setting up a G4 Tower Quicksilver 933 MHz

[joshc]

And you can't hold Option and then insert the CD because there's no way to get the $*#^@#% drive door opened so you can insert the disc.

See, this is why the Sawtooth is just the best... it has an eject button built into the door for the optical drive

I am pretty sure holding the mouse button down will eject the tray at boot so you can put a recovery disc in.

What about somebody who added a Zip or MO later, purchased elsewhere? Maybe Apple sold replacement covers? I wonder where you could find one of those today. I didn't see any on eBay.

Apple did sell it separately - or I think Zip drive manufacturers sold the bezel along with their drive... my memory on this is fuzzy. If you need a bezel, create a trading post here - its just the sort of thing that someone will have in a box.

That works on a G4 Mac running 9.2.2 or OSX? Their product description doesn't mention anything about Macintosh (or vintage Macintosh).

https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?thr...-card-to-celebrate-satas-20th-birthday.43133/ - it was definitely made with Macs in mind. People are using them in G4s.

 

[joshc]

Also check out this thread, a bit old and long, but the more recent posts are interesting.

Silicon Image SIL3112 Flashing: Easier Way Using flashrom

I've dug through the various threads both here and elsewhere on flashing these cards and found a bunch of different ways, some that work (like flashing the Wiebetech rom) and many that don't (like making the Seritek 1S2 ROM work). All of this is fun and all but the Wiebetech ROM is OS X only, no...

68kmla.org

I use a Adaptec AAR-1210SA PCI Raid Controller Card in my G4 with a 120GB PNY SATA SSD. Supports booting OS 9 and OS X.

 

[Phipli]

Having an eject key on the keyboard doesn't help if there's no OS to read the key

No, the eject key works from power on. No OS needed.

 

[Phipli]

What about somebody who added a Zip or MO later, purchased elsewhere?

The drives were sold as a kit with the cover. You fitted the new cover (or got someone to fit it). The manual had instructions on how to fit it.

I wonder where you could find one of those today. I didn't see any on eBay. If the existing cover can be removed without breaking it, that's probably the easiest option but it wouldn't look as nice.

Zips started falling out of use in that era. CDRs and even CDRWs and USB pen drives were filling that role. Because of that, the option on a QS is fairly uncommon. You'll struggle to find the special drive bezel. USB Zips are cheap.

 

[Phipli]

How about a PATA to SATA drive adapter like https://www.ebay.com/itm/255483009090? That seems like it might be the easiest solution.

Go this route, SOME people have had issues with the SATA controller fitted to the card people keep mentioning, specifically in QuickSilvers. One of those SIl3112 based cards apparently works fine in my dad's QS, but I'm cautioning because you might want an easy win with your first hard disk for it. So you can boot it easily. Even if it doesn't work, it's less than $10... versus whatever the alternative is.

 

[Phipli]

@bigmessowires I've been thinking and perhaps I've not been clear enough, please forgive me if I'm over simplifying something you understand or being too blunt, but - you are over-thinking the CD button - stop worrying about it. Apple moved the button from the case to the keyboard. The button behaves exactly like it always did. If you have two drives, use the drive that opens.

The other media like Zip, behave exactly like a floppy drive in a 68k Mac - no button. The bezels aren't easy to get because not that many sold. Most people just use an external USB drive.

 

[LaPorta]

As for the Zip bezel, I added one. Someone here was kind enough to sell me one for pretty cheap.

One other preventative maintenance thing you can look into is replacing the thermal paste for the processor heat sink.

I wonder what exactly @bigmessowires imagined me to be…

 

[Phipli]

One other preventative maintenance thing you can look into is replacing the thermal paste for the processor heat sink.

Are you sure? They use thermal pads which don't normally degrade unless damaged when removing the heatsink. They should be just fine otherwise.

I wonder what exactly @bigmessowires imagined me to be…

A Viking warrior or a 23 yo housewife? Will we ever know

 

[LaPorta]

Are you sure? They use thermal pads which don't normally degrade unless damaged when removing the heatsink. They should be just fine otherwise.

I cannot remember where I saw it recommended…I’ll look it up.

EDIT: I found several sources I remember viewing that speak of compound being underneath there even with the pads. I know I replaced it on my DP. I needed to clean the old stuff off, so it was definitely present.

 

[Phipli]

I cannot remember where I saw it recommended…I’ll look it up.

EDIT: I found several sources I remember viewing that speak of compound being underneath there even with the pads. I know I replaced it on my DP. I needed to clean the old stuff off, so it was definitely present.

