Is it still usable or has Apple killed off the functionality like it does with iPads by removing apps or requiring a level of OS to still connect with the store?
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eBay bargains - what's your latest conquest?
- Thread starter Hughmac
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Haven’t tried installing any apps yet, but it talks just fine to my first-gen iPhone SE on iOS 13 and runs a lot smoother UI-wise than I thought it would. It’s on watchOS 6, which I think is only 2 versions behind what shipped on the latest watch, so it’s not *too* out of date just yet. I was honestly quite surprised how fluid and featureful it is for a second-gen unsupported product.
I now realize the reason the screen came off is because the battery was swelling, so I’m looking into replacing that. It looks like iFixit is the only reliable name-brand third party that sells batteries, but they only sell it with a full fix-it kit for 35$ (and I already have all their tools) so I sent them a message asking if I could get just the battery and adhesive. Hopefully I can work something out!
I won an auction for an eSATA card 2 weeks ago. End price was a mere 2,50€ and shipping was 7,50€. Not a bad deal for 10€ in total. I wasn't able to find a lot of information about this specific card online but it is one from "Iomaster". It caught my interest because I already have 2 similar eSATA cards (different brand, different PCB color) that work great in my PowerMac G5. The card I recently bought also features the "Sil3112CNU" chip which I know from prior experience works great in a PowerPC Mac. I know eSATA isn't very common and considered outdated by many but in my opinion it is a great addition for PCIe based Macs (and much better than USB2) 👍
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Nonetheless, it was the fastest way to connect external drives in consumer environments before Thunderbolt and USB 3.x gained widespread adoption.
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I'm 99.9% sure nothing will happen.I wonder, what if someone connects 2 macs with this kind of adapters..?
How bittersweet....I've waited so long to get a 1.5Ghz 12" Powerbook at the right price and I've finally got an immaculate one - no dings, metal ripples or gouges, unmolested and a decent working battery too.
Alas, the thermal system is wrecked - fan kicks in at the slightest excuse and revs up to a howling death rattle - at the moment I've mitigated this with G4Fan Control and running it at Reduced performance setting.
At some point it'll need a tear down and new fan etc...such a shame....
Alas, the thermal system is wrecked - fan kicks in at the slightest excuse and revs up to a howling death rattle - at the moment I've mitigated this with G4Fan Control and running it at Reduced performance setting.
At some point it'll need a tear down and new fan etc...such a shame....
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Congrat !
12" are these I never had enough interest in when they where still easy to find in good shape...
I regret now, looks really nice.
Thanks, I've had a few 12s over the years - the 1.33Ghz ones have been the best of the bunch.
One of my 1.5s behaved similarly: CPU reaching 75°C and thermal shutdown kicking in despite the fan howling at a nerve-racking 9,000 RPM.
I feel you. When I got mine I went through my own hell with it opening it…
I didn’t get any further then replacing the hard drive.
My unit was also immaculate before I tried to open it. It’s still great but you definitely can see the frame a little bent outer-wards from where I rocked in the spudger.
I didn’t get any further then replacing the hard drive.
My unit was also immaculate before I tried to open it. It’s still great but you definitely can see the frame a little bent outer-wards from where I rocked in the spudger.
That's exactly it - if it was already beaten up a little I wouldn't mind cracking it open but it's pristine.
I'll put it off for as long as possible - it seems to be behaving in Reduced mode at the moment but I haven't really taxed it that much.
You should see my $20 beige PowerMac G3 mini tower! I took it all apart yesterday. It turns out mice used to live in there! They chewed up some of the ribbon cables but the cables from the power supply appear to be okay so far.Isn’t that the case with most bargains?
Now I have to find ribbon cables. The OEM Apples ones have bends and cuts that allow them to squeeze through the case. So, now I am faced with getting generic ones cheap and hope that I can get them to bend to my will! Or try and find OEM Apple ones and probably pay dearly for them.
