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Post your oldest "living" PowerPC Mac!
- Thread starter Corbin052198
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i have a powerbook G4 i bought in may of 2005. people still think it is one of the newer ones on first glance. I kinda want to upgrade, but to be honest all i do is get on the internet, type in word, and manage my itunes library to move it onto my ipod. And for that the thing still works perfectly fine (knock on wood).
I'm running leopard fine. I probably will up grade soon, but i keep asking myself how different an experience will i have for what I do with my computer. It is OSX i love. Kinda pisses me off I can't access the app store. Perhaps i will get an ipad 2 to satisfy my retail therapy.
I'm running leopard fine. I probably will up grade soon, but i keep asking myself how different an experience will i have for what I do with my computer. It is OSX i love. Kinda pisses me off I can't access the app store. Perhaps i will get an ipad 2 to satisfy my retail therapy.
well i spoke too soon. i had always had issues with the power adapters for my powerbook. I had gone through like five of them, the design was miserable. about a week ago it would occasionally go from charging to not charging. then finally today i saw smoke coming out of the adapter inlet on the computer and now it won't charge for anything. Prob just time to get a new one. RIP powerbook g4. may 2005-feb 2011
Kitchen computer
I actually found use for my iMac G4. Giving it many more years.
After I upgraded it with a 500GB new HD and 1GB RAM I figured i could use it as a kitchen computer.
Nowadays it's connected wirelessly for looking up recipes. It's connected to the Airport Express in the living room. So all music can be played in the kitchen and throughout the living room wirelessly. It's great! I love it to death.
It's in absolute pristine condition. It also has a external bluetooth dongle for the brandspanking new keyboard and mouse that are used with the iMac. Bought them both barely used!! amazing.
I actually found use for my iMac G4. Giving it many more years.
After I upgraded it with a 500GB new HD and 1GB RAM I figured i could use it as a kitchen computer.
Nowadays it's connected wirelessly for looking up recipes. It's connected to the Airport Express in the living room. So all music can be played in the kitchen and throughout the living room wirelessly. It's great! I love it to death.
It's in absolute pristine condition. It also has a external bluetooth dongle for the brandspanking new keyboard and mouse that are used with the iMac. Bought them both barely used!! amazing.
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My oldest is an iMac G4 800. The screen went kaput, so instead of installing a new screen, I made it dual purpose - iPad stand and function G4 Mac in one! I had it plugged into a 42" LCD at one time. It's running Tiger fairly well, but looked like crap via VGA on that large screen. Currently trying to integrate into my tiny home office.
wow so awesome
Thanks man! As I said, I am still trying to integrate it into my tiny little "home office" (corner of my bedroom). Considered making it into some rudimentary web/file server...it deserves to live on. Problem is I have a PowerPC Mac Mini (gift from my father-in-law) and a 14" iBook G4 (was my son's, bought him a new PC lappy this weekend...ugh), so I have a choice of what to use.
Need to post a topic in this thread about the best way to convert an old PowerPC mac into a decent PHP/MySQL "test bed" server. Need advice, as I really need to be able to locally test my sites out on a dedicated machine.
Log rant, completely unrelated...sorry. Thanks again!
My two PowerPC Macs are an iMac G4 15" @ 700 MHz and an iMac G3 Indigo 2000 Revision @ 400 MHz. I used to have the G3 iMac but I gave it to my friend who BEGGED me for it. lol. The G4 I still have and using it to type this post now. The G3 runs 10.3.9 under 128 MB RAM and the G4 runs 10.5.8 under 768 MB RAM.
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My oldest "living" one is my Power Mac 5500/250. Has 96MB ram and a 2GB HD. Yup, it's one of the all in one models, and it works just fine... here's proof -
My oldest PPC is the 7100/80AV. I don't have a monitor adapter, so I can't hook it up, plus it has no HD. When you start it up, it chimes, but gives a Sad Mac crashing sound... probably because there's no HD in it. I'm having a hard time finding a SCSI HD for it cheap.
