G4 goodness

[Orion]

My awesome friend is giving me a pair of G4 towers today. He got them from a college near where he lives. The one is a DP 450, the other a single 466. I have to work on them because neither boot currently. The tech at the school said they both have blow power supplies, so I'll start there. Does a B&W power supply work in one of these? I have a bunch of them if it does. I can't wait for a new project!

 

[Christopher]

If the power matches up it should work.

 

[Quadraman]

The 466 is a Digital Audio and can't use any other power supply because of the 28v ADC connection required. The DP 450 would be a Gig Ethernet which shares the power supply of the Digital Audio.

 

[Unknown_K]

Sounds like an expensive fix.

 

[Patrickool93]

*cough* http://68kmla.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1015 *cough*

 

[Orion]

The DP 450 is booting. The power switch is bad, so I have to boot it with a old USB keyboard that has a power button. The DA still won't boot, but I want to try to bypass the power button to see if it has the same issue. I tried the keyboard already, but IIRC, the later G4's couldn't be powered on via USB anymore because it didn't meet the USB standard. Is this one of them? How can one bypass the power button on this machine? When I plug the PS in, I can hear it click and whatnot just like the working one does, so it gives me hope. Is there any way to bench test the PS? Take it out and short 2 pins to get it to power up?

 

[madmax_2069]

i know a QS (Quicksilver) will power on by the KB's power button (if the KB has one) and the QS is newer then the DA. so i would think that the DA would be able to as well. i have a 533 DA and it will power on from a KB with a power button on it. in reality the QS and DA mobo are about the same ( if not identical) but with the newer models of QS have a upgraded IDE controller which will allow you to use a HDD larger then 120gb. i think the 2002 QS had that ( and that is what my friend has)

 

[Orion]

The 466 is a Digital Audio and can't use any other power supply because of the 28v ADC connection required. The DP 450 would be a Gig Ethernet which shares the power supply of the Digital Audio.

The power supplies are different, because the DP 450 doesn't have the ADC power connector on the motherboard, therefore it wouldn't have the power lead for it.

 

[Orion]

Damn, it appears that this machine isn't what it is suppose to be. The "DP 450" on the back of the case really means "SP 400" and its a PM G4 AGP Graphics. Grr. Someone must have swapped out some parts at one time or another. Double grrr.

Anyway, my question still remains. How can I bench test the PS from the other G4? I want to pull it and see if it fires up at all without risking anything in the machine.

 

[Quadraman]

The 466 is a Digital Audio and can't use any other power supply because of the 28v ADC connection required. The DP 450 would be a Gig Ethernet which shares the power supply of the Digital Audio.

The power supplies are different, because the DP 450 doesn't have the ADC power connector on the motherboard, therefore it wouldn't have the power lead for it.

The Gig Ethernet does support ADC monitors. Only the Yikes! and Sawtooth do not. Since yours now turns out to be a single 400mhz and AGP and the power connector does not have the 28v pin, it has to be a Sawtooth motherboard mounted in a case labeled for a Gig Ethernet. Most likely someone pieced this Mac together from spare parts or the original case got damaged and was replaced. Here is the Gig Ethernet pinout from Apple.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=95064

Note pin 22. +28v

 

[Orion]

The Gig Ethernet does support ADC monitors. Only the Yikes! and Sawtooth do not. Since yours now turns out to be a single 400mhz and AGP and the power connector does not have the 28v pin, it has to be a Sawtooth motherboard mounted in a case labeled for a Gig Ethernet. Most likely someone pieced this Mac together from spare parts or the original case got damaged and was replaced. Here is the Gig Ethernet pinout from Apple.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=95064

Note pin 22. +28v

Yeah, I was going off the fact that this motherboard didn't have the power connector for the AGP slot. Now that I know that its the wrong motherboard, I see my error.

Though my question still remains:

Anyway, my question still remains. How can I bench test the PS from the other G4? I want to pull it and see if it fires up at all without risking anything in the machine.

