Tips for Upgrading a Mac mini G4 for Mac OS 9 Use

[davecom]

Hi All,

Now that I've upgraded about 15 of these, I thought I would offer some tips here. I upgrade them to install Mac OS 9 on them using the image from https://macos9lives.com — so these are with that lens in place.

Tip 1: Get the right model
Only model A1103 has a G4 in it. Make sure you get an A1103! Obviously you can't install Mac OS 9 on anything else. If the seller doesn't list the model number just make sure it has exactly 2 USB ports and 1 firewire port on the back.

Tip 2: Open them very slowly
I won't go into the details because iFixit already has a guide for actually taking them apart and changing various parts. But by far the trickiest part is initially separating the case. I use a butter knife that I have found to work well—even better than the custom tools you can buy. But before I got good at it I broke a couple cases with brittle plastic. You need to be very careful and slowly separate the two sides with a sharp edge, one little bit at a time. Take your time and if it seems like it's bending too much, stop and try another spot to separate from.

Tip 3: Get an SSD via an IDE to mSATA Adapter
There are several that can work but I've had a very good experience with these ones on Amazon (as an Amazon associate I earn from qualified purchases). Then you can get a 128 GB mSATA SSD on eBay.

Tip 4: Don't forget to change the clock battery while you're in there
The CR2032 is the same used in AirTags. Get a quality one like a Duracell that you won't have to change again and won't leak. It's like an extra 50 cents.

Tip 5: OWC still sells new RAM for these machines

Tip 6: Thoroughly clean everything but especially don't forget the fan and heatsink
When you change the HD for the SSD you will have to unhook the fan anyway. You will find there's an open side of it for air intake. It can be very dirty in there. Also as you are thoroughly cleaning the whole insides be sure to run a q-tip over the heatsink. There can be so much dust in there. You may need something more pointy to get it all out.

Tip 7: Use the right screw drivers
I use three different size screw drivers every time I dismantle one of these. In particular it helps a lot to use the right screw driver when taking the fan off. Those screws just will not turn well without a perfect fit.

Tip 8: Get a 1.25 or 1.42 Ghz one for the best compatibility
Although they share the same model number (A1103), late in 2005 Apple improved the specs on the two Mac mini G4 models from 1.25 Ghz and 1.42 Ghz to 1.33 Ghz and 1.5 Ghz respectively. However, these new machines also had slightly updated video cards. Unfortunately, although these "silent upgrade" variants are faster, they tend to have issues with the hacked version of Mac OS 9 displaying high resolutions. Some people have found workarounds but most just use them at lower resolutions. It may actually be preferable to have a 1.42 Ghz machine to a 1.5 Ghz machine in the current state of Mac OS 9 on them. But the 1.5 Ghz machines are rather rare anyway and we don't always have them in stock. But they are the fastest you can go!

Tip 9: Get USB Speakers
The hacked version of Mac OS 9 only works well with USB audio. The Logitech S150 are cheap and work well in Mac OS 9.

Tip 10: Get a Contemporary Apple Mouse
There are issues sometimes with newer mice. The best compatibility is of course with an early '00s Apple USB wired mouse.

Tip 11: 110 Watt Power supplies work
The original power supplies were 85 watts. But the ones from slightly newer Intel Mac mini models that used 110 watts will work too. It's not ideal, but it's okay if it's all you have.

Tip 12: Replace Missing Screws
I've found many of these have missing M2 screws connecting the logic board to the case. M2s are hard to get but your local hardware store (in the USA where M2s are harder to get) may have a "miniatures" section that will have some imperial size units that will work. Bring a remaining screw with you if you have it.

Tip 13: Be Ready to Spend $120+ doing this yourself in the worst case scenario if you need all the parts
Here's a rough breakdown:
- Used generally "untested" Mac mini G4 on eBay ~$60 with shipping
- Power adapter if it didn't come with one $15
- IDE to mSATA adapter $13
- 128 GB mSATA SSD $15 if you're lucky
- 1 GB RAM module from OWC ~$15 with shipping
- Contemporary Apple Mouse $5 if lucky!
- Logitech S150 Speakers $15
- Clock Battery $1
- Missing Screws $1

It can be a lot of work, but it's a pretty great machine for Mac OS 9 enthusiasts. Mac OS 9 doesn't really get much faster on real hardware. It takes me about 3 hours to do each one properly including the cleaning and installing Mac OS 9.