My oldest PPC is the 7100/80AV. I don't have a monitor adapter, so I can't hook it up, plus it has no HD. When you start it up, it chimes, but gives a Sad Mac crashing sound... probably because there's no HD in it. I'm having a hard time finding a SCSI HD for it cheap.
Missing an HD shouldn't cause a 7100 to make the sad mac sound, its far more likely to be the RAM. My 8100/100 chimes fine with no sad mac with no HD present, it only stops making the chime when theres no RAM present, or another hardware problem is "introduced" to it. (With a 2GB Seagate HD my 8100 boots fine, and I have the required AV adapter - pics coming as soon as I get around to it).
My oldest PowerPC based Mac is not particularly old, but oh boy is it living.
2003 17" 1.33GHz Powerbook G4, upgraded to 2GB RAM and 250GB HD. Runs OS X 10.5.8.
The computer works as a server for a number of board games which I sell on the iPhone app store. It has been running constantly since March 2009 doing this task. It currently has an uptime of 1 year and 5 days, and I have the screenshot to prove it. It has literally hosted millions of online games between players, and handles several thousand logins per day. It does all this while resting under a piece of furniture, with a book sandwiched between the keyboard and screen to ensure that the top doesn't close, which would cause it to go into sleep mode. The screen runs 100% dimmed, all the wireless functionality is disabled, and the machine runs in energy saving mode all to minimize the electricity usage. Of course, since it's a laptop the energy usage is already low, making it an awesome energy efficient server.
The last time it needed a restart was when the power went out for an extended period of time, and before that it was because I moved between cities. It has never had a kernel panic as long as I have had it. As far as I'm concerned, it is the most reliable computer ever built
2003 17" 1.33GHz Powerbook G4, upgraded to 2GB RAM and 250GB HD. Runs OS X 10.5.8.
The computer works as a server for a number of board games which I sell on the iPhone app store. It has been running constantly since March 2009 doing this task. It currently has an uptime of 1 year and 5 days, and I have the screenshot to prove it. It has literally hosted millions of online games between players, and handles several thousand logins per day. It does all this while resting under a piece of furniture, with a book sandwiched between the keyboard and screen to ensure that the top doesn't close, which would cause it to go into sleep mode. The screen runs 100% dimmed, all the wireless functionality is disabled, and the machine runs in energy saving mode all to minimize the electricity usage. Of course, since it's a laptop the energy usage is already low, making it an awesome energy efficient server.
The last time it needed a restart was when the power went out for an extended period of time, and before that it was because I moved between cities. It has never had a kernel panic as long as I have had it. As far as I'm concerned, it is the most reliable computer ever built
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550Mhz Ti Powerbook (Gigabit ethernet)
Finally got Leopard installed on it after finding the appropriate hack. Works nice, except for horrible wifi reception.
Nice story on this machine...
- Got it in 2001 after deciding it was time to return to the mac after about 7 years. It came with whatever was before Jaguar.
- Installed Jaguar when it came out, I thought is was really fast
- Gave it to my bro in 03 when he had his first baby so he could edit videos of her. (Got myself a new Al pb)... Panther
- Bro used it for couple of years, then once my niece was a few years old, she claimed it as "hers" to play games. Tiger.
- It then got handed down to her little brother, when she got a PC (shudder).
- Niece wants very little to do with the PC, hogs her mother's macbook pro.
- So last summer, she gets her very own iMac.
- Little brother gets the PC (which he wants very little to with too... I'm sure his very own Mac is not far away)
- 9 years later, I repossess the Powerbook. New battery (2nd one), new power brick, leopard... works like a charm, not a single problem...
Finally got Leopard installed on it after finding the appropriate hack. Works nice, except for horrible wifi reception.
Nice story on this machine...
- Got it in 2001 after deciding it was time to return to the mac after about 7 years. It came with whatever was before Jaguar.
