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Solid State Drive for G3?
- Thread starter Iamanamma
- Start date
omidimo
Well-known member
This should work okay: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B016498CK0/ It has screws on the bottom, which some 2.5 to 3.5 adapters tend not to.
Oh, I am sure that's exactly what it is, but the G3 Mini tower has a sled/cradle whatever you want to call it that doesn't have any way for me to secure the adapter to it. I am not putting it into a spare slot, I'm putting where the original was. It's okay, though. We are a metal fabricating business here, and since they're eager to get this old G3 running off of an SSD, they made something for me.
Thanks, I ended up using a custom made piece. There are perks to working for a metal fabricator.
Well this stinks. I get everything all connected up to find the built-in video doesn't work on the G3 (233 mhz mintower), and without the drivers that are on the old hard drive, ATI video card in the PCI slot won't work either. I get a chime, I can hear the CD-rom (Apple OS 8.5 installation CD) spin up, but no video. I put an old SCSI (OS 7.1 installed) drive in the empty expansion bay, and I can hear it spin up as well, but again, no video. There doesn't appear to be a way to put both the old IDE hard drive and the SSD in at the same time. If I can't SEE anything, I can't install anything on the SSD. Ideas?
Check your display device (monitor, LCD panel) and cable and any adapter.
The ATI video card, if it is a Macintosh version, should produce video without any drivers. Drivers enable acceleration and sometimes additional resolutions, but any video card with Mac firmware should produce images at boot time, without loading disk based drivers. Hence, I suspect your display device, rather than the video card.
Now if the video card was originally a PC card and was hacked with one of the "reduced" firmware packages to work on a Mac, then it might need drivers.
Also, it is possible that the video card is in some weird state/configuration where it's trying to drive the display at an unsupported resolution. You may wish to zap the PRAM (hold down cmd-opt-p-r simultaneously) at power up/reboot.
Finally, but maybe this should be first, if you have a VRAM module installed on the motherboard, check that it's installed properly, hasn't popped loose. Perhaps clean the contacts.
Here's a lot of G3 guts for a decent price:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-Power-Macintosh-PowerPC-G3-Motherboard-G3-3978-820-0864-B-with-CPU-Ram/274012210067?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649
The ATI video card, if it is a Macintosh version, should produce video without any drivers. Drivers enable acceleration and sometimes additional resolutions, but any video card with Mac firmware should produce images at boot time, without loading disk based drivers. Hence, I suspect your display device, rather than the video card.
Now if the video card was originally a PC card and was hacked with one of the "reduced" firmware packages to work on a Mac, then it might need drivers.
Also, it is possible that the video card is in some weird state/configuration where it's trying to drive the display at an unsupported resolution. You may wish to zap the PRAM (hold down cmd-opt-p-r simultaneously) at power up/reboot.
Finally, but maybe this should be first, if you have a VRAM module installed on the motherboard, check that it's installed properly, hasn't popped loose. Perhaps clean the contacts.
Here's a lot of G3 guts for a decent price:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-Power-Macintosh-PowerPC-G3-Motherboard-G3-3978-820-0864-B-with-CPU-Ram/274012210067?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649
I tried Macintosh 12" RGB monitor, known to work, on the built in video. Nada. I tried a Dell Flat screen with a VGA style plug on the ATI card. The ATI card has ONLY a VGA type connector on it, no Apple. Nada. I can grab another monitor, I have several spares.
Wouldn't know how to answer this, so I took a picture.
As long as I have been playing with Macs, you think I would remember to zap the PRAM. Thanks. That's next.
Again, don't know how to answer that. So I took another pic. Also, thanks for the link. That could be useful in the future!
Now that's the first tim THAT has ever happened. I double checked to make sure I had the right keys pressed down, but I am only hearing the startup chime once. I am not getting a second chime. I switched out the PRAM battery. I switched keyboards. G3 will start up, I get one chime, no more. Something is definitely wrong here.
