Trenton haul, part deux

[iamdigitalman]

watch this space, I just got this email in my inbox, and I quote:

I do have some eMacs that are not working (three of them) that you could have if you felt like tinkering with them. RAM and hard drives have been pulled from them. I also have about four iMac Indigos, the motherboards are good, but monitors seem a bit fuzzy...never liked to tinker with monitors.
Finally, I have a Powermac 6500 that I think I may be ready to part with...We just took a G4 off line as a server and I am migrating the 6500 to it. Oh, and I do have a PowerMac Server with all the server software intact on it (think it is a Workgroup Server 8550 or 9150), that we no longer need around...

And I am ready to let some of the eMates go if you are interested...I have Personal LaserWriter printers that can be used with them, if you are interested...

In fact, you should take a skip by, sometime before Christmas break (our last day is the 19th) and you can shop around...maybe I can hook you up with some of our unwanted stuff.

I am going to swing by later today, or tomorrow and check it out. Wish me luck. Hopefully I won't scrap most of it like I did last time.

-digital

 

[Strimkind]

Sounds like a good haul if you can get it. Maybe they will have some more jewels hiding in their storage area.

 

[iamdigitalman]

yeah, last time I went, I was not expecting much, but to come out of there with a G3 AIO (though it's power supply croaked), and an emate with a bad battery were nice treats.

They say there might be more eMates, and I don't have anything faster than a 450mhz G3 mac wise, so if I can get a eMac out of it, that would be awesome.

Also, they already gave me a 8550 server, which now has a dead hard drive and the power button broke on me, but it has a G3 upgrade and the DAT tape drive. I hope it's the latter 9150, since it is the only WGS without a consumer variant.

Well, now I am not getting any sleep. too excited, and I have to be up when my mom is up so I can trade cars with her, since she has the larger SUV. Last time, I took my saturn wagon, and I filled it to the brim, including the passenger seat, and dashboard. I actually had to pick and choose which stuff to leave behind.

-digital

 

[Strimkind]

Ahh, definately need the larger vehicle. I had the option of getting more than a car load for less than 100$ of older mac stuff however my fiancee would have killed me, plus i have no place to put it.

Unfortunately I have to live with whatever laptops come my way. At least I can have a few around and hide them without too much space being used.

 

[Bunsen]

9150! Wish someone would drop an email in my inbox like that

 

[iamdigitalman]

ok, I have been back for a couple hours now.

The final haul:

3x emacs. One 700mhz that was booting until I ripped the damn power button, the other two are reportedly 1ghz. one boots but has no video, the other is in pieces.

3x iMac indigos. none have motherboards, optical drives, or bottom cases. I have a motherboard for a 500mhz imac, which I might sell with the iMacs

1x Workgroup Server 9650. Have not tried to power up this one yet. It might have a sonnet upgrade in it (I hope).

I plan on selling the iMacs and the 700mhz iMac, and the eMac in parts. I wanna know if the other one is fixable. I kinda need this, I have no G4 to my name.

-digital

 

[Strimkind]

Try external video for the eMac 1ghz. Maybe its just a loose connection or a bad tube. Could switch parts around between the eMacs to get a good working one.

 

[iamdigitalman]

I tried unhooking the video connector and plugging it in again. No dice.

The video out is mini vga and I don't happen to have an adapter for it.

I am really scared to work around a CRT after all the bad luck I hve had with them. I know the one in the 700mhz works, but I have no idea where to begin swapping or how to do it without killing myself. I don't even know how to discharge them right.

-digital

 

[Christopher]

Apple will still honor the eMac motherboard problem, so that might be it. Check the caps.

 

[iamdigitalman]

UPDATE: I put the emacs aside, and opened up the 9650. To my surprise, there are 3 hard drives in this thing: a full height (!) drive hooked to the inbuilt SCSI, and 2 identical seagate barracudas, one in a bracket right above the power supply, and one on a black plastic plate on the bottom. I will put both of these next to each other, because there is a HP 2gb I was given last time with the same 68 pin connector, and it will go above the PS.

I also opened it all the way up, and I was shocked to see not only a newer maxpower 300 card (is this a G3 upgrade?), and the RAM banks are FULL!! there are 2 different kinds of sticks, and I plan on matching them up, since there are 2 of the second group in the main bank, and 2 in the lower bank. There is no ROM simm surprisingly, but I might have one of these from last time somewhere. I assume it will not boot without this.

expansion cards include a ethernet card (my guess is an apple brand 10/100, since I have 2 more from him), the video card, and the SCSI card which provides the 68 pin connector, and oddly looks to have an external port, but it has a big white block on it with a (\) symbol on it.

I will power this one up later on tonight after class.

-digital

 

[iamdigitalman]

Apple will still honor the eMac motherboard problem, so that might be it. Check the caps.

it's not the motherboard is it? it does chime, and I do get the pretty white light for power. I can also hear the CRT crackle when it powers on. The hard drive also sounds like it is reading alright.

If it is a defect, they will fix it for free, right? if so, I need to take a trip to the apple store.

 

[Christopher]

You could try. That sounds like the actual crt itself.

 

[iamdigitalman]

well, didn't they have some capacitor problems across the board a while back? Then maybe this could be one of them. In which case, I am in luck, since they are still honoring that.

 

[Cory5412]

1.0GHz and 1.25GHz "USB2" eMacs had the capacitor problem -- I believe it'll be a version with ATi graphics.

Here's Apple's info page about it: http://www.apple.com/support/exchange_repair/emac.html

If it's in that serial range, don't plug it in anymore, get it recapped or take it to an Apple store to see if they'll repair it for you. (Apparently some of them are still doing the repair, but your mileage may vary.)

 

[iamdigitalman]

damn, the 2 1ghz machines are YM617, and the 700mhz is YM217.

Now what?

I did manage to hotwire the 700mhx by cutting the power line and connecting the red and black wires and it started right up. I would use it if the hard drive were not so hard to replace. You have to discharge the CRT just to get to it.

-digital

 

[Mike Richardson]

If you see visibly leaking capacitors then take it to the Apple store and they will still fix it. You may have to call Apple, and the front line guy might not authorize the repairs, but you then ask for a supervisor and she will always authorize the repairs.

 

[Christopher]

damn, the 2 1ghz machines are YM617, and the 700mhz is YM217.
Now what?

I did manage to hotwire the 700mhx by cutting the power line and connecting the red and black wires and it started right up. I would use it if the hard drive were not so hard to replace. You have to discharge the CRT just to get to it.

-digital

Modify it so that its like the inside of the firewire iMac G3's.

 

[iamdigitalman]

ok, I powered up the 9650 after making some modifications. DAMN this thing is loud. the 2 seagates are showing up, at 4gb a piece, the full height hard drive was split into 2 partitions, and I found out it's a monster 18gb.

the 2.1gb is not showing up. Needs ID changed.

RAM is reported at 384mb, so either 12x 32mb, or 8x 16mb and 4mb 64mb, since there are 2 types of RAM.

gonna go play around with this some more, experiment with rhapsoday, and OS X, and maybe even linux.

 

[iamdigitalman]

good news about the reported 1ghz emacs. I flipped the CD cover open and the configuration was right there: 1.25ghz/256mb/40gb/CD

that makes it fall under a USB 2.0 revision, and a 2gb RAM limit, but the 1.25ghz model of that one came with a superdrive, so it might be a custom configuration, which would explain why the last 4 digits of the serial number do not align with the identifying the emac KB article, but they are similar to the last revision model, but those only came in at 1.42ghz.

This also makes it fall in line with the capacitor plague.

Think it's worth it to take it in to bring it in to the apple store to see what they say? and if it costs money to fix it, think I should spend it to do so? If I do have them fix it, I might as well have them install the 120gb HD for me, if they would do that for nothing while they have the machine apart. I can install my DVD burner myself, but I don't feel comfortable messing with where the hard drive is.