- Installed Jaguar when it came out, I thought is was really fast
- Gave it to my bro in 03 when he had his first baby so he could edit videos of her. (Got myself a new Al pb)... Panther
- Bro used it for couple of years, then once my niece was a few years old, she claimed it as "hers" to play games. Tiger.
- It then got handed down to her little brother, when she got a PC (shudder).
- Niece wants very little to do with the PC, hogs her mother's macbook pro.
- So last summer, she gets her very own iMac.
- Little brother gets the PC (which he wants very little to with too... I'm sure his very own Mac is not far away)
- 9 years later, I repossess the Powerbook. New battery (2nd one), new power brick, leopard... works like a charm, not a single problem...
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Finally got Leopard installed on it after finding the appropriate hack. Works nice, except for horrible wifi reception.
Nice story on this machine...
- Got it in 2001 after deciding it was time to return to the mac after about 7 years. It came with whatever was before Jaguar.
- Installed Jaguar when it came out, I thought is was really fast
- Gave it to my bro in 03 when he had his first baby so he could edit videos of her. (Got myself a new Al pb)... Panther
- Bro used it for couple of years, then once my niece was a few years old, she claimed it as "hers" to play games. Tiger.
- It then got handed down to her little brother, when she got a PC (shudder).
- Niece wants very little to do with the PC, hogs her mother's macbook pro.
- So last summer, she gets her very own iMac.
- Little brother gets the PC (which he wants very little to with too... I'm sure his very own Mac is not far away)
- 9 years later, I repossess the Powerbook. New battery (2nd one), new power brick, leopard... works like a charm, not a single problem...
wow man.....
first off amazing story
second that is amazing the hing didnt break
third....want
(i have a thing for tibooks....i dont have any....but i want one badly
)
That's a nice setup you have there. I'm doing a similar thing but with my "G4" upgraded Pismo which serves as my kitchen recipe cookbook...
That's a nice setup you have there. I'm doing a similar thing but with my "G4" upgraded Pismo which serves as my kitchen recipe cookbook...
Careful with kitchen computers. I did a similar thing with an iMac G4 800MHz which I got for free. After about 2 years use video eventually failed. Although it's possible this was just because the machine was old, failure may have also been caused by using in a kitchen environment where the machine could get damp.
One recommendation: try using a waterproof keyboard and mouse.
Such nostalgic images. Takes my back to my first ever mac; a 12" PowerBook G4 with 1.33GHz processor and 256MB o RAM. Then graduated to a 1.42GHz mini+17" Studio Display, a 1.67GHz 15" PB and subsequently an 20" iMac G5. Good times. Almost bought a G5 too but i've just never been able to justify Apple's pro towers in terms of both price and space.
Now it's all 'post-pc crap' *sigh*
Now it's all 'post-pc crap' *sigh*
Contrary to what you might not have heard out of all the liquid cooled G5's, the Late 2005-2006 G5 Quad is the most reliable.. since it uses a much better and improved liquid cooling system there have been little to no failure rates compared to the 2004 Dual 2.5 - based on the old Delphi design, and the dual 2.7 of early 2005, also based on the older Delphi design.
Clearly, those two were the most problematic though not everyone suffered from the leak problems, but it sure was alarming to hear of those numbers of people who did. The Quad which I will be getting has been known to have very low failure rates.
I actually did have a G5 Quad 2.5 years ago.. but I couldn't be typing this on my 2010 mac pro if not for the G5 which I traded up in early 2009 to a 2006 mac pro.. then 2008, and finally 2009 to 2010.
I don't anticipate going to a 2012 mac pro.. the future hasn't been written yet.
I've got a nice G4 Quicksilver (2002) I use as my downloading machine.. so that definitely works. A G4 MDD (the token G4 Apple made for OS9 users when the G5s came out) is going to replace it once it gets its power supply fixed up...
