Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Yarr, quicksilver loot ahoy!

tevion5

tevion5

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 12, 2011
1,967
1,603
Ireland
I was heading into a lecture today and noticed a bunch of old IT equipment at the foot of the stairs of the Computer Science building. I always look out for that sort of thing, but it's almost always Pentium Dell machines that nobody could care for. But alas, today, I finally join the ranks of the lucky garbage looters I am so jealous of.

A plastic Apple logo caught my eye from what could only have been one of the last plastic cinema displays, and it looked like a good size one. I was due to my lecture in 2 minutes so I had to leave it but I was itching to get back to the pile asap.

When I got back to it, I realised the monitor was gone :(. But, something else remained, also an Apple product.

It was a desktop tower, with the service door opened down onto the floor in the manner only G3 and G4 Power Mac's do. I inspected it closer and closed the door to find to my surprise, a Power Mac G4 Quicksilver! :D

Photo 03-10-2014 17 30 35.jpg Photo 03-10-2014 17 33 24.jpg Photo 03-10-2014 17 33 46.jpg

I asked at the office about if it was all junk and they said I could take as much as I liked. The monitor had apparently been nabbed by a professor only a few minutes ago! :p

I took the Power Mac and some old Dell LCD display and hauled them back to my apartment on the other side of campus. Thank Jobs for handles.

I gave it a little wipe down with a damp cloth and inspected the insides. It's a 2002 DP 1Ghz model. It had 512MB RAM on purchase but looks to have been upgraded further. It still has it's 80GB HDD. It has the nVidia Geforce4 MX 64MB graphics card.

Photo 03-10-2014 17 33 59.jpg

It was in such good condition that the plastic packaging covering the Superdrive was still unpeeled! It looks almost like it was just taken out of the box. When I plugged it in to power and pressed the on button it chimed thus signalling that it is probably working fine. I have yet to test it with a monitor as I have no VGA cable in my room. I'll bring one up next week and I can begin to play away.

I'll order ran Airport card on eBay. I am deciding between putting OS X 10.4 or 10.5 on it so any suggestion would be great.

(Also, I just tried to register it on my Apple Support Profile and nobody registered it before. It's officially mine now mwhahaha!!)
 
Last edited:
motulist said:
Nice haul! Can you see if it has an airport card installed? That was Apple's name for wifi back when wireless connections were so brand spanking new that most people had no idea what "a wifi" was.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tf89iQE7kv8&t=1m20s

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AirPort#AirPort_cards
Click to expand...

The AirPort card slot was one of my first ports of call ;)

It is empty, but i can see the antenna connection there waiting to be hooked up, just like my iMac G4 before I got an AirPort card for it.

I was able to get one for €2 free shipping then. I'll see if i can find that seller again!
 
tevion5 said:
The AirPort card slot was one of my first ports of call ;)

It is empty, but i can see the antenna connection there waiting to be hooked up, just like my iMac G4 before I got an AirPort card for it.

I was able to get one for €2 free shipping then. I'll see if i can find that seller again!
Click to expand...

I have an alternative suggestion. Keep it with no internet connection. Radical, I know. For a long time I had an old G4 tower purposely setup without an internet connection, because I wanted it to be my distraction-free writing machine. And the result was VERY good. When you're running an old machine that has nothing installed on it except the stock OS X software and has no internet connection, you'd be amazed at how much writing work you can get done on it. If I ever REALLY needed to look something up on the net, I could stand up and walk over to the other room where my net-connected laptop was placed, but when you have to get up and walk over to where the net connection is you find out just how little you actually need to find out from the net while you're writing. And if any files need to be transferred, then you use a good ol' fashioned thumb drive sneakernet.
 
motulist said:
I have an alternative suggestion. Keep it with no internet connection. Radical, I know. For a long time I had an old G4 tower purposely setup without an internet connection, because I wanted it to be my distraction-free writing machine. And the result was VERY good. When you're running an old machine that has nothing installed on it except the stock OS X software and has no internet connection, you'd be amazed at how much writing work you can get done on it. If I ever REALLY needed to look something up on the net, I could stand up and walk over to the other room where my net-connected laptop was placed, but when you have to get up and walk over to where the net connection is you find out just how little you actually need to find out from the net while you're writing. And if any files need to be transferred, then you use a good ol' fashioned thumb drive sneakernet.
Click to expand...

Not a bad idea alright, I could use it as my apartment desktop and a focused workstation.

It just needs to do word processing and compile C programs. Xcode should do the trick.

The temptation would always be there though! :p
 
Great find!

I have a soft spot for the Quicksilver(my dual 1ghz remains one of my most used PowerPC macs), and you certainly can't beat the price. I'd have grabbed it in a second.

