Apple Mac Tower

SNGX1275 said:
It is a PPC Mac, the only non-Apple OS you can get on it is some ppc variations of linux. They don't run very well compared to actual OS X, so it isn't worth it unless you just are a huge linux fan.
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I've heard so much about linux I actually inquired about it at another forum I used to go to & the individual there told me it was so easy to do. Long story short, yes, its easy if you know what you're doing,but if not, don't.
So no linux,no mint, no Ubunto or whatever.
 
SNGX1275 said:
It is a PPC Mac, the only non-Apple OS you can get on it is some ppc variations of linux. They don't run very well compared to actual OS X, so it isn't worth it unless you just are a huge linux fan.
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What I'm not getting here, is if this machine has officially been declared "dead", by Apple. Some PCs that have been owned by institutions, could very well have copies of Windows installed, as they aren't necessarily OEM copies of Windows in the first place. Philadelphia Community College used to give a course involving the PC, and you got a PC included in the price. (without an OS) I don't think PCC is inclined to rip you off with a computer on which an OS couldn't be installed . So, couldn't you just buy a copy of OS X for it....., or....., have somebody in the know explain why that isn't possible.

As far as this thread goes, it's become a mush-mash of reversals, constantly changing variables. "no money", "it's not mine", I don't want to", et al. At one point, I thought it was cute. At one point, that is.

If you want your car to run, then you need to beg, borrow, buy, or steal the parts necessary for that to happen. Otherwise, it's not going to sit there. All the reasons why not, excuses, or recalcitrance, won't make it happen.
 
captaincranky said:
What I'm not getting here, is if this machine has officially been declared "dead", by Apple. Some PCs that have been owned by institutions, could very well have copies of Windows installed, as they aren't necessarily OEM copies of Windows in the first place. Philadelphia Community College used to give a course involving the PC, and you got a PC included in the price. (without an OS) I don't think PCC is inclined to rip you off with a computer on which an OS couldn't be installed . So, couldn't you just buy a copy of OS X for it....., or....., have somebody in the know explain why that isn't possible.

As far as this thread goes, it's become a mush-mash of reversals, constantly changing variables. "no money", "it's not mine", I don't want to", et al. At one point, I thought it was cute. At one point, that is.

If you want your car to run, then you need to beg, borrow, buy, or steal the parts necessary for that to happen. Otherwise, it's not going to sit there. All the reasons why not, excuses, or recalcitrance, won't make it happen.
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captaincranky, if it weren't for a lack of $$$,I myself would go out & get an OS disc for it or whatever it is Mac uses to get this up & running. I truthfully doubt the owner would mind since I've known him a few years.
The only reason this thread has gone back & forth is because I know nothing about a Mac & am only replying to the input you & others have posted & I don't mind. Its a learning experience. I only ask we keep the funny jokes/funny business out. I know you didn't mean it literally, but I won't do anything illegal to this computer.
 
learninmypc said:
captaincranky, if it weren't for a lack of $$$,I myself would go out & get an OS disc for it or whatever it is Mac uses to get this up & running. I truthfully doubt the owner would mind since I've known him a few years.
The only reason this thread has gone back & forth is because I know nothing about a Mac & am only replying to the input you & others have posted & I don't mind. Its a learning experience. I only ask we keep the funny jokes/funny business out. I know you didn't mean it literally, but I won't do anything illegal to this computer.
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You are just running laps here. Without parts, something broken has little likelihood of being repaired.

I have no idea of Apple's policy toward issuing an OS disc for a machine in this situation. And I've actually been waiting for an answer on that. Um, for about 3 pages.

So, either talk your buddy into giving you the computer and sit on it until you do have the money to get it up and running, or let it go.

You don't want humor, no problem.

If you don't have the money for dinner tonight, then you're not eating. Is that far enough away from being funny for you?
 
SNGX1275, for what it might be worth, I've contacted Mac thru their website to find out how much a replacement harddrive might cost. I'll then let the owner know & go from there.
If he still feels its not worth it, I'm going to recycle the tower & experiment with the monitor.
captaincranky, I ask no more "humor" from you, thank you.:)
 
learninmypc said:
SNGX1275, for what it might be worth, I've contacted Mac thru their website to find out how much a replacement harddrive might cost. I'll then let the owner know & go from there.
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Since you've been told by several people, including SNGX, that any old IDE HDD will work in the machine, it's "baffling" why you would ask for a price from Apple on a replacement. This in spite of the fact I'm absolutely certain, an Apple replacement part is going to cost an arm and a leg! Newegg sells refurb IDE drives for as little as 18 bucks,. It causes me to speculate you're trying to make the owner believe it's not worth fixing, and give it to you.

learninmypc said:
captaincranky, I ask no more "humor" from you, thank you.:)
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And there's no humor coming from me.

This is a snide remark made by you, in response to my previous post:
learninmypc said:
I've already had dinner, thank you.:)
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And this is a way better snide remark made by me in response to it:
captaincranky said:
And yet, no Apple for dessert.:p
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It was actually keyed off all the cutsie pie nonsense you were spouting at the beginning of the thread, such as,
at last I have an Apple that won't spoil,.
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Now, I've actually learned, (for the most part), to not participate in the threads you start for this reason. You ask a question, then you ignore half the responses you receive, and argue with the rest. The same dynamic is occurring here.

If you're self important enough not to enjoy a little distraction from laughter, then you won't have it from me.