There's also a little PowerBook G3 (PDQ, 1998) which was working last time I powered it on 2 years ago, but I think I fried the RAM It served as my first laptop when I was in first year uni "way back" in 2005. With a dead battery, it quickly became the butt of my friends' jokes. A few times they'd find some reason to move location while studying, making me shut down (no safe sleep back then) and pack up to move along with them
I reckon the graphite PowerMac G4s, PowerBook G3s, and iMac G4s were the most beautiful designs from Apple. I'm still saving up to get the iMac
My dad also has tons of old Macs packed away somewhere.. all the way back to a Mac SE, he claims. He usually upgraded when he could afford to (as opposed to when the old one died), so some of these grandaddies might still be working
There's also a little PowerBook G3 (PDQ, 1998) which was working last time I powered it on 2 years ago, but I think I fried the RAM
It served as my first laptop when I was in first year uni "way back" in 2005. With a dead battery, it quickly became the butt of my friends' jokes. A few times they'd find some reason to move location while studying, making me shut down (no safe sleep back then) and pack up to move along with them I reckon the graphite PowerMac G4s, PowerBook G3s, and iMac G4s were the most beautiful designs from Apple. I'm still saving up to get the iMac
My dad also has tons of old Macs packed away somewhere.. all the way back to a Mac SE, he claims. He usually upgraded when he could afford to (as opposed to when the old one died), so some of these grandaddies might still be working
My oldest PowerPC based Mac is not particularly old, but oh boy is it living.
2003 17" 1.33GHz Powerbook G4, upgraded to 2GB RAM and 250GB HD. Runs OS X 10.5.8.
The computer works as a server for a number of board games which I sell on the iPhone app store. It has been running constantly since March 2009 doing this task. It currently has an uptime of 1 year and 5 days, and I have the screenshot to prove it. It has literally hosted millions of online games between players, and handles several thousand logins per day. It does all this while resting under a piece of furniture, with a book sandwiched between the keyboard and screen to ensure that the top doesn't close, which would cause it to go into sleep mode. The screen runs 100% dimmed, all the wireless functionality is disabled, and the machine runs in energy saving mode all to minimize the electricity usage. Of course, since it's a laptop the energy usage is already low, making it an awesome energy efficient server.
The last time it needed a restart was when the power went out for an extended period of time, and before that it was because I moved between cities. It has never had a kernel panic as long as I have had it. As far as I'm concerned, it is the most reliable computer ever built
This is a sweet idea! Nice job!
Finally got Leopard installed on it after finding the appropriate hack. Works nice, except for horrible wifi reception.
Nice story on this machine...
- Got it in 2001 after deciding it was time to return to the mac after about 7 years. It came with whatever was before Jaguar.
- Installed Jaguar when it came out, I thought is was really fast
- Gave it to my bro in 03 when he had his first baby so he could edit videos of her. (Got myself a new Al pb)... Panther
- Bro used it for couple of years, then once my niece was a few years old, she claimed it as "hers" to play games. Tiger.
- It then got handed down to her little brother, when she got a PC (shudder).
- Niece wants very little to do with the PC, hogs her mother's macbook pro.
- So last summer, she gets her very own iMac.
- Little brother gets the PC (which he wants very little to with too... I'm sure his very own Mac is not far away)
- 9 years later, I repossess the Powerbook. New battery (2nd one), new power brick, leopard... works like a charm, not a single problem...
That thing is in great condition for its age. I owned this machine as well. It suffered from a problem with the paint ... some say that the paint on these machines tends to react with human sweat in a weird way. Anyhow, on my machine, within months the paint started to peel wherever the machine tended to have contact with human skin. Then a few years later the hinge broke off
I think it's more common for old TiBooks to look like this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brainfag/3002241340/
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my oldest one would be the iBook G3 blueberry clamshell that i am using to type this post. It has 300mhz processor, 288 mb of ram, but a 40GB hard drive. I just got it yesterday, and was very surprised to find the hard drive size in it since they shipped with 3.2GB, I'll get a picture of it up soon.