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Power Mac G3 B&W DVD Upgrade

iceman45575

iceman45575

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 6, 2016
76
23
Silicon Valley
Hi, I am getting a B&W Power Macintosh G3 and it has a CD drive in it. I heard something about a daughter card upgrade for a DVD drive, but will it work if I just get an IDE DVD drive out of a PC and plug it in? DO I still need that daughter card?
Thanks!
 
From what I understand, the daughter card was an MPEG decoder add-on for the Rage 128 graphics card inside the B&W.

Regardless of installing this card, you shouldn't have any trouble installing an IDE DVD drive into the G3 tower to use DVD media. The daughter card will allow hardware accelerated DVD video playback, but from experience, VLC will play any DVD video you throw at it, regardless of the hardware limitations.
 
When I changed the drive in mine I was no longer able to boot from it. I don't know whether that was a peculiarity of my specific drive (I can't tell you the model; it was years ago) or whether you need an "Apple-supported" drive.
 
Good point. I haven't personally had any conflicts with generic PC drives in my Macs, but if the DVD drive doesn't boot the Tiger installer then I might suggest:

A) If you have another Mac which has a DVD drive and a Firewire port then pop the Tiger installer disc into this machine and shut it down. Next, connect a Firewire cable between the two Macs and power on the DVD capable Mac first while holding the 'T' key to put it into Target Disk Mode. You can then boot the B&W G3 while holding the Option key to bring up the boot drive selector. You should see the Tiger installer DVD available as a boot device.

B) If you only have access to a PC, you could rip the Tiger DVD to a disk image on your PC and restore the image onto a USB thumb drive (4GB+, but must be an older USB2.0 device, not USB3.0). You can then use Open Firmware commands on the G3 to boot from the USB drive. This will be a very slow process due to the 12Mbps limit on the old USB ports, but it should work. I have done this on a PowerBook G4 12" which had a non-working optical drive and a broken FireWire port (Albeit over USB2.0).

C) A more creative option might be to pull the HDD out of the B&W tower and install it in the PC. Next, setup qemu-system-ppc on your PC and configure the VM to boot off the Tiger DVD, using the G3's HDD as a virtual drive. Install Mac OS X, shutdown the PC, pull the HDD out and put it back in the G3.
 
For the FireWire method, I've never used my FireWire port on any of my Macs and before I buy a cable is there a way to check if it works? And also should I try that with my old PowerBook G4 or Mid-2012 Non-Retina? Which would it work best with?
 
iceman45575 said:
For the FireWire method, I've never used my FireWire port on any of my Macs and before I buy a cable is there a way to check if it works? And also should I try that with my old PowerBook G4 or Mid-2012 Non-Retina? Which would it work best with?
Click to expand...

Use the PowerBook G4 as it will have a FireWire 400 port which is the same style as the one on the G3. Buy a Firewire 400 cable and just plug them together, there's no configuration required.
 
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AphoticD said:
Good point. I haven't personally had any conflicts with generic PC drives in my Macs, but if the DVD drive doesn't boot the Tiger installer then I might suggest:

A) If you have another Mac which has a DVD drive and a Firewire port then pop the Tiger installer disc into this machine and shut it down. Next, connect a Firewire cable between the two Macs and power on the DVD capable Mac first while holding the 'T' key to put it into Target Disk Mode. You can then boot the B&W G3 while holding the Option key to bring up the boot drive selector. You should see the Tiger installer DVD available as a boot device.

B) If you only have access to a PC, you could rip the Tiger DVD to a disk image on your PC and restore the image onto a USB thumb drive (4GB+, but must be an older USB2.0 device, not USB3.0). You can then use Open Firmware commands on the G3 to boot from the USB drive. This will be a very slow process due to the 12Mbps limit on the old USB ports, but it should work. I have done this on a PowerBook G4 12" which had a non-working optical drive and a broken FireWire port (Albeit over USB2.0).
Click to expand...


The B&W G3 is too old to boot from USB. The oldest PowerMac that supports booting from USB is the Sawtooth. I'm also pretty sure that the B&W G3 cannot boot from a FireWire device either.
 
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Intell said:
The B&W G3 is too old to boot from USB. The oldest PowerMac that supports booting from USB is the Sawtooth. I'm also pretty sure that the B&W G3 cannot boot from a FireWire device either.
Click to expand...
So the FireWire method wouldn't work for installing Tiger? Can someone confirm or deny?
 
iceman45575 said:
So the FireWire method wouldn't work for installing Tiger? Can someone confirm or deny?
Click to expand...

Back to the drawing board then!

http://lowendmac.com/1999/blue-and-white-power-mac-g3/
Although this model has FireWire and USB ports (see Apple Knowledge Base Article #58430, USB Info and Benefits of Dual-Channel USB), it cannot boot from either. Also, it does not support FireWire Target Disk Mode.
Click to expand...