But, I can tell you this, people that want to take in computer repair work, shouldn't expect the rest of this group to do all their research for free...... and then dispute it.l
 
The important part of this post is in black. Greyed text is just more of a FYI and I am not guarenteeing the text is 100% accurate, but for this thread's purposes it is close enough.

Captain is right. I said any one will work, that may actually be slightly wrong but as I hinted above, without knowing which G4 Tower it is, I don't know if it is wrong or not. The early G4 towers could not use a hd bigger than 137GB, this is a pretty similar issue to the same thing PC users had when HDs came larger than 137GB and lots of people were running PCs older than a couple years. I'm not sure the exact specifics anymore, but I believe it was an OpenFirmware issue or something like that, which is sort of related but not the same as a PC's BIOS. There is a 'hack' or a 3rd party one you can load (I forget) that will gain you some greater flexibility. So if you have an early G4 tower such as the Yikes or Digital Audio, I think you need a 137GB or smaller (so basically 120GB) IDE drive. If you have a Mirror Drive Door or anything newer than a Digital Audio G4, then you are fine with any IDE.

Furthermore, you could get any hard drive you want and make sure it it is in a FW400 enclosure (so suppose you need to make sure the FW400 enclosure supports the size drive you are putting in it), and that will work too. A Mac will boot off a Firewire drive no problem. So that would completely bypass the IDE issue, but introduce the new issue of needing a FW400 enclosure.
 
Ok, earlier today I took a look at trying to remove the Mac harddrive & I see no easy way to do it unless I destroy it & the guy that ownes it was here taking pics of the stickers on the tower & monitor.
Once I find out the outcome of the pics he took, I (we'll} go from there. I wouldn't mind using the monitor as a picture frame,lol.Thanks for your input.:)
 
SNGX1275 said:
I said any one will work, that may actually be slightly wrong but as I hinted above, without knowing which G4 Tower it is, I don't know if it is wrong or not. The early G4 towers could not use a hd bigger than 137GB,.
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Well this issue in the context of a PC requires "48 Bit Logical block addressing" ("LBA" for short). And, in the context of a PC, you could still slam ANY old IDE drive into the machine, it just wouldn't let you use more than 137GB of the capacity. Maxtor and others had a software overlay to get around this issue. But again, this is in the context of PC architecture.

Now, if you can't slam a 250GB IDE HDD into an Apple and at least get 137GB out of it......(draw your own conclusion).

I'm sticking with what I said in post #59, except to add, "and then we have to listen to, suffer through, dispute or confirm, what you come back and tell us you heard at another site. (And of course I'm not talking to you, SNGX)

FWIW, my eMachines, which is in its 9th year, has 48bit LBA, and runs SATA drives as SATA! (Intel 915 chipset).
 
CC - Yeah, I believe that is the case with Macs too I had just forgotten. You can put a larger hard drive in, it just won't deal with more than 137.

learninmypc - I don't know for sure, but I thought they all sat in a 'tray' at the bottom of the tower. iirc - 2 screws remove the tray, then I believe there are 4 screws that go into the bottom of the drive, take those out, drive comes out of the tray. No destruction of the tower/case needed.
 
learninmypc said:
Ok, earlier today I took a look at trying to remove the Mac harddrive & I see no easy way to do it unless I destroy it & the guy that ownes it was here taking pics of the stickers on the tower & monitor.
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No you're right, Apple made their best computer of the time as a throwaway. HDD breaks, just throw it away and get another, @ 2+ grand a pop.
 
For right now, this is the best shot of the harddrive I can get
2013-06-18 20-19-01.085.jpg
Ok, I don't know how to tell if its a G4s or what a PPC Mac is.
 
That is perhaps the smallest picture you could possibly have uploaded and still been able to tell anything. :)

I don't have my Digital Audio G4 with me right now due to recently moving. But I ASSURE YOU that the cage thing that (likely Maxtor) hard drive is in, completely lifts out of the system. The G3s (after the Beige ones) and the G4s were incredibly easy to work on. The accessibility of hardware and the ability to swap stuff like RAM, HDs, Optical drives, PCI cards, was just something you had not seen in a Mac before and likely never will again.

Edit - this fine chap made a video, it is a Quicksilver which I believe was after the Digital Audio. So I know the G3 B&W (Blue and White), the G4 DA, and now the G4 Quicksliver are all the same. 1 screw, tray comes out. watch the video, 'insanely easy'.
 
Now that I've seen the video, I think I can get it out. It did look very familiar in that case. Thank you. I'll wait till tomorrow when I have better light.
 
After plugging the KB & Mouse into the monitor, I was tapping keys randomly & this popped up on a white back ground with the face & ?mark in the center still.

USER-ABORT

Apple PowerMac3, 3 4.2.8f1 Boot ROM built on 10/11/01 at 14:12:47
Copyright 1994-2001 Apple Computer Inc.
All Rights Reserved

Welcome to Open Firmware, the system time & date is ; 00/43;46 01/01 1994

To continue Booting, type "mac-boot" & press enter
To shut down , type "shut-down" & press return.

Release keys to continue!

I did type the "mac-boot" in but stopped short of pressing enter in hopes of asking in here what might happen? will it boot properly or ???
 
True, I don't work with Macs a lot. Least not one that old. So I could not tell you which key to hit. I can take a guess and say enter. But as far as not anything good happening. I doubt it would make a differance . If it already has a bad hard drive.
 
Ok, since that last post ,I pressed Enter & back to the screen I've had. Time to play (experiment) with it more, I guess.:)
 
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