 

[Orion]

Well, the PS is definitely fried on the DA. I pulled it out and apart and there is a burned trace and pin on the bottom of the circuit board in the PS. This one doesn't seem to have a replaceable fuse at all. At least, nothing that can be replaced without soldering stuff.

 

[jkoci]

Damn, it appears that this machine isn't what it is suppose to be. The "DP 450" on the back of the case really means "SP 400" and its a PM G4 AGP Graphics. Grr. Someone must have swapped out some parts at one time or another. Double grrr.

Too bad. I recently picked up a DP 450 from a Freecycle post. The processor and heat sink are noticeably larger in size than the standard single. As soon as I opened up the machine I knew something was weird about how the cpu looked. I then looked on the tag on the back to discover it was DP.

 

[Bunsen]

*cough* http://68kmla.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1015 *cough*

Thanks Pk93, you saved me from having to reference my own thread.

ATX power supply conversion:

*BONG*
:?:

[] ]'>

In other words: power up has been achieved, AGP video is working. Boots to the OS X installer /

I used the +5VSB standby power (purple) lead for the +28V feed. I will have to label the Firewire ports NO POWER.

The case fan is running from the unused ATX floppy power plug. I cracked the shroud off the case fan connector and shoved the pins in /

The Frankenmac pages and searching these forums for ATX should tell you the rest.

 

[LCGuy]

Damn, it appears that this machine isn't what it is suppose to be. The "DP 450" on the back of the case really means "SP 400" and its a PM G4 AGP Graphics. Grr. Someone must have swapped out some parts at one time or another. Double grrr.

Count yourself lucky - still a sweet machine to get for free! I wish I got a free G4.....

 

[The Macster]

I wish I got a free G4.....

Don't we all... Heck, an AGP G4, that can run Leopard with none of this "could not find the platform driver" nonsense! >

 

[Orion]

Damn, it appears that this machine isn't what it is suppose to be. The "DP 450" on the back of the case really means "SP 400" and its a PM G4 AGP Graphics. Grr. Someone must have swapped out some parts at one time or another. Double grrr.

Too bad. I recently picked up a DP 450 from a Freecycle post. The processor and heat sink are noticeably larger in size than the standard single. As soon as I opened up the machine I knew something was weird about how the cpu looked. I then looked on the tag on the back to discover it was DP.

Okay, question for you then. Does your DP 450 have one or two power sockets on the back of the case? If the Digital Audio and Gigabit ethernet models share a power supply, then why is the Digital Audio one have two sockets and the (now known as the G4 AGP in a Gigi case) have one? If this case was from a Gigi, and it is supposed to share the PS with a DA, then shouldn't the back of the case have spots for two power sockets? Or am I just confusing the hell out of everyone? :O

 

[Quadraman]

Look here

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58418

The PCI Graphics (Yikes!) and AGP Graphics (Sawtooth) have the power pass through exposed. This is because the pass through is used to power a monitor. The Gig Ethernet and Digital Audio don't need the pass through because they are designed to use ADC monitors which draw their power through the ADC port on the video card. The pass through is still there, though, the plastic cover that goes with these machines just covers it up. My Digital Audio has one covered up like is shown on the Apple page. If your DA or GE does not have it covered, then someone swapped the plastic cover with one from an earlier model. There should be a white label with a bar code and the description of the machine on that cover. Check it to see if the description on the label matches the machine it is attached to.

 

[Orion]

The tag on the machine in question specifically says "DP450, blah, blah, blah, gigabit ethernet, etc" it has the power passthrough exposed. The tag has not been messed with either. I had first thought that someone had simply swapped out the motherboard for an earlier one, but the PS wouldn't be compatible. This motherboard doesn't have the power connector for the ADC video card. That means that someone had to have swapped the PS and motherboard, which really doesn't make sense unless they needed a case and this system was dead.