OK, as some of the MacRumors frequents may attest to, my fiddling with my PowerMac (and subsequent affection gained by it) is no secret.
The entire story of the PowerMac can be found on these forums simply by searching.
The Story, if you're interested:A few years back, I purchased 5 complete Dell systems for $100 total, thanks to a local business updating their systems! I sold four for $50, doubling my investment within two weeks, but the last I posted on Craigslist as it was a Celeron and thus worth just a bit more than the...ehem...Pentium 4's.
Luckily a guy bit and decided to see if a. I could fix his PowerMac or b. he would trade for the Dell. He brought it over and I fumbled around with it, removing components one at a time and testing the power supply by shorting the Power On, nothing. The man eventually figured "Well, a broken computer for a working one? Sounds ok to me!" Oh how lucky I am to be a Mac, these people really have no idea the worth and usefulness of these machines even with age!
I immediately got to work trying to find the reason for this beauty's demise. Stepping into this, I hated PowerMacs and PowerPC in general. I had repaired two Quicksilvers and a AGP before, and all crashed after a fresh install on a new hard drive and everything reset, so I figured they were just horrible systems. As a matter of fact, I had NEVER held a PowerPC Mac in my hands that didn't crash right before me!
I, at first, figured I would fix it up cheap and dump it for as much as I could as fast as I could.
I posted on these forums saying that my PowerMac was dead and immediately people brought up the PSU plague. I checked inside the PSU and the fuse was blown, so I bought eight fuses online, and within three days I had only 4 after trying to clean and repair the PSU. At this point I was still unsure if the computer itself worked or not!
A few weeks after obtaining the computer, a man who was hoping to develop for the iPhone brought his Dual 1.25ghz PowerMac MDD for me to reinstall Leopard to get a fresh start. In that time, however, I pulled the PSU from the working Mac and plugged it into mine. *GOOOONG!* It works! Great! Now we just do something about the PSU!
So I spent nearly a year, I would say, with this thing a pretty decoration at the foot of my bed with a repair price I simply couldn't pocket.
After pulling my hair out trying to profit from this machine, I listed it everywhere I could in its current state. Nothing, not one inquiry. It was then I had enough! I marched to Best Buy and demanded their cheapest power supply! I left with a 300+w (not sure) Dynex that was just right, it had a large fan and long cable to connect to the motherboard.
That was it! I rearranged the pins and it worked perfect for HOURS! After this initial test, I wanted to install the power supply inside and put it to work! The process can be found in this instructional video that I made documenting the process. I spent a total of 10 hours trying to fit it into the case! But oh, was it worth it!
After using it for several months, I am simply in LOVE with the PowerMac G4 and PowerPC for being so ahead of their time! The thing is wonderful! I did hit a snag when it started randomly freezing, but found that replacing the hard drive took care of that!
Wonderful!
Now, the present.
I have fallen in love with this machine and it has so much potential I'd be torn to sell it.
Just a few days ago I picked up a Rage XL and found a person that would gladly trade it for an nVidia GeForce 5200, AGP. So in a few days I will have the card in my hand.
I found several instructional forums online specifying how to flash this card, specifically.
As well, I've ordered a retail copy of Leopard that will be here in a short time.
The Plan: After installing Leopard, I will install the video card. I'm going to flash the video card using my PC, backing up the original ROM to floppy disks, just in case. I, then, plan to tape contact 3 and 11, as this Mac supports the ADC and the slot is 4x, thus the pins will cause a short if not taped to insulate them.
I'll keep you posted.
Question: Do I need a separate card to monitor anything after installing the new AGP card? Or do I simply plug the flashed card in and use it right away?
Also, my power supply does not have a 25v pin, as I replaced it with a regular ATX power supply. Do I still need to tape these pins?
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The entire story of the PowerMac can be found on these forums simply by searching.
The Story, if you're interested:A few years back, I purchased 5 complete Dell systems for $100 total, thanks to a local business updating their systems! I sold four for $50, doubling my investment within two weeks, but the last I posted on Craigslist as it was a Celeron and thus worth just a bit more than the...ehem...Pentium 4's.
Luckily a guy bit and decided to see if a. I could fix his PowerMac or b. he would trade for the Dell. He brought it over and I fumbled around with it, removing components one at a time and testing the power supply by shorting the Power On, nothing. The man eventually figured "Well, a broken computer for a working one? Sounds ok to me!" Oh how lucky I am to be a Mac, these people really have no idea the worth and usefulness of these machines even with age!
I immediately got to work trying to find the reason for this beauty's demise. Stepping into this, I hated PowerMacs and PowerPC in general. I had repaired two Quicksilvers and a AGP before, and all crashed after a fresh install on a new hard drive and everything reset, so I figured they were just horrible systems. As a matter of fact, I had NEVER held a PowerPC Mac in my hands that didn't crash right before me!
I, at first, figured I would fix it up cheap and dump it for as much as I could as fast as I could.
I posted on these forums saying that my PowerMac was dead and immediately people brought up the PSU plague. I checked inside the PSU and the fuse was blown, so I bought eight fuses online, and within three days I had only 4 after trying to clean and repair the PSU. At this point I was still unsure if the computer itself worked or not!
A few weeks after obtaining the computer, a man who was hoping to develop for the iPhone brought his Dual 1.25ghz PowerMac MDD for me to reinstall Leopard to get a fresh start. In that time, however, I pulled the PSU from the working Mac and plugged it into mine. *GOOOONG!* It works! Great! Now we just do something about the PSU!
So I spent nearly a year, I would say, with this thing a pretty decoration at the foot of my bed with a repair price I simply couldn't pocket.
After pulling my hair out trying to profit from this machine, I listed it everywhere I could in its current state. Nothing, not one inquiry. It was then I had enough! I marched to Best Buy and demanded their cheapest power supply! I left with a 300+w (not sure) Dynex that was just right, it had a large fan and long cable to connect to the motherboard.
That was it! I rearranged the pins and it worked perfect for HOURS! After this initial test, I wanted to install the power supply inside and put it to work! The process can be found in this instructional video that I made documenting the process. I spent a total of 10 hours trying to fit it into the case! But oh, was it worth it!
After using it for several months, I am simply in LOVE with the PowerMac G4 and PowerPC for being so ahead of their time! The thing is wonderful! I did hit a snag when it started randomly freezing, but found that replacing the hard drive took care of that!
Wonderful!
Now, the present.
I have fallen in love with this machine and it has so much potential I'd be torn to sell it.
Just a few days ago I picked up a Rage XL and found a person that would gladly trade it for an nVidia GeForce 5200, AGP. So in a few days I will have the card in my hand.
I found several instructional forums online specifying how to flash this card, specifically.
As well, I've ordered a retail copy of Leopard that will be here in a short time.
The Plan: After installing Leopard, I will install the video card. I'm going to flash the video card using my PC, backing up the original ROM to floppy disks, just in case. I, then, plan to tape contact 3 and 11, as this Mac supports the ADC and the slot is 4x, thus the pins will cause a short if not taped to insulate them.
I'll keep you posted.
Question: Do I need a separate card to monitor anything after installing the new AGP card? Or do I simply plug the flashed card in and use it right away?
Also, my power supply does not have a 25v pin, as I replaced it with a regular ATX power supply. Do I still need to tape these pins?
