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Powermac G3 AIO OEM CD question
- Thread starter Unknown_K
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The only thing that makes the board in that an AIO is the fact that a CRT is hooked up the personality/wings card. Take that off and you got a plain-jane beige G3.
I converted one of those into a tower G3. I don't even think it identified with the system as an AIO, unless it sensed the CRT and told it that.
It is the same between the desktop and the tower. all the same boards/cpu/cards. Even the card that runs the monitor is a regular Whisper personality card. It's that black connector with clips that connects the CRT to it. And I suppose the other cable iirc that connect the front audio jacks and control buttons. That's it.
Just throw it in a beige G3 and watch it install.
Cheers!
I converted one of those into a tower G3. I don't even think it identified with the system as an AIO, unless it sensed the CRT and told it that.
It is the same between the desktop and the tower. all the same boards/cpu/cards. Even the card that runs the monitor is a regular Whisper personality card. It's that black connector with clips that connects the CRT to it. And I suppose the other cable iirc that connect the front audio jacks and control buttons. That's it.
Just throw it in a beige G3 and watch it install.
Cheers!
Another little tidbit of information is that later G3s (introduced after the AIO) actually came with that edition of the Whisper card that had the connection for the AIO's built in CRT, even in countries outside of the US. Here in Australia we never got the AIO, yet I remember working on a Beige G3 Desktop many years ago that had a connector on the personality card labeled, "AIO VIDEO".
I'm not sure why they'd have the disc labeled "AIO only", because really there's no way the OS can differentiate between the machines: the Personality Card is the same (Whisper or Wings) across all three models. So yeah, it'll likely install on any first-gen G3 desktop, but may have some AIO-specific software on it, or may be lacking software available for the other two models (the MPEG-decoding Personality Card wasn't an option on the AIO, for example, so it may not have the DVD player installer on the disc).
I did manage to extract the OS 9.2 image from the OS X installer discs for an iceBook (so, 10.2 or something), and it runs on any compatible machine I put it onto (although it has iBook-tailored software and settings on it).
SSW used to be flexible like that (except when System Enablers were involved...), but somewhere between 8.0 and 8.5 they changed it: I tried an original SSW disc for a B&W G3 (8.5) and it wouldn't install on anything but a B&W G3. I've tried a few others (mostly iBook and iMac 8.6 and OS 9), and they also refused to boot anything other than the intended machine.
I did manage to extract the OS 9.2 image from the OS X installer discs for an iceBook (so, 10.2 or something), and it runs on any compatible machine I put it onto (although it has iBook-tailored software and settings on it).
for the fun of it I took some pictures of a couple discs I had laying around:
Mac OS 9.0 for iMac DV models & Mac OS X 10.1.3 for iMac.
I also have the install and restore CDs for my PowerMac G4 sawtooth. (I think they're Mac OS 9.0.3)
Strange - I have a set of installation media from an iMac 333, my only 8.6 installation media (I have retail 8.5 but I'd rather just use the iMac's 8.6 CDs rather than use the 8.5 CD + 8.6 updater to get to 8.6), and it has worked on everything I've tried it on over the years - an 8100, a 6200, 5260, 1400 and Wallstreet G3.
