G4 with free shipping...

[MrMacintosh]

Hi all,

I was browsing eBay a few days ago, thinking "Hmm, I have never owned a tower Mac. I want one." I was looking on eBay again today (at a relative's house, out on the porch, via someone else's wireless internet), and came across a G4 with free shipping. $50 shipped, in fact. Here's the eBay auction. I'm aware that this is a Yikes! machine, but still. It sounds like an interesting repair project (probably a very simple one actually).

Good deal or not?

Thanks,

Kyle-

 

[Quadraman]

Probably a good deal. Most of the time OS X errors are caused by the user fooling around in the system folder or some piece of software causing a conflict rather than an actual hardware failure. Even so, parts for those are cheap enough if something actually is needed other than a clean reinstall.

 

[Unknown_K]

Looks like the case is in decent condition. Can you swap motherboards with an AGP g4 using the current power supply?

 

[quinterro]

Who knows - you might get lucky and get a Sawtooth.

My G4 was a 400mhz system and until I asked if it had an AGP slot it could have gone either way.

 

[MrMacintosh]

Well, it arrived today! FedEx is fast

So I think it is a Sawtooth, as the video card is in a smaller, brown slot. It has VGA and DVI.

Umm upon removing from the box, it rattled. Ugh. But, it was just a screw. Then it rattled again, a second screw. :

Then, I applied power. It spun up properly, but my Dell LCD stayed amber - no video. So I reset the PRAM. Now, I get a flashing ? mark.

A few things about the computer - it has a zip drive, 128MB of RAM, and a 10GB HD. Also, it has an Adaptec AVA-2906 SCSI card. Can anyone tell me about it? Finally, the optical drive requires some sort of caddy/magazine/other adapter.

I will be troubleshooting ... after dinner

Kyle-

 

[MacTCP]

G4s are really nice. Mine has a SCSI card too.

 

[MrMacintosh]

Update - Not a 10GB drive, or 128MB of RAM. In fact it's a ~30GB drive and 256MB of RAM!

And, I'm dumb. The CD drive does NOT need any sort of caddy - I just didn't know how to put the CD in, haha.

I guess they really screwed up in an attempt to reinstall the OS - there were the remnants of an attempted OS X installation, but that's it.

Kyle-