member
Sorry for being so severe, it hadn't been made clear that the system was running. The last thing I remember seeing before a long wall of posts about buying more upgrades was that it wasn't working.

Do not bother with FTP. It'll be a bigger pain than AppleShare. As a benefit, you can use Stuffit Expander on your G3 to expand archives instead of having to send a compressed or binhexed file to the CC and then process it further. Heck, if the program just unstuffs into a folder, you can straight-up just run it over the network.

On both systems:

 - in Control Panel, open AppleTalk, change it to Ethernet.

On the G3: in Sharing (Control Panel), set a user name and password, click on start sharing.

On the Color Classic: open Chooser (in Apple Menu) click on AppleShare, then click on your G3's system name (settable in sharing) and then click Connect, enter password, shift-click or cmd+click if you want to mount multiple volumes or if you have set up individual share points.

 

mraroid

Well-known member
cory4512.....

It looks like I need some jumpers for setting the speed and other options for the CPU on the Yikes motherboard.  It seems to be the same way for the motherboard for the Blue & White. Where can I buy this? 
 
Also, I am guessing, but not sure, that I can remove the 1 GB of memory from the Blue & White and plug it into the Yikes! motherboard?
Is this true?
 
Thanks,
 
mraroid
 
 
 

mraroid

Well-known member
I am still not sure if the memory from my Blue & White will plug into my Yikes! motherboard.

I think that it will, but not sure.

Anyone?

mraroid

 

mraroid

Well-known member
On both systems:

 - in Control Panel, open AppleTalk, change it to Ethernet.

On the G3: in Sharing (Control Panel), set a user name and password, click on start sharing.

On the Color Classic: open Chooser (in Apple Menu) click on AppleShare, then click on your G3's system name (settable in sharing) and then click Connect, enter password, shift-click or cmd+click if you want to mount multiple volumes or if you have set up individual share points.
 cory5412 or anyone.....

I have internet working on the B&W.  I often use this web site - the owner is a member here:

http://obsolete.macfixer.com/vintage-software/

I am downloading an update to 8.6 now.

I have a shared folder on my B&W desktop.  I went to control panel, to appletalk, and changed it to ethernet.

I booted OS 8.1 on the Color Classic.  I went to Chooser, and selected Appleshare.  But I could not see my B&W. 

I believe I am missing something.  Any suggestions?

Thanks

mraroid

 

Cory5412

Daring Pioneer of the Future
Staff member
One thing I don't notice is whether or not Sharing is turned on.

On your G3, I recommend making sure sharing is on and check the box that says "enable file sharing clients to connect over tcp/ip"

image.png

On the CC, you can either see the G3's hostname (in my case, "knarmac") or you can click on "Server IP Address..." and then enter a hostname (if you have DNS set up on your network) or an IP address.

image.png

If you have 7.5.5 or newer and the newest OpenTransport and AppleShare updates, IP connectivity is fine, I recommend it, even.

In my own home network, AppleTalk doesn't make it across some of the more unconventional devices (in particular, a router I'm using as an internal-only switch and AP) so I have to use IP in that case.

The safest thing in that kind of situation is to make sure both systems you want to use AppleTalk on are on the same switch.

 

mraroid

Well-known member
Cory....

I believe you fixed it.  I did not have a check mark in "enable file sharing clients to connect over tcp/ip".  I fixed that on the G3.  

On the Color Classic, I clicked on Chooser, then Apple Share, and then I could see the hard drive on the B&W.  I had to enter my name and password.  Now I have a icon on the

the 8.1 desktop of the Color Classic.  When I open it, I can see the file folders in the B&W.  I will try to move some files from the B&W to the Color Classic and see how that goes.

I noticed two things in the B&W after I upgraded from 8.6 to 9.22....

The IP address I assigned to the B&W changed.  The B&W still can get on the internet with out issue.  Guess 9.2.2 did a auto assign of an IP address?

When I boot the B&W, I get a screen with a file folder.  In the folder it switches from a happy Mac face to a file folder and back again.  It will do this over and over again for maybe 10 seconds.

After that, I get the normal happy face Mac, and then the OS 9 boot screen. 

I think something got screwed up during the upgrade.  I might wipe the hard drive and do it all over again and see what happens.

Any idea what this might be?

Thanks for all the help.

mraroid

 

mraroid

Well-known member
Correction:  I miss spoke....  When I boot to 9.2.2, I boot to a file folder.  Inside the file folder is switches between a question mark and a happy face.  It will switch between the two for about 10

seconds.  After that, I will see the normal happy Mac face, then the 9.2 screen, and then it boots correctly.

Thoughts?

mraroid

 

Paralel

Well-known member
Correction:  I miss spoke....  When I boot to 9.2.2, I boot to a file folder.  Inside the file folder is switches between a question mark and a happy face.  It will switch between the two for about 10

seconds.  After that, I will see the normal happy Mac face, then the 9.2 screen, and then it boots correctly.

Thoughts?

mraroid
Now that is weird.

 

just.in.time

Well-known member
Sometimes that happens if you don’t have a startup disk/system folder (later versions of 9) selected in the Startup Disk control panel.

 

Paralel

Well-known member
I thought the StartUp Disk control panel had a default it automatically went to if there was no selection?

 

EvilCapitalist

Well-known member
I've had that happen in some beige machines and my G4 cube (back before I put in an SSD) if the hard disk hadn't finished spinning up before the machine went hunting for a System Folder, even in cases where I had a folder selected in the Startup Disk CP.  Normally though it was only 2-3 seconds.

 

mraroid

Well-known member
I had not installed any hardware or software other then update my system to 9.2.2.  My many updates to get me to 9.2.2 went fine with no errors.  My package of G4 install disks came in the mail from my friend.  In it, he enclosed a apple branded 9.2.1 CD. 
 
I booted to the CD, and using apple HD tools checked the hard drive for bad blocks.  I forgot how slow that can be.  It came up with none. I did a standard HD repair and it found nothing wrong. So I erased the HD, and did a clean install of 9.2.1.  I booted the computer and had the same problem.  I decided that it must be the hard drive and decided to roll in a new one and try again.
 
Then I read the post from just.in.time. I went to my start up disk in control panel. It looked like it was selected.  I clicked the down arrow next to it and then selected the drive in the drop down menu.  I re booted, and just like magic, it booted just fine!!!  Yea! Remind me to buy you a beer next time you are in Oregon Just!
 
I just configured tcp/ip and I am down loading the update to 9.2.2 now. After that, I need to set up apple talk between the Mystic and the Blue & White again.
 
While this has taken a great mount of time, I have leaned so much.
 
Almost all the hardware has arrived to update to the Yikes! motherboard and a 500Mhz CPU.  I am waiting on the little option pins that go in the option module next to the CPU.  Once that arrives, I will do a motherboard transplant.
 
Thanks again everyone.  What a fun ride!
 
mraroid
 
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