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got a G3 from yard sale - can't get it to work!

twoodcc

twoodcc

macrumors P6
Original poster
Feb 3, 2005
15,307
26
Right side of wrong
so i got a G3 power mac from a yard sale. my girlfriend actually bought it for me, for $25. she said that they told her that it worked, but i can't get it to. the power comes on, and i can eject the cd tray, but that's about it.

it's got RAM, hard drive, video card in there, but i get nothing displayed on the monitor, and when i plug up the keyboard (usb), it doesn't seem to work with it either.

any ideas?
 
I've got a feeling they found a good way to get rid of old computer without the drive to the recycling center. anyway, why do you want a working G3?
 
aibo said:
I've got a feeling they found a good way to get rid of old computer without the drive to the recycling center. anyway, why do you want a working G3?
Click to expand...

well, you might be right. i'd still like to get it to work, just for the fun of it. i wasn't into macs when these were new.

there is a port on the back that looks kinda like a PS/2 mouse port. does anyone know what it is?

also, it has the ATI Rage 128 video card, with a VGA port (only port on it). anything else i need to know about this?
 
i've got somewhere! now it displays on the monitor, but i get the flashing question mark. it looks like OS 8 or 9 was on it.

i try to put it up from CD by holding the C key, but i don't think the keyboard is working for some reason.

any ideas?
 
Okay, well, it sounds like you've got a Blue and White G3, then, am I right?

It sounds like they may have wiped the hard drive before they sold it to you.... not a bad idea, since there may have been personal stuff on it, but not the nicest thing to do without telling you.

If this is the case, you wouldn't know what OS they had on it.. the ? is from the ROM, not the OS.

You might want to check inside and make sure the cables are all connected to the HDDs; also, if you have another Mac (or even a PC), put the hard drive in one of those, and see if there's anything on it at all. If there's nothing, then, well, you'll obviously not be able to boot from it.

Your best bet is to get a bootable CD (Mac OS 8.5 is the earliest CD you'll be able to boot from on a B&W, 8.1 with a Beige). Then you'll be able to install an OS if there isn't one.

By the way, if it's a Beige G3, your USB keyboard won't work until extensions are loaded, way after you've gone through the hard-coded boot process. You'd be better off with an ADB keyboard if that's the case- the "PS/2 looking port" is an ADB port... the B&W was the last to offer one.
 
Firefly2002 said:
Okay, well, it sounds like you've got a Blue and White G3, then, am I right?

It sounds like they may have wiped the hard drive before they sold it to you.... not a bad idea, since there may have been personal stuff on it, but not the nicest thing to do without telling you.

If this is the case, you wouldn't know what OS they had on it.. the ? is from the ROM, not the OS.

You might want to check inside and make sure the cables are all connected to the HDDs; also, if you have another Mac (or even a PC), put the hard drive in one of those, and see if there's anything on it at all. If there's nothing, then, well, you'll obviously not be able to boot from it.

Your best bet is to get a bootable CD (Mac OS 8.5 is the earliest CD you'll be able to boot from on a B&W, 8.1 with a Beige). Then you'll be able to install an OS if there isn't one.

By the way, if it's a Beige G3, your USB keyboard won't work until extensions are loaded, way after you've gone through the hard-coded boot process. You'd be better off with an ADB keyboard if that's the case- the "PS/2 looking port" is an ADB port... the B&W was the last to offer one.
Click to expand...

yes, it is a blue and white G3. but how do i get it to boot from the cd?
 
well, i got it to work! there were 2 hard drives in there, so i took out the non-apple one, and then it booted up to 10.2.8! too bad the hard drive is only 6 GB.
 
Firefly2002 said:
By the way, if it's a Beige G3, your USB keyboard won't work until extensions are loaded, way after you've gone through the hard-coded boot process. You'd be better off with an ADB keyboard if that's the case- the "PS/2 looking port" is an ADB port... the B&W was the last to offer one.
Click to expand...

That's definitely not true. All B&W G3s shipped with USB keyboards, and one is perfectly able to perform any required functions from such - including booting from a CD by holding "C" for example. I'm typing this message on one as we speak.

The problem may in fact lie with the OP's PC keyboard or newer Apple keyboard (like an aluminum one), which may or may not be recognized by the G3, although this G3 I'm on right now does everything just fine with the original white plastic keyboard that shipped with my 2006 Mac Pro.
 
dpaanlka said:
That's definitely not true. All B&W G3s shipped with USB keyboards, and one is perfectly able to perform any required functions from such - including booting from a CD by holding "C" for example. I'm typing this message on one as we speak.

The problem may in fact lie with the OP's PC keyboard or newer Apple keyboard (like an aluminum one), which may or may not be recognized by the G3, although this G3 I'm on right now does everything just fine with the original white plastic keyboard that shipped with my 2006 Mac Pro.
Click to expand...

i think he was talking about a beige G3.

anyways, i did get the keyboard to work. everything seems to work, but it won't recognize a hard drive bigger than 128 GB right?
 
Well, if it has no HDD in it, it should automatically just boot. If that's not working, I suppose you could try removing the HDD and see if that works...

But then of course you'd be stuck with a comp you couldn't install an OS on.
 
twoodcc said:
well, i got it to work! there were 2 hard drives in there, so i took out the non-apple one, and then it booted up to 10.2.8! too bad the hard drive is only 6 GB.
Click to expand...

I guess that makes it the 300 MHz model. Hm. 512 K cache ... slower than the old beige 300 ;)
 
Is there anything on the other hard drive (not the 6gb one)? Disconnect the 6gb one and try and boot from the other one. Any drive larger then 128gb will read as a 128gb drive. Sounds like the other one might have an OS too since both were hooked up and the Master/Slave jumpers weren't properly set which is why it wouldn't initially boot up with both hooked up.
 
Firefly2002 said:
I guess that makes it the 300 MHz model. Hm. 512 K cache ... slower than the old beige 300 ;)
Click to expand...

it's the 350 mhz model

OrangeSVTguy said:
Is there anything on the other hard drive (not the 6gb one)? Disconnect the 6gb one and try and boot from the other one. Any drive larger then 128gb will read as a 128gb drive. Sounds like the other one might have an OS too since both were hooked up and the Master/Slave jumpers weren't properly set which is why it wouldn't initially boot up with both hooked up.
Click to expand...

well, i tried hooking up a 160 GB hard drive, and i unhooked the 6 GB drive, but then it won't boot to cd. i'll try it again
 
When you boot up. Try holding down the Option key and select your CD from the list of icons to choose from and then click the right arrow. Is the hdd formated correctly?
 
Some earlier B&W G3s I believe had some issues with Master/Slave capabilities... something wrong with the ATA controller. Also something with their DVD-ROM drives; there was a firmware patch, at least for the optical drive issue...
 
Firefly2002 said:
Some earlier B&W G3s I believe had some issues with Master/Slave capabilities... something wrong with the ATA controller. Also something with their DVD-ROM drives; there was a firmware patch, at least for the optical drive issue...
Click to expand...

well there is some kind of issue here.

if i put in a 160 GB drive that is formatted correctly, it won't boot to cd. if i put back the 6 GB apple drive, then it will boot to cd.

if i have both drives in, it won't boot to cd or the 6 GB drive (10.2.8)

i'm trying to get the 160 drive in there. i know it will only read 128 GB of it, but that's better than 6 GB!
 
Maybe you'd better go to the B&W G3 section of the Apple Discussion Forums. They'll be able to help you a lot better than anyone here. Zapping PRAM couldn't hurt though.
 
twoodcc said:
well there is some kind of issue here.

if i put in a 160 GB drive that is formatted correctly, it won't boot to cd. if i put back the 6 GB apple drive, then it will boot to cd.

if i have both drives in, it won't boot to cd or the 6 GB drive (10.2.8)

i'm trying to get the 160 drive in there. i know it will only read 128 GB of it, but that's better than 6 GB!
Click to expand...

Q1 - are you trying to run them from the same ide cable?

Q2 - what is the jumper setting on the 160 gig hard drive?
 
waremaster said:
That only works on Intel Macs
Click to expand...

No, it works on PPC. I did it last night when I installed Tiger onto my other dead ibook in Target disk mode with an usb external dvd drive hooked up to my ibook.

I remember my B&W. Set the jumpers of the HDDs with the 6gb to master and make sure that it's connected to the last connection on the IDE cable and the 160gb to Slave on and plug that into the middle of the IDE cable.

Like someone else said, there might be a firmware update you might need in order to use the 160gb at all.
 
mkaake said:
Q1 - are you trying to run them from the same ide cable?

Q2 - what is the jumper setting on the 160 gig hard drive?
Click to expand...

1. i was. i think i got it working with the 160 GB drive now though

2. i didn't look at the jumper.

i just figured out that it doesn't read dvd's, which is what my tiger disk is, a dvd. i might have figured it out now. we'll see. i had to partition the 160 GB drive to 2 partitions in order to install tiger on it. it's installing now
 
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