As a somewhat seasoned scrounger, I'd also advise you to keep an eye on the pile. Unless the professor who grabbed the display has something with an ADC port on it, the display may reappear in a day or two when he(or she) realizes it's essentially useless on any other computer.

As for the OS-I have my Quicksilver to triple boot into OS 9, 10.4, and 10.5. I run it in 10.5 most of the time. With the RAM maxed at 1.5gb(something I'd suggest doing-PC133 is cheap these days) it's plenty useable in 10.5. Just as a caution, I think that you do need a system-specific build of OS 9.2.2 for the QS 2002. Mine came with the restore disks and that's what I've used, so I can't say for certain that other OS 9 versions won't work, but most of the late systems capable of booting into OS 9 do require these special builds. If you want OS 9, you might need to hit Ebay and look for a set of restore disks-I can check the PNs on mine if you'd like for me to so that you can make sure you're getting the correct one.

Since it's a QS2002, you can put whatever size IDE/PATA drives you want in it. I have a 250gb and 160gb in mine now. Even when not using high capacity drives, I've seen benefits in all of my G4 towers from switching them all over to new(er) 7200 rpm drives(as I understand it "new" IDE drives are now a thing of the past, although NOS, refurbished, and good used drives are all out there and fairly plentiful). Hard drive technology has improved a lot in the past few years, and even IDE drives benefited from it.
 
Great find! Not just a Quicksilver, but the most powerful one ever made. Can't ask for much more than that.
 
Nice :D If I were you though I probably would've just gotten the machine first and gone to class later lol.
 
motulist said:
I have an alternative suggestion. Keep it with no internet connection. Radical, I know. For a long time I had an old G4 tower purposely setup without an internet connection, because I wanted it to be my distraction-free writing machine. And the result was VERY good.
Click to expand...

Sadly, as the owner of two of these, it it really too loud for something you need to concentrate on while using. That is what Powerbooks are for. They are great, however, for Classic games. Good luck writing those theses.

As for the install/restore discs, the full set is on macintoshgarden if you want to run 9.2.2 while you hunt down a copy on eBay. I would ask the department where you picked up the QS first, though. It is bound to have the discs knocking around somewhere.
 
You're lucky enough to even get a plentiful supply of old pentinum dells :(
 
By the way, with regard to the airport card, depending no how your WiFi is set up you may find it a bit limited or even unusable. Under OS 9, you can only use it on WEP networks. Under 10.4 and 10.5, you can access WPA networks but only with certain types of encryption(I forget which ones).

I have a Motorola PCI 802.11g card in my Quicksilver that is recognized and acts as an Airport Extreme card. I forget the part number, but I believe the key is to look for a card with a Broadcom chipset. In any case, it's a lot more versatile and useable on modern networks than the original Airport card. I think I paid about $10 for mine on Ebay.
 
motulist said:
I have an alternative suggestion. Keep it with no internet connection. Radical, I know. For a long time I had an old G4 tower purposely setup without an internet connection, because I wanted it to be my distraction-free writing machine. And the result was VERY good. When you're running an old machine that has nothing installed on it except the stock OS X software and has no internet connection, you'd be amazed at how much writing work you can get done on it. If I ever REALLY needed to look something up on the net, I could stand up and walk over to the other room where my net-connected laptop was placed, but when you have to get up and walk over to where the net connection is you find out just how little you actually need to find out from the net while you're writing. And if any files need to be transferred, then you use a good ol' fashioned thumb drive sneakernet.
Click to expand...
lol, a 1 GHz processor will handle the internet just fine. We gamed Quake on a LAN with 350 Mhz win 98's :d

----------
tevion5 said:
I was heading into a lecture today and noticed a bunch of old IT equipment at the foot of the stairs of the Computer Science building. I always look out for that sort of thing, but it's almost always Pentium Dell machines that nobody could care for. But alas, today, I finally join the ranks of the lucky garbage looters I am so jealous of.

A plastic Apple logo caught my eye from what could only have been one of the last plastic cinema displays, and it looked like a good size one. I was due to my lecture in 2 minutes so I had to leave it but I was itching to get back to the pile asap.

When I got back to it, I realised the monitor was gone :(. But, something else remained, also an Apple product.

It was a desktop tower, with the service door opened down onto the floor in the manner only G3 and G4 Power Mac's do. I inspected it closer and closed the door to find to my surprise, a Power Mac G4 Quicksilver! :D

View attachment 500630 View attachment 500631 View attachment 500632

I asked at the office about if it was all junk and they said I could take as much as I liked. The monitor had apparently been nabbed by a professor only a few minutes ago! :p

I took the Power Mac and some old Dell LCD display and hauled them back to my apartment on the other side of campus. Thank Jobs for handles.