I can tell you that generic IDE cables will just work fine with PowerPC Macs. I'm using different brands of IDE cables on all of my PowerMac G5s (because I can add another drive since the Apple OEM ones only have a connection for master). I usually put the third drive also in the drive bay area and therefore had to bend the cable so I can route it above the upper fan of the G5. It is really bent (not damaged but bent) and works without any problems. I'd just get not the cheapest ones but I've found IDE ribbon cables to be pretty robust. So far I've never managed to break one. I did however manage to break a SATA cable once 😅
I ended up finding a service replacement cable for the really long IDE cable at a good price.
The two SCSI cables are 14 inches with slits for bending throughout the case. I ended up finding generic 16 inch cables on eBay so I purchased two of those. The original cable for the floppy drive seems to be okay, so I am going to reuse that one.
I found 6 untested G4 cpu cards on ebay for $40. A 400mhz 7400, a 466mhz 7400, a 533mhz 7410, a 733mhz 7450 with no l3 cache, an 800mhz 7450 with no l3 cache and a 933mhz 7455, the one with the 2mb l3 cache. The 733mhz 7450 has a weird bodge wire mod i made a post about and the 933 mhz had a surface mount capacitor snapped off in the bag with it but neither the cap or the pads were damaged. The 533mhz 7410 is currently in my sawtooth overclocked to 550mhz, i am currently running tests on it. Still have to test the other 5 processors. This is the sellers picture, i have yet to take a picture myself.
So here's my latest acquisition which, despite being straight from the mid-1980s, still feels like it's coming from the future (to me at least)
This is a Sony PCM-501ES "Digital (PCM) Audio Processor". (The case got a bit bent during shipping which is why it needs a floppy for support.)
What does it do? It converts analog audio that is fed into it to digital PCM-encoded audio... but offers no built-in storage. PCM audio needs lots of space (e.g. 16-bit 44.1 kHz stereo audio is ≈10 MB/min) , so where could you affordably store several hours of it in the mid-1980s... or, for that matter, as early as the late 1970s, when the first consumer devices of this kind showed up?
This box outputs the converted PCM audio as a black-and-white composite video feed (no audio at all!) you can then record using a standard, off-the-shelf VCR.
This is a screenshot I took when it was doing its magic with Suzanne Vega's Luka (because that's the first track on the first CD I grabbed, not for some more esoteric reason):
(The feed might seem blurrier than it actually is because I simply took a screenshot while it was running rather than capturing a still frame.)
For playback, you just connect the VCR's video output to the box's video input, hook up the box's audio outputs to your amplifier and off you go. Your very own DIY D.A.T. (Digital Audio Tape)... long before DAT! This, actually, is exactly how the PCM audio for mastering the earliest CDs was recorded, albeit using higher-end U-matic VCRs, not that consumer Betamax or VHS nonsense
This is a Sony PCM-501ES "Digital (PCM) Audio Processor". (The case got a bit bent during shipping which is why it needs a floppy for support.)
What does it do? It converts analog audio that is fed into it to digital PCM-encoded audio... but offers no built-in storage. PCM audio needs lots of space (e.g. 16-bit 44.1 kHz stereo audio is ≈10 MB/min) , so where could you affordably store several hours of it in the mid-1980s... or, for that matter, as early as the late 1970s, when the first consumer devices of this kind showed up?
- Audio tape? ROFL... nope.
- DAT? Not yet invented.
- Hard drive? Too expensive for the kind of capacity you'd need (hundreds of MBs per hour).
- Recordable CD? Not yet invented.
This box outputs the converted PCM audio as a black-and-white composite video feed (no audio at all!) you can then record using a standard, off-the-shelf VCR.
This is a screenshot I took when it was doing its magic with Suzanne Vega's Luka (because that's the first track on the first CD I grabbed, not for some more esoteric reason):
(The feed might seem blurrier than it actually is because I simply took a screenshot while it was running rather than capturing a still frame.)
For playback, you just connect the VCR's video output to the box's video input, hook up the box's audio outputs to your amplifier and off you go. Your very own DIY D.A.T. (Digital Audio Tape)... long before DAT! This, actually, is exactly how the PCM audio for mastering the earliest CDs was recorded, albeit using higher-end U-matic VCRs, not that consumer Betamax or VHS nonsense
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Wow! That must've cost a fortune back in the day...