If you don't have the stomach for it, you can buy an upgraded one directly from me on eBay with the bundled accessories or from my new website.

I'm happy to answer any of your upgrade questions that I can to help you get yours done.

 

[Juror22]

I already have one that I bought a while back that had been upgraded with an SSD and memory before I bought it, so all the really hard work was done. I love the list of tips that you've posted, along with the links, since running Mac OS 9 on this hardware is one of the fastest and space efficient ways to do it.

 

[eharmon]

Having just opened one of these with iFixIt's Jimmy and a spudger to do the rest, I can highly recommend it for opening these up without doing damage.

 

[joshc]

I’m still unsure of how well OS 9 works on these, a friend tried it and had all sorts of weird issues, I think they said the DVD player application opened every time they tried to use AppleTalk. Perhaps for general use it’s OK but I’m not yet convinced that specific programs or use cases wouldn’t have problems. This is what has made me hold off and stick with my Sawtooth for OS 9 stuff.

 

[davecom]

I’m still unsure of how well OS 9 works on these, a friend tried it and had all sorts of weird issues, I think they said the DVD player application opened every time they tried to use AppleTalk. Perhaps for general use it’s OK but I’m not yet convinced that specific programs or use cases wouldn’t have problems. This is what has made me hold off and stick with my Sawtooth for OS 9 stuff.

It works well for the most part if you have the right setup. As mentioned this needs to include USB Speakers and a period Apple mouse. But ultimately it's an unsupported hack and there are several limitations that someone doing this should be aware of:
- Audio not working well outside of USB audio
- Airpot and Bluetooth not working (although many of these minis don't have the cards installed anyway)
- The mouse occasionally freezes on startup; I'd say this happens about 1/5 of boots and then requires a restart; I think it can be partially related to the USB Overdrive extension that comes pre-installed on the v9 macos9lives image. On my personal G4 mini I have disabled it but I still occasionally get a frozen mouse on startup. On the other hand the USB Overdrive extension boosts compatibility with more USB devices.
- Display resolutions/monitor compatibility especially with the 1.33/1.5 "silent upgrade" machines as mentioned in my post; this can be also be attenuated by different DVI-VGA or DVI-HDMI adapters.

Other than this I have not run into any other issues that are not typical of 20 year old vintage Macs and the Classic Mac OS.

I have a Quicksilver G4 Powermac 867 too (I had a Sawtooth 500 MHz G4 when I was a teen too)—for all intents and purposes in my own life this mini is a faster, much less power hungry, and space saving upgrade to my life with the Powermac. But really it's mostly my son's machine and he has no complaints

All of that said, I'm sure given the hacky nature of the whole endeavor that there are edge cases with specific incompatibilities like your friend has had. We haven't yet run into any game incompatibilities though we're mostly playing educational stuff and Mac classics.

 

[treellama]

Even with USB audio, the audio doesn't work well. There is no volume control, so you have to use a volume control on the speakers, and hope that the USB device outputs high enough level. Mine doesn't quite, so I have to turn the powered speakers way up to like 3/4 to hear it, where on a normal headphone output they give good sound at 1/4.

Ultimately, between that, and the mouse freezing, and no sleep mode, I put 10.4 back on the mini and stick with the towers for Mac OS 9.

 

[davecom]

Even with USB audio, the audio doesn't work well. There is no volume control, so you have to use a volume control on the speakers, and hope that the USB device outputs high enough level. Mine doesn't quite, so I have to turn the powered speakers way up to like 3/4 to hear it, where on a normal headphone output they give good sound at 1/4.

Ultimately, between that, and the mouse freezing, and no sleep mode, I put 10.4 back on the mini and stick with the towers for Mac OS 9.

I think that's totally valid reasoning. There are certainly tradeoffs but for me my 1.5 GHz mini compared to my 867 MHz G4 is:
- roughly twice the speed (with the SSD upgrade maybe a little more)
- uses 1/5 the electricity
- takes up 1/10 the space
- operates almost silently

For me that's worth the tradeoffs of USB speakers and the occasional mouse freeze on startup.