I gave it a little wipe down with a damp cloth and inspected the insides. It's a 2002 DP 1Ghz model. It had 512MB RAM on purchase but looks to have been upgraded further. It still has it's 80GB HDD. It has the nVidia Geforce4 MX 64MB graphics card.

View attachment 500633

It was in such good condition that the plastic packaging covering the Superdrive was still unpeeled! It looks almost like it was just taken out of the box. When I plugged it in to power and pressed the on button it chimed thus signalling that it is probably working fine. I have yet to test it with a monitor as I have no VGA cable in my room. I'll bring one up next week and I can begin to play away.

I'll order ran Airport card on eBay. I am deciding between putting OS X 10.4 or 10.5 on it so any suggestion would be great.

(Also, I just tried to register it on my Apple Support Profile and nobody registered it before. It's officially mine now mwhahaha!!)
Click to expand...
Next time haul the monitor & computer first
That professor did it too ;)
 
Intell said:
Original Airport B cards can connect to WPA networks in 10.3.9 and higher.
Click to expand...

10.3.3 actually but you do have to install Apple's Airport Update (v4.2 recommended) to get WPA enabled. It isn't included in the Software Updates for some reason.
 
weckart said:
10.3.3 actually but you do have to install Apple's Airport Update (v4.2 recommended) to get WPA enabled. It isn't included in the Software Updates for some reason.
Click to expand...

Apple documentation states 10.3.9. Any version prior to that is unsupported and does not properly follow the WPA specification resulting in an unstable connection and network problems.
 
Even though Airport cards work with WPA(under the correct OS), I don't think that they work with some of the newer encryption techniques.

I know that I've zero luck getting them to connect to the network on my year-old router at home, and they won't even recognize the WPA2 Enterprise network at school. I've none of these issues with Airport Extreme cards(or their PCI equivalent), just the Airport cards.

For home use, I used a first-generation Airport Extreme router to set up a secondary WEP network just for the Airport-equipped computers.
 
I scored my Dual 1GHz this summer that had the original sticker still on the SuperDrive! Bought it from a kid for $25 yet he had no clue what he was selling. 2x80GB HDD from the factory, AirPort, SCSI card, among a few other things then there is the fact that is the dual 1GHz, rarest of the models!

photo.jpg
 
Intell said:
Apple documentation states 10.3.9. Any version prior to that is unsupported and does not properly follow the WPA specification resulting in an unstable connection and network problems.
Click to expand...

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL455

Seems pretty much official to me unless you are implying that Apple's implementation of WPA/WPA2 on its own hardware was a bodge job, which would not surprise me.
 
While basic support for it was in 10.3.3 with that Airport update, it was unstable and incomplete until 10.3.9. Much like Bluetooth support in 10.3. Furthermore, that update does not include WPA support for Airport B cards, only enhancements to Airport Utility and AirPort Extreme cards.
 
Intell said:
While basic support for it was in 10.3.3 with that Airport update, it was unstable and incomplete until 10.3.9. Much like Bluetooth support in 10.3. Furthermore, that update does not include WPA support for Airport B cards, only enhancements to Airport Utility and AirPort Extreme cards.
Click to expand...

I beg to differ. Here are two screenshots from one of my Pismos running 10.3.3 with the original Airport 802.11b card. One before Airport Update 4.2 has been applied and one just afterwards. Spot the difference.

Airport 4.2 update enables WPA handling within 10.3.3 and updates the firmware within the Airport card to 9.5 allowing it to access WPA encrypted networks. I have tried this on two of my Pismos and my Clamshell within the last month so I know that the Airport Update is the key. Even applying the 10.3.9 Combo update alone is not enough and you will be left with Password/LEAP. Been there, scoured the discussion boards to find out why WPA was not happening, got the T-shirt etc.
 

Attachments

  • Picture 1.jpg
    Picture 1.jpg
    375.6 KB · Views: 138
  • Picture 1333.jpg
    Picture 1333.jpg
    359 KB · Views: 131
I'm going on personal experiences as well as documentation provided by Apple. Both indicate that it is not stable until 10.3.9 and support is limited to only Airport Extreme cards until 10.3.9.
 
Well, all I can say is that I am posting from said Pismo now, with a functioning Airport card on WPA with only this glitch below (check the edit time stamp).

I forgot how interesting Safari 1.2.1 could be :)
 

Attachments

  • Picture 4.jpg
    Picture 4.jpg
    17.1 KB · Views: 134
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back