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

[trag]

Absent a faulty device, the only way I can see that @BespokeMan 's would overheat and @davecom 's wouldn't is if there's a very different and very poor voltage regulator on the former's. So you guys might want to compare what part is actually being used for the voltage regulator -- U1 in the pictures for davecom's adapter on Ebay.

 

[ArmorAlley]

@trag How can you get the case back on without leaving a little gap in the back above the white plastic bezel?

 

[trag]

@trag How can you get the case back on without leaving a little gap in the back above the white plastic bezel?

I think that question is better pointed at @davecom . He's got the experience refurbishing Minis. It's been a few years since I've had one apart.

 

[davecom]

I think that question is better pointed at @davecom . He's got the experience refurbishing Minis. It's been a few years since I've had one apart.

You have to make sure all of the metal latches are straightened (very common for some of them to be a little crooked). You can straighten them using needle nosed plyers. Also you need to apply strong and even force on one side of the machine at a time to close the case. It can be a little precarious and it’s not abnormal to have a little separation once the machine has been opened, but major separation is generally a result of those metal latches not being at 90 degree angles.

 

[ArmorAlley]

You have to make sure all of the metal latches are straightened (very common for some of them to be a little crooked). You can straighten them using needle nosed plyers. Also you need to apply strong and even force on one side of the machine at a time to close the case. It can be a little precarious and it’s not abnormal to have a little separation once the machine has been opened, but major separation is generally a result of those metal latches not being at 90 degree angles.

Thank you sir!
I shall try this out when I next have to open them up for some reason or another.

 

[retrokjell]

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 resently got a Mac Mini G4 1,5Ghz and was also abit bummed out regarding the sound situation when using Mac OS 9. First I though I could use external ones in the AUX plug, but that was not good at all. After researching abit I found this device that amplifies the sound, just use the volume control on that device to make sound perfect with any AUX speakers on Mac OS 9.

Behringer | Product | UFO202

www.behringer.com

Hope that helpes anyone else!

 

[DarthNvader]

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!

The 'silent upgrade' Mini G4's have an external TMDS that fixes an issue with the Radeon 9200 chip used in the older Minis with a pixel clock limit below that of full DVI.

In theory the silent upgrade is better, we just need to figure out some issues with the 'NDRV'.

 

[davecom]

The 'silent upgrade' Mini G4's have an external TMDS that fixes an issue with the Radeon 9200 chip used in the older Minis with a pixel clock limit below that of full DVI.

In theory the silent upgrade is better, we just need to figure out some issues with the 'NDRV'.

That's fair. It would be cool if a v10 of the Mac OS 9 image for minis comes out, but realistically it is seeming less and less likely as the years go on that one will. For practical purposes, regarding the current state of the image, a 1.25 GHz or 1.42 GHz offers better compatibility than a 1.33 GHz or 1.5 GHz. But maybe that will change in the future. Weren't you one of the folks who worked on the image?

 

[quicksilver]

I've got a 1.42 GHz Mac Mini and am planning to set it up to dual boot OS 9 and 10.4 but I want to get all my parts together so I hopefully only have to open it once.

I'm going to test audio with a cheap USB to 3.5 mm headphone jack adapter connected to decent powered speakers. I'm guessing a USB or Firewire audio interface would also work.

Is 128 GB the max drive size that should be used? Any benefit to compact flash over an mSATA SSD?

Have you ever experimented with using a housing from an Intel Mac Mini Server to create a G4 Mac Mini with two 2.5" drive bays? I've never opened up either but it would be interesting to see if it could be done to create a Mini with a fast boot drive and a large storage drive.

 

[davecom]

Congrats on the mini acquisition and good luck with the upgrades.

Yes, 190 GB is the maximum size for a partition I think in Mac OS 9. I think you could have a larger volume but you need to partition it.

I have not tested compact flash. Regardless, we are limited by the ATA bus.

Your idea is interesting, but that hack would also need a way of splitting the cabling in the G4 mini. It only has a single connector for the hard drive. Making it all fit physically would be the challenge I think. These devices are very tight. I really don't see much benefit for a machine like this. I think it makes more sense to just put a higher capacity drive in.

 

[quicksilver]

@davecom I probably should have purchased the ATA to mini mSATA adapter you linked to but I ended up buying a different one by mistake.

I added a Kingston 1TB SSD. Do you know if there are problems with drives that large? My 10.4 DVD wasn't recognized and I thought my optical drive may be dead but once I removed the SSD I could boot using the DVD. With the SSD installed no disks were showing up when I booted with the option key held.

I don't have an other mini mSATA drives or adapters to test with. The Mini did boot with the old ATA drive installed.

 

[quicksilver]

Never mind. Success with 10.4! Not sure what was wrong before.

Now to add AirPort and Bluetooth and figure out why it won’t recognize my white, wired Apple keyboard (Opt key would to select boot drive, disc eject key works at startup). I get a message that keyboard needs to be identified and when I hit Shift it says I’m hitting a key on my internal keyboard!