The QEMU method would work if you're game... Either that or just install Panther? The installation was available in CD format (3 discs) and the B&W will be a happy camper.
[doublepost=1503543490][/doublepost]Another thought; I have had mixed results with a NewerTech USB Universal drive adapter on PowerBook G4s. I couldn't get an Aluminum G4 15" to recognise drives attached to this, but it worked fine on my 12" PowerBook.

Keep in mind, this was with 2.5" HDDs which use USB bus power, whereas a 3.5" drive will be powered from the included transformer with a molex connector, so results may fare better.

1. Obtain an adapter
2. Remove the B&W G3's HDD, connect it to the drive adapter.
3. Plug the USB device into your PowerBook G4
4. Boot from the Tiger installation DVD on the PowerBook
5. *Hopefully* the installer sees the external 3.5" HDD and lets you install.

The alternative is to plug this into your mid-2012 (MacBook Pro?) over USB and use the QEMU method I mentioned earlier, instead of installing it into a PC tower.


With all of the options, I'd go back to the start and try just sticking an IDE DVD drive into the G3 first.
 
Last edited:
AphoticD said:
Back to the drawing board then!

http://lowendmac.com/1999/blue-and-white-power-mac-g3/


The QEMU method would work if you're game... Either that or just install Panther? The installation was available in CD format (3 discs) and the B&W will be a happy camper.
[doublepost=1503543490][/doublepost]Another thought; I have had mixed results with a NewerTech USB Universal drive adapter on PowerBook G4s. I couldn't get an Aluminum G4 15" to recognise drives attached to this, but it worked fine on my 12" PowerBook.

Keep in mind, this was with 2.5" HDDs which use USB bus power, whereas a 3.5" drive will be powered from the included transformer with a molex connector, so results may fare better.

1. Obtain an adapter
2. Remove the B&W G3's HDD, connect it to the drive adapter.
3. Plug the USB device into your PowerBook G4
4. Boot from the Tiger installation DVD on the PowerBook
5. *Hopefully* the installer sees the external 3.5" HDD and lets you install.

The alternative is to plug this into your mid-2012 (MacBook Pro?) over USB and use the QEMU method I mentioned earlier, instead of installing it into a PC tower.
Click to expand...
The QEMO sounds a little complicated... Would I be able to burn Tiger onto multiple CDs?
 
You can obtain CD images of Tiger and use those. You cannot split a DVD Tiger installation on to multiple CDs.
 
iceman45575 said:
The QEMO sounds a little complicated... Would I be able to burn Tiger onto multiple CDs?
Click to expand...
Tiger has a CD version that Apple sold by special order. I have it, and it was well worth it. If you can find a set, they're a 4 disc set. I use mine all the time.
 
Hrududu said:
Tiger has a CD version that Apple sold by special order. I have it, and it was well worth it. If you can find a set, they're a 4 disc set. I use mine all the time.
Click to expand...
Did not know that. I have checked eBay and can't find the CD set. Do you know of any site that sells them?
 
iceman45575 said:
Did not know that. I have checked eBay and can't find the CD set. Do you know of any site that sells them?
Click to expand...
Can't say that I do. Like I said, Apple sold them by special order only making them a little rare. That said, I know there are ISO images out there you can download and burn.
 
Hrududu said:
Can't say that I do. Like I said, Apple sold them by special order only making them a little rare. That said, I know there are ISO images out there you can download and burn.
Click to expand...
Sorry I'm asking so many questions... If I find the ISOS what application should I use to burn them? And do all ISOS work or are there specific CD versions?
 
You've got a couple Macs with burners in them, so I'd just burn it using Disk Utility. On El Capitain or Sierra you can burn an image to disk from the Finder too, but I'd opt for your 06 MacBook or PowerBook G4 and use Disk Utility.
 
Hrududu said:
You've got a couple Macs with burners in them, so I'd just burn it using Disk Utility. On El Capitain or Sierra you can burn an image to disk from the Finder too, but I'd opt for your 06 MacBook or PowerBook G4 and use Disk Utility.
Click to expand...
The ISO file is about 3gb so I have to use multiple CDs which is fine. However when I try to burn in Disk Utility it says the disc inserted does not have enough free space. How do I enable it to write whatever it can on the first and then I put the second CD in and so on?
Thanks
 
iceman45575 said:
The ISO file is about 3gb so I have to use multiple CDs which is fine. However when I try to burn in Disk Utility it says the disc inserted does not have enough free space. How do I enable it to write whatever it can on the first and then I put the second CD in and so on?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Did you get the CD version? Looking around, the CD versions I see have a separate ISO for each of the 4 discs.
 
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