Hum. There was no compound on mine. It isn't normal to paste pads. I think someone might have already had theirs apart, or mistaken the pad for paste.

 

[LaPorta]

Hum. There was no compound on mine. It isn't normal to paste pads. I think someone might have already had theirs apart, or mistaken the pad for paste.

I’m absolutely no expert here. Could have been a one-off for all I know.

 

[bigmessowires]

I wonder what exactly @bigmessowires imagined me to be…

In my mind's eye, you look something like Doc Brown from the Back to the Future movies crossed with Donald Sutherland and William Dafoe.

No, the eject key works from power on. No OS needed.

Hmm, it's not behaving that way for me. Pressing and holding the keyboard eject key while I turn on the computer has no effect - it just boots from the HDD and does not open the drive door. I agree this whole issue with the eject key isn't unsolvable from a practical standpoint, I'm simply annoyed (21 years too late) about what seems like a clearly poor design decision from Apple - the user experience is objectively worse and there is no benefit. It looks like MacWorld agreed with me too: "The Quicksilver line received criticism in MacWorld's review for removing the 'eject' button and the manual eject pinhole."

All the SSD options have overloaded my brain. I skimmed through a couple of the other threads but will need to review them more carefully. It sounds like some options are 1) RHC PCI SATA card which must be flashed using a TBD process, 2) Other PCI SATA cards which must also be flashed using similar/same TBD process and possibly also modded somehow, 3) cheap IDE to SATA adapter which may or may not work in a QS, 4) IDE SSD from OWC. I'll come back to this later.

 

[LaPorta]

Yeah, those Apple HDs show up now and again as one of their garage sale items. I guess I just figured that since I don’t use these machines for anything critical, $25 or so was hard to beat for something that will likely last for years with light use.

Did you wind up using the Eject.menu item?

 

[LaPorta]

In my mind's eye, you look something like Doc Brown from the Back to the Future movies crossed with Donald Sutherland and William Dafoe.

Just like that cheesy 80s song: “ I’m just an ordinary, average guy…”

 

[Phipli]

Hmm, it's not behaving that way for me. Pressing and holding the keyboard eject key while I turn on the computer has no effect - it just boots from the HDD and does not open the drive door.

Try proding it multiple times, not holding it down.

 

[JustG]

I think their idea was if you wanted to start the computer from a CD not in the computer from a cold start, you'd hold option to get into the selector, from there, you can eject the optical drive to insert your disc, hit the rescan button and you're set.

 

[bigmessowires]

I spent a while cleaning the Quicksilver inside and out - it was choked with dust! Lots of interesting stuff inside there. I'm glad I picked up this computer.



I tried to remove the four case handles to clean inside them, and got six of the eight screws out (and two handles) but managed to round-out the hex notch in the last two screws, and now they're stuck. My allen wrench must not have been quite the right size. Oh well.

Some stuff is completely foreign to me, so I'll need to read up on what these are. Maybe a modem, and looks like a CF connector?



The identifier on chip 3B2 on the motherboard looks like it was painted on by hand, odd.

The hard disk is a 60GB Seagate Barracuda, date code 02514. I think that's '02, week 51 day 4? So it's very likely the original HD.

How many internal drives can you theoretically fit in one of these? There's space for one in the bay below the DVD drive for sure. It looks like there's also a mount point on the left side of the floor, but there's no obvious IDE cable that would reach there, so maybe it was intended for an optional SCSI drive. Maybe you can stack another IDE HD on top of the first one, on the right side of the floor? It looks like it's designed for that, and there's IDE and power.

I see a whole lot of capacitors in there to be replaced, on the motherboard, graphics card, and CPU module. Oh boy.

 

[LaPorta]

If you get a standard screw extractor set from Home Depot, those will come out easily. Replacements should be easy to find.

I think three drives tops if memory serves? That is indeed the modem card I’m sure.

 

[Phipli]

I see a whole lot of capacitors in there to be replaced, on the motherboard, graphics card, and CPU module. Oh boy.

Not generally needed yet. Doesn't need it.

 

[herd]

Nice find, that's a pretty decent spec for a G4. I think the 933MHz version should have 2MB of L3 cache too. That one connector/slot you circled is for a WiFi card (you can see the antenna cable next to it). The logic board has two IDE channels, so that would be 4 drives. If you got a later version then it won't have the 128GB limit. With PCI cards you can of course add more. I have 17 drives in one of mine with a RAID card:

68kmla.org/bb/index.php?threads/g4-raid.40817/

Enjoy your new toy and let us know how it goes!