Saved from Recycling

[3583Bytes]

So I had a great haul from Recycling this week.  This is the type of recycling that destroys stuff, so consider these really saved

Power Macintosh 7300/120

Power Macintosh 7300/132

Power Macintosh 7600

Power Macintosh 9600/200

And my favorite:

iMac G3


 
 
All seem to work except the Power Macs have no hard drives.  iMac slot loading CD seems broken, makes a ton of noise when starting so I unplugged it.  I managed to plug in an external CD Rom Drive to load games but I don't know how to boot from it so if the hard drive ever fails I will have issues.
 
I will post more pictures of the other Power Macs one I get them setup.
 
I also found a LaserWriter II.  Powers on but the Paper Jam & Out of Paper lights keeps blinking.  If anyone has any ideas on how to fix that please let me know.
 
 

 

[bibilit]

Congrats, You are not lost with the Imac, this has USB.

 

[CC_333]

And, if you're lucky, the iMac also has FireWire (not all of them did). With FireWire, you have Target Disk Mode, so you can still access the hard drive in the event of an OS crash and fix stuff.

c

 

[3583Bytes]

Thanks, 

Unfortunately I currently do not have a FireWire drive.  What I am really hoping for is a slot loading CD replacement from like an old MacMini or something.  

 

[TheWhiteFalcon]

Unfortunately the Mac Mini drives aren't compatible from what I know of, you'd need a contemporary drive.

 

[Gorgonops]

Don't quote me on this, but I vaguely recall that if you want to replace the weird proprietary drive in the slot-loading iMac G3s with a more normal laptop one (like the PATA slotloading drives used in the PowerBook G4s) you can just take one of these things:

http://www.pccables.com/00507.html?gclid=CjwKEAjwhbCrBRCO7-e7vuXqiT4SJAB2B5u7MKiY7IqvfIDgDixgt3Ad8PCVmnC0qTSxKeu1eBAxlBoCy4bw_wcB

Break off the plastic around the connector pins (or find one without that plastic), and plug it into 40 of the 50 pins of the original drive connector that line up with the PATA hard drive connector. (Another alternative is to take a normal 40 pin IDE connector, trim the key tab off and file down one edge, and jam it into the appropriate 40 pins on the motherboard connector, thereby replacing the original cable.)

The thing you'll lose doing this is the ability to play audio CDs the "old fashioned way", IE, instructing the CD drive to play the CD with the built-in DAC and routing the audio through the analog pins; said pins are amongst the 10 extra on the proprietary 50 pin connector. If you can find a pinout of that part (Google's probably your friend here if you try hard enough) you could route those, but maybe you don't care. (It only matters if you use an old Classic OS CD player app or play an old-fashioned game that has redbook audio on the disk instead of fully digitized sound samples.)

 

[trag]

Don't quote me on this, but I vaguely recall that if you want to replace the weird proprietary drive in the slot-loading iMac G3s with a more normal laptop one (like the PATA slotloading drives used in the PowerBook G4s) you can just take one of these things:

http://www.pccables.com/00507.html?gclid=CjwKEAjwhbCrBRCO7-e7vuXqiT4SJAB2B5u7MKiY7IqvfIDgDixgt3Ad8PCVmnC0qTSxKeu1eBAxlBoCy4bw_wcB

Slot loading notebook style, ATAPI/IDE DVD-RW drives for $15:

http://amzn.com/B001B7XYZO

 

[Hotdog Zanzibar]

I also found a LaserWriter II.  Powers on but the Paper Jam & Out of Paper lights keeps blinking.  If anyone has any ideas on how to fix that please let me know.

Try reseating the RAM and pulling all plugs from the logic board, then plug them back in and give it a shot. 

fixyourownprinter.com used to sell kits for this exact issue, but it appears they no longer sell kits at all. Shame... it was such a great resource for printer repairs. 

 

[Elfen]

Thanks, 

Unfortunately I currently do not have a FireWire drive.  What I am really hoping for is a slot loading CD replacement from like an old MacMini or something.  

You can put the iMac G3 into Targetted Disk Mode by holding down the "T" key on the keyboard and then you can use a FireWire cable connected to another Mac and the iMac's hard drive will show up on that Mac. Great for installing software and fixing a crashed OS.

 

[3583Bytes]

Slot loading notebook style, ATAPI/IDE DVD-RW drives for $15:

http://amzn.com/B001B7XYZO

Thanks I will have a look, the problem is that it has to have the plug on the right side so that it can fit the adapter to IDE

 

[Elfen]

Thanks I will have a look, the problem is that it has to have the plug on the right side so that it can fit the adapter to IDE

The problem is...

The external case does not match the Apple's, but you can (technically) swap out the guts of the drives and put it in Apple Case. Of course that will void the warrantee and the internal guts fit the Apple case.

I've done it a few times and ran into a problem with 1 particular drive - it's IDE is on the opposite end of the board and would not fit the Apple case, so its Buyer Beware. If you can get the connector matching on the case, it should be a better buy.

 

[3583Bytes]

The problem is...

The external case does not match the Apple's, but you can (technically) swap out the guts of the drives and put it in Apple Case. Of course that will void the warrantee and the internal guts fit the Apple case.

I've done it a few times and ran into a problem with 1 particular drive - it's IDE is on the opposite end of the board and would not fit the Apple case, so its Buyer Beware. If you can get the connector matching on the case, it should be a better buy.

Its slot loading you can't see it anyways, I am more worried about the plug being on the opposite end of the board.

 

[TheWhiteFalcon]

Its slot loading you can't see it anyways, I am more worried about the plug being on the opposite end of the board.

That's the same issue the G4 Cube has (they use the same drives).

 

[SuperToaster]

You could try to use Open Firmware to boot from the CD-ROM drive? I have had success on booting from USB before...

 

[TheWhiteFalcon]

It varies on the Mac, usually. USB 1.1 will be SLOW though. Maybe even as slow as me installing Snow Leopard on my Air entirely over wireless with Remote Disc. :lol: