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G-4 for my Pismo . . .

Trash80toHP_Mini

Trash80toHP_Mini

NIGHT STALKER
68040
. . . HEH! }:) Actually, I haven't done it yet, but I'm finding this:

http://www.wegenermedia.com/pg4550.htm

. . . harder and harder to pass up! :approve:

Does anyone know of a faster, more power efficient or less expensive alternative? :?:

I'm mainly using the Pismo to play around with 10.4.11 a bit, and I haven't even tried Safari. I like Firefox just fine for now, as it's what I run on HP_Mini under the ubuntu NetBook ReMix. I'll be testing chrome on my NetToy soon, in anticipation of getting the new QWERTY Equipped Android from LG.

Old Analog Dogs just don't go for virtual KBDs! :o)

I use an analog corded, boom mic equipped, headset because it just works, unlike the TWO BlueToy ear-mites I've bought! :p

 
That is so cool!

The Pismo is one of my favourite Macs, and I'm so sad I can't find the power adapter. I should even have an extra battery for it somewhere.

 
I think that it is the last in-production G4 upgrade for the Pismo.

550mhz seems to be as fast as the G4 upgrades went. There were some higher speed G3 upgrades from Powerlogix, but there are some reports of heat issues.

John

 
I don't think you'll see that much of a performance increase for the price ($200 yikes!). For example, a 500MHz Pismo scores 256 on Geekbench and a 550MHz TiBook with a better graphics chip & faster RAM scores 284. How much of those few points can be attributed to CPU? What speed is yours now?

 
Mine's:

MacWireless.com G Card

Machine Name: PowerBookMachine Model: PowerBook3,1

CPU Type: PowerPC 750 (83.0)

Number Of CPUs: 1

CPU Speed: 500 MHz

L2 Cache (per CPU): 1 MB

Memory: 768 MB

Bus Speed: 100 MHz

Boot ROM Version: 3.2.4f1

Serial Number: QT01506xxxx

Sales Order Number: Z01U0xxxx
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I was hoping for faster browsing speeds (and G4 braggin' rights }:) ) using Firefox.

 
Does anyone know of a faster, more power efficient or less expensive alternative? :?:
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There was a 900MHz G3 at one point, I believe, but AFAIK this is the only Pismo upgrades still in production. I confirmed by email with Wegener just last week that they are still shipping.

If you are planning to run OS X, the G4 would give you some improvement. If you're sticking with 9, and you have the 500MHz CPU, you could try overclocking it :rambo:

 
The bummer, of course, is the 8 mb video RAM cap with Pismo. I am enjoying mine - I have several 400s and one 500, and the browsing speed is good. I think maxing out the ram at 1gb is the best thing you can do for a 500 - that would cost $55 or less, depending on the ram you have now...

 
Ah, one of the many unicorns I want.

There is a PCMCIA external video card out called the VTBook. This will provide 32 MB VRAM as an upgrade. It's supported on both Mac OS 9 and OSX through either Leopard or Snow Leopard, I can't remember.

I agree with 1GB RAM upgrade as well. It does make a difference. I think once I get more cash, I will pursue these costly things. It'll be interesting to see if I can squeeze another 10 years out of my Pismo.

73s de Phreakout. :rambo:

 
$200 sounds pricey, and you need to send in you old cpu or pay another $60. I guess they just remove the old CPU and cache and solder in new ones to resell?

 
There was a 900MHz G3 at one point, I believe, but AFAIK this is the only Pismo upgrades still in production. I confirmed by email with Wegener just last week that they are still shipping.
If you are planning to run OS X, the G4 would give you some improvement. If you're sticking with 9, and you have the 500MHz CPU, you could try overclocking it :rambo:
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The Powerlogix 900Mhz G3 was a dog - it overheated (considering it relied on the existing 5g copper shim to cool it), and I don't think many of them lasted long.

I've tried overclocking Pismo G3 CPUs in the past, and haven't gotten far - the "ceramic" G3s used in these are really only good for 500Mhz. The 400Mhz gets 450Mhz at best (I've done about three), and the 500Mhz doesn't go any higher (two attempted). It could also be the cache crapping out, but I'm not so sure.

