So, Beige G3's.

[equill]

how do you tell what revision ROM you have?

As you are probably aware, ASP tells you which ROM is installed:

$77D.40F2 revision A

$77D.45F1 revision B

$77D.45F2 revision C.

This knowledge is of precisely zero use to you as you stand at a recycler's ROM bin, or staring at an eBay sale, wondering how to get around the puzzle that all Beige G3 ROMs are numbered 820-0954 on the card. To be sure, some are marked 'WRAITH' as well as the Apple ©, and some are 820-0954-A and some are 820-0954-01. Don't be cozened into the expectation that if there are -A cards there will also be -B and -C. 'Taint so.

Somewhere (but which where escapes me) is an (incomplete) essay about chip differences as diagnostics of ROM version. Here are a few pages about the general notions in upgrading Beige G3s, and I shall post the somewhere page when I refind it.

http://www.maccetera.com/news/beigeg3.html

http://resale.headgap.com/osxnotes.html

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/g3-zone/

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=4559815

de

Codicil at 1550GMT: Eh! voilà!

http://eshop.macsales.com/Tech/Load_Page.cfm?page=zifrommainpage.html

 

[madmax_2069]

My beige config is in the signature. Are there any ways to get the freaking dvd player to work on this thing?!?!?!?! I did a mod/hack where you delete the install check file in the installer package, but now the app wont open. I have an ATi 9200 in it as well as a DVD burner.

that is one hell of a Beige G3 its what i wanted to do to my Beige G3 AIO. i use to run dual monitors on my AIO very nice to have.

do you have PCI extreme enabled on it (a enabler to force Quarts extreme on PCI Macs with compatable video cards). i enabled it on my AIO in my sig and the GUI ran so much smoother, unlike so many others i didnt see any bad side effects of having it enabled.

again very nice Beige G3 MT

 

[sircabulon]

I thought about doing that, But I also have an ATA 133 controller card as well as a USB/FW card, so having that enabled might hinder overall performance.

 

[Unknown_K]

I would think Quartz Extreme would be best for the 66Mhz PCI slot video cards in B&Ws, not the slower normal 33mhz PCI slots that share bandwidth with other cards like in a Beige G3.

 

[madmax_2069]

I would think Quartz Extreme would be best for the 66Mhz PCI slot video cards in B&Ws, not the slower normal 33mhz PCI slots that share bandwidth with other cards like in a Beige G3.

yea i would think also as well but i have a Yikes G4 that i tried it on and it actually hurt performance. the most systems that i have seen that has performance issues wit PCI Extreme was the B&W and Yikes sysyems. i didnt have a bit of issues on my Beige G3 with it enabled.

my Beige G3 AIO has a PCI wifi card, and a USB PCI card along with the Radeon 7000. the thing i did was move the Radeon card next to the wings personality card, the USB card next to the Radeon and the wifi card in the last PCI slot.

 

[sircabulon]

i just tried it for giggles in grins, but took it off because it wasn't consistent. Some things would work better, but then they would be slower again if the hard drive was doing anything. All the cards in mine are bus hogs.

 

[Unknown_K]

I have a radeon mac edition in both my B&W's (one is the original no number, the other is a 7000) and never seen the need for hacks (I don't play 3d games). Seems fast enough in OS 9.2.2 and OSX 10.3.9 to me.

 

[bluekatt]

beige G3 333 mhz tower

256 mb ram

20 gig hd

stock cd rom

running jaguar

its been gathering dust for a while these days

 

[Bunsen]

what is it with beige motherboards dying? / the symptoms were a non-booting OS X install, OS 9 booting fine.

you THINK you cleared it with Command-Option-P-R at startup with capslock off and watch it double boot.

Well it DOES NOT REALLY ZAP THE PRAM.

/ putting these unsanctioned new bytes in areas NOT CLEARED EVER by Command-Option-P-R. / Draining battery and using paperclips will not help. You want all bits zeroed.

YOU ARE IN LUCK! You can repair a dead motherboard by using a PRAM zapper tool not written by apple that clears the DRM areas /

Use MicroMat's free TechTool or commercial TechTool Pro /

So how exactly do you fix a dead motherboard using that if the board does not boot?

See top of quote, and pardon the thread necromancy. TechTool runs under OS 9. If you get the version on CD, or on the Apple Hardware service CD, you don't even need a booting hard drive.

 

[quinterro]

I have been tinkering with mine lately, and it will end up like this:

G3 Tower with G3/400mhz processor from my Blue/White G3

384MB RAM

9.1GB SCSI hard disk

3GB IDEhard disk

Zip 100 drive

Wings A/V card from a G3 AIO

24x CD-RW drive

USB 1.1 card

2MB VRAM

Apple PC Compatibility card (P166/80MB)

Voodoo2 12MB 3D accelerator

MacOS 9.2.2

You should see the video pass-though I have to do on this thing. 8-o

 

[Mike Richardson]

what is it with beige motherboards dying? / the symptoms were a non-booting OS X install, OS 9 booting fine.

you THINK you cleared it with Command-Option-P-R at startup with capslock off and watch it double boot.