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It took a while to find it, but the ATI Rage card is definitely the Mac version. http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?topic=4257.0 is a lookup of ATI Card part numbers, and mine was on it. I am still getting no video out of the G3. I tried zapping the PRAM (which will not chime more than once), resetting the NVRAM and resetting via the CUDA switch. I looked up VRAM modules, I don't see anything that looks like that. What I have in my PCI slots are as follows an audio card with telephone jack, a Firewire card, and the ATI Rage 128. I have attached pictures front & back of the Rage card. There is some yellow residue on the 2 foil squares on the board, but aside from that, everything is looking pretty good. There is definitely something wrong here, and it's beyond my skill set to figure what it is. I have a couple more beige G3s. I am going to haul out another and see if I can get it to work.
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Moot now, but if you have a VRAM module (may be called GRAM in Beige G3) it would be under the modem that is sticking sideways out of your sound card. Behind the voltage regulator and between the RAM and sound/personality card.
Also moot, but another thought I had was perhaps the 12" monitor doesn't do 640 X 480? I think there was a small Apple monitor that was fixed at something lower like 512 X ?
Also moot, but another thought I had was perhaps the 12" monitor doesn't do 640 X 480? I think there was a small Apple monitor that was fixed at something lower like 512 X ?
jessenator
Well-known member
I have a Rage128 as well. Dang good card that's worked in all of my PCI macs wonderfully. I want to get a few more so I'm not playing musical video card all the time though.
I'm baffled by that monitor business as well. Apple Spec says it should support 512 x 384 internally. I wonder if that's just for 8.0. Is there software cutoff for that in 8.5–onward?
I'm baffled by that monitor business as well. Apple Spec says it should support 512 x 384 internally. I wonder if that's just for 8.0. Is there software cutoff for that in 8.5–onward?
Not moot any more. Dang thing is acting up AGAIN. I haven't been using the Apple monitor, I've been using a Dell flat screen. I pulled out the sound/modem card and the VRAM would go into that small whitish frame, wouldn't it? Nope, nothing there.
jessenator
Well-known member
There should be 2MB soldered on-board—those two big ICs beneath where an upgrade module would go in the white, sideways holder. The expansion will take you up to 6MB total with a 4MB module installed. SO there's enough on the board to support a monitor. Curious that yours still doesn't work with an Apple monitor.
Do you have an older install CD? the 8.0 discs? be aware that the ROM ver. will determine which image will be bootable (I went through several to get my beige MT to boot). The older disc is just my theory about 8.5+ not supporting 512 x 384 any longer, but it's more supposition than anything.
Do you have an older install CD? the 8.0 discs? be aware that the ROM ver. will determine which image will be bootable (I went through several to get my beige MT to boot). The older disc is just my theory about 8.5+ not supporting 512 x 384 any longer, but it's more supposition than anything.
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Any recommendations for a good place to buy replacement IDE/ATA ribbon cables? It's going to be not fun to thread them through the case like you have to on the minitowers, but if I can pick up a couple for cheaps, it would be worth it to see if that fixes what isn't working. Would love a line on a new PSU or two as well.
Unknown_K
Well-known member
Are you actually in Warren Ohio?
Anyway the Beige G3's used the old 40 pin ATA cables that tended to be longer and I think you can still find those on ebay. Most cables you see today are the shorter 80 pin type which will still work on older systems but are shorter. Years ago I had to track down a cable for my B&W G3 since it was a custom super long one and needed to be OEM (for the CDROM maybe forget what it was for).
The 12-inch color monitor does 512x384, and the 12-inch grayscale display does 640x480. I'm around 90% sure system 9 will recognize and work with both on built-in mac video.
error1
Active member
I had all sorts of trouble getting my Beige G3 to install and boot MacOS from SSD until I replaced the 40 wire cable with a newer 80 wire one. You might have to modify the new cable too since the mac doesn't have the key pin removed from the IDE pin header on the motherboard.
The beige g3 tower is also not terribly difficult to mod to use a standard ATX power supply, I have a brand new one in mine. You have to rewire some pins in the power cable and make sure the jumpers are set correctly on the motherboard to avoid damaging it. I followed this guide: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/atx-psu-conversion-powermac-g3.1739059/
The beige g3 tower is also not terribly difficult to mod to use a standard ATX power supply, I have a brand new one in mine. You have to rewire some pins in the power cable and make sure the jumpers are set correctly on the motherboard to avoid damaging it. I followed this guide: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/atx-psu-conversion-powermac-g3.1739059/