JB

 
Did I hear/read somewhere that there were unimplemented VRAM SMT pads for one of the G3 series?

Does anyone know if the Video Controller on the Pismo can handle more than the stock amount of VRAM? :?:

. . . or if there's room to "piggyback" additional VRAM onto the existing ICs? }:)

 
Did I hear/read somewhere that there were unimplemented VRAM SMT pads for one of the G3 series?
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Pretty sure that was in a WS, and IDR if they ever got them working.

 
. . . or if there's room to "piggyback" additional VRAM onto the existing ICs? }:)
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Apple seems to have done a very good job expunging its old "Developer Notes" from the Internet, but digging enough confirmed my rusty memory:

The Rage 128 Mobility in the "Pismo" has its 8MB of RAM integrated onto the chip die. There's no external RAM bus on it at all. (It does have the inherent ability of all AGP video chipsets to grab textures straight from system RAM, but it can't use system RAM for the base framebuffer.)

I do remember noting once, and this *could* be a mis-recollection, that at least one of the "Mobility" versions of the Radeon 7000 was actually pin-compatible with the Rage 128 Mobility. If that were true and it would literally be electrically compatible with the rest of the existing circuitry then in theory with BGA rework equipment you could upgrade to a Radeon 7000 with 16MB of RAM. (the weakest version) You'd have to upgrade the machine's firmware, however. Possibly some creative hacking of the firmware used on the 550/667Mhz Powerbook G4s would work, as it's close to the same motherboard chipset.

Everyone harps on "VRAM" as the problem with the pre-Radeon chipsets. Technically the problem is that they only support AGP texture dimensions which are an even power of 2. *That* is why "Quartz Extreme" doesn't work. The Radeon 7000 is "insignificantly" faster than the 128.

 
BGA Rework!!!!!! = 8-o

LOL! I'm just about up to advanced thru-hole rework and thinking about doing some SMT layout and clean board assembly!

ATM I'm waiting for the guy with my next batch of craigslist Pismo Playtime materials to get back into town to get:

borken hinged Parts Pismo

Bookendz Docking Station

some other crud including an almost new battery.

Hopefully the RAM in the borker will max out PlayToyPismo™ . . .

. . . and that alone will almost be worth it for the total package price! [:D] ]'>

 
I have no idea how you managed to find them. Apple's website search engine and the indexing of the legacy articles is *completely terrible*. Awesomely bad. It's like they put every part of their website older than five years into a blender.

 
I'm finding this:http://www.wegenermedia.com/pg4550.htm

. . . harder and harder to pass up! :approve:

Does anyone know of a faster, more power efficient or less expensive alternative? :?:
Click to expand...
I have an old Daystar G4 in my Pismo, at 550MHz, and I have 1GB of memory. It definitely can handle things better than a G3 Pismo can, and is suitable for surfing, iTunes (although it still encodes somewhat slow), etc.

Realistically, however, you'd be better off putting your money into something else, unless you have a pot of money just sitting around. The biggest issue I have with my Pismo is the 120GB limit for the hard drive. I was thinking of using the Intech Hi-Capacity driver, and actually shelled money out for it, but it wasn't really worth it because you have to have 2 partitions; the first partition has to be 127 GB, and then you can use the >128 GB Partition on the rest of the drive...well, since the biggest ATA laptop drive is 320GB, which after you format it is about 299GB, that really only gave you a full 170-something to play around with.

I did manage to install Leopard on it, and it ran...ok...but there were issues in some programs, due to (I believe) the lack of a real video driver in OS X for the Rage chip in the Pismo. (The biggest issue was, I could look at my iPhoto thumbnails, but when I went to go into the big picture view to edit, nothing would ever show up). When I went to install the larger drive, I couldn't get Leopard to re-install, so I gave up and went back to Tiger, which is what I use on all my PowerPC's. (I suppose I could have kept trying, but installing Leopard on the Pismo was much more difficult than installing Tiger on my Lombards...which was really easy. Oh well, I'm running out of time to play with *all* my toys!).

Hope this helps!

 
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