 

[Byte Knight]

Thanks for sharing all the tips! This is tempting to do, but my MDD runs at 1.25 MHz and has SCSI, USB, and serial connections so there's not much reason for me to switch OS9 machines. But if someone wanted to run a Hermes II or Subtext BBS 24/7 via telnet this would probably be the way to go!

 

[xc68000]

So I purchased a pair of the S150 logitech speakers mentioned here. They don't show up in the sound control panel on my mac 9.2.2 install with all extentions on. Do they require drivers of some type?

 

[xc68000]

Ok i figured it out. The speakers work with games and non-professional audio apps that dont require ASIO. No volume control from the speakers themselves even though they have buttons, so only adjustable from within the apps/games assuming they have that control. No desktop sounds.

So probably "works well in OS9" written above should be clarified. I would rather use my m-audio usb than these.

 

[Slimes]

Mouse issue:

Wiggle mouse while booting until the main Mac OS splash screen is completed loading. Works every time.

 

[davecom]

Ok i figured it out. The speakers work with games and non-professional audio apps that dont require ASIO. No volume control from the speakers themselves even though they have buttons, so only adjustable from within the apps/games assuming they have that control. No desktop sounds.

So probably "works well in OS9" written above should be clarified. I would rather use my m-audio usb than these.

Yeah that's a fair summary. The whole audio situation is not great unfortunately but these are the cheapest name-brand still sold as brand new high quality speakers that work well.

 

[davecom]

Mouse issue:

Wiggle mouse while booting until the main Mac OS splash screen is completed loading. Works every time.

Yeah it works for me 95% of the time.

 

[trag]

If you're having trouble finding cheap MSATA SSDs on Ebay, Newegg sells a 128 GB for ~$21 and the 256 MB for about $25. That may be a "sale" price, but these have mostly been on sale for the last three years -- and at lower prices eighteen months ago; 1 TB was about $45 back then.

https://www.newegg.com/kingspec-128gb-msata-ssd/p/0D9-000D-00130

 

[BespokeMan]

Does your mSATA SSD in those el cheapo adapters overheat? My Mac Mini G4 sleeps (and eventually shuts down) after getting too warm.

 

[davecom]

Does your mSATA SSD in those el cheapo adapters overheat? My Mac Mini G4 sleeps (and eventually shuts down) after getting too warm.

Can you link to the specific adapter you’re using?

But no, I’ve only seen overheating on minis that were either not thoroughly cleaned, had a blocked airway for some reason, missing heat sink pin, or fan improperly installed. The SSDs actually reduce the likelihood of overheating. But maybe you’re using a different adapter than I use on the 20+ I’ve converted…

 

[BespokeMan]

Can you link to the specific adapter you’re using?

But no, I’ve only seen overheating on minis that were either not thoroughly cleaned, had a blocked airway for some reason, missing heat sink pin, or fan improperly installed. The SSDs actually reduce the likelihood of overheating. But maybe you’re using a different adapter than I use on the 20+ I’ve converted…

Generic one from China with the JM20330 controller. I didn’t purchase it off of Amazon but it’s most likely the same as those that sell for around USD 13.

 

[davecom]

Generic one from China with the JM20330 controller. I didn’t purchase it off of Amazon but it’s most likely the same as those that sell for around USD 13.

Can you show a picture? Many have JM20330 but they’re not all the same.

 

[BespokeMan]

Here's what I use

 

[davecom]

Thanks. I haven't had particular experience with that adapter, but it does look like the same ICs with a different metal heat shield than the one I use. I've had very good success with the cablecc product with the white case (also available under other brands). But as I wrote above I doubt the SSD is the cause of the overheating.

Here is the adapter I use on Amazon:

Amazon.com

And here it is on eBay:

Cablecc mSATA mini PCI-E SATA SSD to 2.5 inch IDE 44pin Notebook Laptop HDD SATA | eBay

USB 3.0 A Male to USB-C Type C Female 90 Degree Down Angled Data Adapter Cablecc. Used with MSATA(Mini PCI-E SATA) SSD ONLY! SATA IDE Adapter 7 Pin IDE to SATA Connector IDE/PATA SATA Adapter SATA to IDE.

www.ebay.com