Well it DOES NOT REALLY ZAP THE PRAM.

/ putting these unsanctioned new bytes in areas NOT CLEARED EVER by Command-Option-P-R. / Draining battery and using paperclips will not help. You want all bits zeroed.

YOU ARE IN LUCK! You can repair a dead motherboard by using a PRAM zapper tool not written by apple that clears the DRM areas /

Use MicroMat's free TechTool or commercial TechTool Pro /

So how exactly do you fix a dead motherboard using that if the board does not boot?

See top of quote, and pardon the thread necromancy. TechTool runs under OS 9. If you get the version on CD, or on the Apple Hardware service CD, you don't even need a booting hard drive.

Or just pull the battery for a few hours...

 

[Unknown_K]

The best way to reset the pram is to disconnect main power, disconnect the PS from the motherboard, remove the pram battery, tap the power button to kill any residual voltage, and then let it sit 30 minutes.

I had to do that on a beiege desktop that OSX 10.3 was installed on and messed it up where it would not bong.

 

[jiffy]

I have:

G3 desktop

OS 9.2.2 (I'm struggling to get it to dual boot Ubuntu)

1000 MHz G3 (running from a 83 MHz FSB)

768 MB ram

80 GB hd

24x cd-rom

ATI Radeon 9200 PCI

2-port USB 1.1 card

10/100 ethernet (Realtek 8139)

Logitech optical mouse (I don't like the Apple one button mouses, creepy things)

Internal zipdrive still needs to be added and the cd-romdrive needs to be replaced by a fully compatible DVD-RW drive. The keyboard sucks, so this needs to be replaced, too. Feels quite 'spongy', while a prefer something with a more definite 'click'.

Bought it about two years ago out of curiosity: I started out with a Commodore 64 in about 1984, then the Amiga 500, went to the 486 (Windows 3.1) in 1993 and upgraded my pc until arriving in 2009 while using Linux (Ubuntu) for my normal computing needs. I am currently branching out to other older hard- and software (Acorn Archimedes, Apple IIci, Apple G3, Sun Ultra 2) with the accompanying OS for the respective platforms just for the fun of it.

My all time internal design favorites are the Mac IIci and the Sun Ultra 2, with the Ultra 2 as the absolute best. The Beige G3 is ok, but the case and its internals sometimes feel a little flaky. OS 9.2 is not to bad when compared with Win9x, although it certainly is not better from my point of view.

All in all, my beige G3 is a fun system to tinker and fool around with, and it scores high on my 'switch it on to check something out' list...

Ubuntu is not coöperating with it, though: when booting the installation cd through BootX, the standard OS9 desktop doesn't get replaced with the bootupscreen of the Ubuntu cd. Ah well, life isn't perfect.

 

[Mycatisbigfoot]

I have one its like 333Mh or somthing, it is the server verson

But i killed it,

I put a stick of ram in backwards and poff, its dead, I took the disket drive out and lost that, I took the scsi card the nic and the fire wire,

I do use the fire wire card the cd drive the hard drive, ram, and the rom card in it in other mac,s in my house

 

[tmtomh]

I have one its like 333Mh or somthing, it is the server verson
But i killed it,

I put a stick of ram in backwards and poff, its dead

How do you put RAM in backwards? It's keyed and won't go in backwards.

 

[Unknown_K]

With a hammer.

 

[sircabulon]

With a hammer.

I find that whenever trying to force a component into a computer it is better to use a rubber mallot instead of a hammer. These are less likely to break the parts 8D

 

[Osgeld]

the one time i managed to screw up ram like that the machine was unharmed, the ram was toast tho

 

[Hrududu]

Mine is a Desktop model.

333MHz overclocked to 350

192Mb of RAM at the moment I think

8Gb hard drive

iXMicro Twin Turbo 128-3D video card

PCI USB card

Currently running 10.2.8 but I think I'm going to install 10.1 just for the heck of it.

 

[MacJunky]

433MHz (overclocked 350MHz B&W CPU)

448MB RAM

4GB 133x CF card

DVD-ROM that I can not remember the speed of.

32MB Radeon 7000

2 port USB 1.1

10/100 ethernet

Audio only personality card(they call it whisper as opposed to wings right?)

ATX case

Running 9.2.2

It is sitting behind my desktop PC connected to the second input of my 22" display. I run OS 9 at 1680x1050 and it is pretty nice.