Proactive maintenance on a machine stored in an attic?

[codingitwrong]

I just bought a beautiful 1.25 gHz MDD G4 tower, and it's running great.

The seller found it in the attic of a house they own, so they aren't sure of its history. I expect the attic was probably not climate-controlled, and this is in Georgia so it gets fairly hot and humid.

Despite the fact that it runs great now, I'd love to do any preventative maintenance to counteract problems that might have occurred from being stored outside climate control. What would y'all suggest? So far all I've done is blowing out dust with compressed air, and exterior cosmetic cleanup.

I know this is a very basic question; I am a newbie at maintaining vintage computers so I appreciate any pointers y'all could provide. Thank you!

 

[macuserman]

I just bought a beautiful 1.25 gHz MDD G4 tower, and it's running great.

The seller found it in the attic of a house they own, so they aren't sure of its history. I expect the attic was probably not climate-controlled, and this is in Georgia so it gets fairly hot and humid.

Despite the fact that it runs great now, I'd love to do any preventative maintenance to counteract problems that might have occurred from being stored outside climate control. What would y'all suggest? So far all I've done is blowing out dust with compressed air, and exterior cosmetic cleanup.

I know this is a very basic question; I am a newbie at maintaining vintage computers so I appreciate any pointers y'all could provide. Thank you!

I mean from here on out just store it in climate control area. I'm in Georgia too, so I sympathize on the weather! What part are you from?

 

[codingitwrong]

Great, it's encouraging to know there are no big hidden damages to worry about at this point.

I am east of Atlanta outside the perimeter in Conyers, how about you?

 

[JustG]

You probably know this already if you've hung around the vintage Mac forums for any period of time. Remove the PRAM battery! As far as I know (someone can correct me if I'm wrong) you don't need a battery in that machine for it to start up and run properly. You'll just need to reset a few things like the time and date if you unplug the computer.

 

[Byrd]

Being a relatively “new” machine you can tell pretty quickly if it was stored poorly - unless if stored in extreme conditions (seasonal extremes stored in high heat, moisture, dust) it should be fine. Poorly stored computers I’ve found quickly get rusty, dust sticks to everything like glue (it acts as a wick for moisture). Same goes for PRAM/backup batteries which love to leak and corrode much faster if the computer was placed in such conditions.

 

[Juror22]

They are definitely one of the better machines for checking out quickly, due to the way it opens all the way out. In addition to what has already been mentioned, look for excessive dust/dirt in the fans/cooling fins and if you find a lot, make sure that it gets cleaned out, since the power supplies seem to be a failure point with these. Also check out the foam seals - mine were about 50/50, some were perfectly fine and some were decayed (just fell apart into foam dust when touched) and needed to be removed at a minimum or optimally, replaced.

 

[codingitwrong]

You probably know this already if you've hung around the vintage Mac forums for any period of time. Remove the PRAM battery! As far as I know (someone can correct me if I'm wrong) you don't need a battery in that machine for it to start up and run properly. You'll just need to reset a few things like the time and date if you unplug the computer.

Thanks, yup, I replaced the PRAM battery to be sure!

Being a relatively “new” machine you can tell pretty quickly if it was stored poorly - unless if stored in extreme conditions (seasonal extremes stored in high heat, moisture, dust) it should be fine. Poorly stored computers I’ve found quickly get rusty, dust sticks to everything like glue (it acts as a wick for moisture). Same goes for PRAM/backup batteries which love to leak and corrode much faster if the computer was placed in such conditions.

No visible rust, dust, or corrosion so that is good news!

They are definitely one of the better machines for checking out quickly, due to the way it opens all the way out. In addition to what has already been mentioned, look for excessive dust/dirt in the fans/cooling fins and if you find a lot, make sure that it gets cleaned out, since the power supplies seem to be a failure point with these. Also check out the foam seals - mine were about 50/50, some were perfectly fine and some were decayed (just fell apart into foam dust when touched) and needed to be removed at a minimum or optimally, replaced.

Thank you! The fans are somewhat dusty, but a first pass with compressed air helped. I will see if I can do a second pass. I'd like to replace them with silent fans at some point too.

 

[CircuitBored]

I'd like to replace them with silent fans at some point too.

Be careful. "Silent" or low-noise fans often move less air than their noisier counterparts. The MDD is a machine that needs high airflow, which is why it's noisy in the first place. I've gone down the rabbit hole of trying to make one silent and it's a bit of a chore. When replacing the fans, make sure that you're swapping in fans that move the same volume of air (normally measured in cubic feet per minute, CFM) or else you'll quickly overheat your G4.

 

[s_pupp]

I agree 100% with CircuitBored.

My MDD G4 is quiet because I have a silent ATX PSU mounted externally, and a Sonnet dual 1.8GHz cpu that runs cooler than the stock cpu so that the massively loud Pabst 12cm fan doesn’t spin fast as often. There was PSU harness pin-reassignment and drilling through plastic and metal involved, but (if you ignore the appearance of the PSU sitting on top of the MDD) satisfying results. I do probably need to install a couple 60mm fans where the original PSU sat to vent the top of the case, but temps reported by “Temperature Monitor” without that hot PSU in the case are the lowest they’ve ever been.

But yes, it was indeed a bit of a chore to accomplish.

 

[Phipli]

Be careful. "Silent" or low-noise fans often move less air than their noisier counterparts. The MDD is a machine that needs high airflow, which is why it's noisy in the first place. I've gone down the rabbit hole of trying to make one silent and it's a bit of a chore. When replacing the fans, make sure that you're swapping in fans that move the same volume of air (normally measured in cubic feet per minute, CFM) or else you'll quickly overheat your G4.

Yeah, fundamentally air velocity results in noise. The only real way of significantly reducing noise while maintaining volumetric airflow is by reducing the resistance to flow. Likely by increasing the size of openings.

 

[Daniël]

Be careful. "Silent" or low-noise fans often move less air than their noisier counterparts. The MDD is a machine that needs high airflow, which is why it's noisy in the first place. I've gone down the rabbit hole of trying to make one silent and it's a bit of a chore. When replacing the fans, make sure that you're swapping in fans that move the same volume of air (normally measured in cubic feet per minute, CFM) or else you'll quickly overheat your G4.

Not just CFM, static pressure is also important. High airflow won't help if the case venting is restrictive on a low static pressure fan. It needs to be able to pull that air through the restrictive airpath.

It's why you can't quiet down a Silicon Graphics O2 workstation much beyond the hard drives for example, as it has a PSU exhaust fan that needs to pull air through the entire system. High static pressure fans tend to be noticeably noisier than equivalent size and airflow fans with lower static pressure.