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Power Mac G3 B&W Questions

Frankf300

Frankf300

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 15, 2006
201
1
NY
I just picked up a used Power Mac B&W today in exchange for my 1st gen iPod nano. Specs of the Power Mac are listed in my sig. It runs great considering it's running Tiger with only 192mb RAM. How would I go about getting it onto my wireless network? Right now it is in an area where my only option would be to go wireless, and I'm not sure how to go about that. As far as I know it doesn't have a port for an original Airport card. I plan to get some more RAM soon, maybe not max it, but definitely cram some more in there. What's weird is that the guy I got it from said there are two HDDs in there. There is the original 9gb and an 80gb that he put in. He said the 80gb had a few issues so he just pulled the cable on it and left it in there because he couldn't get it out. I opened it up to see and sure enough there are two drives, the 80gb with the cable unplugged. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if the HDD was installed there has got to be a way to get it out, right? He made it sound like it was stuck in there or something. I didn't play around with it, but I'd like to look at it a little better tomorrow. What could he have possibly meant? Can a HDD just get stuck in the case? :confused:
 
It's possible that the screw holding the drive plate in place is stripped -- IIRC, you need a very large phillips (wide and deep) and a fair amount of downward force for the screws in the Yosemite cases.

There's a fair number of 802.11b/g PCI cards for under $50 (especially if you have a soon-to-close CompUSA nearby).
 
As far as the PCI wireless cards go, do I have to worry about Mac compatibility or just about any card will do? I do have a CompUSA closing by me so I should go down and take a look. I didn't think about a stripped screw, good point. I hope that's not the case, it kind of bugs me knowing there is a drive just taking up a bay in there doing nothing.

BTW, should I be hearing the chime on the Power Mac the same way my iBook does at startup? I don't recall hearing it when I booted it up.
 
You should be hearing a chime when you boot up. Try reseting the PRAM. I've have Power Mac G3s with the same problem.
 
Eidorian said:
You should be hearing a chime when you boot up. Try reseting the PRAM. I've have Power Mac G3s with the same problem.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I tried resetting the PRAM, but it doesn't seem to be working. I have a Windows keyboard hooked up via USB. So instead of using command, option, P+R, I used the Windows key, ALT, and P+R, but it didn't restart itself while holding those keys down. Am I doing something wrong?

Also, I know I asked already, but as far as the PCI cards go are they plug and play with Mac? I want to pick one up today, but based on some of the system requirements I've been seeing I'm a little hesitant on which one to get.
 
Frankf300 said:
Thanks, I tried resetting the PRAM, but it doesn't seem to be working. I have a Windows keyboard hooked up via USB. So instead of using command, option, P+R, I used the Windows key, ALT, and P+R, but it didn't restart itself while holding those keys down. Am I doing something wrong?
Click to expand...
You're doing it correctly. One more thing, make sure the volume in OS X isn't muted.

Finally, those Power Mac G3s that I had wouldn't chime for ages worked JUST FINE and then they started chiming at boot. *shrug*.

You might try removing and or replacing the battery on the motherboard.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer Technology/BAA36VPRAM/
 
How would I check if the volume is muted? Would I have to download that startup sound program or whatever that's called?
 
Frankf300 said:
How would I check if the volume is muted? Would I have to download that startup sound program or whatever that's called?
Click to expand...
In the Sound Preference Pane in System Preferences. You could also check the little speaker icon in the upper right in the menu.

What about playing an audio file using the internal speaker?
 
Eidorian said:
In the Sound Preference Pane in System Preferences. You could also check the little speaker icon in the upper right in the menu.

What about playing an audio file using the internal speaker?
Click to expand...

Yea, the speaker works fine. I've played a few audio files on it and they sounded fine. Could it be the PRAM battery even though all my settings are saved after I shut down like the date, time, etc?
 
That could be it. I'm not sure what made my Mac start chiming again but I did remove the PRAM battery once and put it back in. At worst you might have to replace it.

There should be a reset button on the motherboard as well. Try pushing that and holding it down for 10 seconds. Give it a start again after that.
 
mustang_dvs said:
It's possible that the screw holding the drive plate in place is stripped -- IIRC, you need a very large phillips (wide and deep) and a fair amount of downward force for the screws in the Yosemite cases.

There's a fair number of 802.11b/g PCI cards for under $50 (especially if you have a soon-to-close CompUSA nearby).
Click to expand...

Well, upon closer inspection this morning it turns out the screw is stripped and BAD :mad: . It's completely circular now it doesn't even look like the notches ever even existed. Any ideas how I could get it out? It's not causing any harm, but for some reason it bugs me that there is a hard drive sitting in there doing nothing :eek: .
 
Frankf300 said:
Well, upon closer inspection this morning it turns out the screw is stripped and BAD :mad: . It's completely circular now it doesn't even look like the notches ever even existed. Any ideas how I could get it out? It's not causing any harm, but for some reason it bugs me that there is a hard drive sitting in there doing nothing :eek: .
Click to expand...
Stripped screws are a pain in the Power Macs. The last time a coworker of mine took a knife to it and twisted it out. :eek:
 
Eidorian said:
Stripped screws are a pain in the Power Macs. The last time a coworker of mine took a knife to it and twisted it out. :eek:
Click to expand...

How did he do that lol? Use the blade to get under the head of the screw and pry up on it?
 
Eidorian said:
I'm not sure anymore, it was two years ago, but I think he just dug into the screw with the knife and made his own slot to turn it.
Click to expand...

That's actually what I was thinking of trying to do, but it's stripped so badly I don't even know if it's possible. :mad:
 
Frankf300 said:
BTW, should I be hearing the chime on the Power Mac the same way my iBook does at startup? I don't recall hearing it when I booted it up.
Click to expand...

Mac OS X killed my startup chime on my B&W G3. Resetting the PRAM may bring it back but only temporarily. It chimes happpily when booting into Mac OS 9, no problem, but when I go back to OS X, no more chime...

It seems common among B&W G3 owners running Mac OS X.

Apart from the chime, everything runs "smoothly". It runs Tiger very well, but it runs Panther much better!
 
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