Calling all Mac guys. G3 restore?

**KeriJane** · 03-04-2009, 05:55 AM

Re: Calling all Mac guys. G3 restore?

Hello.

Would you settle for a Mac girl instead?

So far as the charger, eBay is full of them. Just search for G3 charger.

For your OS, Apple names their recent versions of OSX (Ten, not "X") after big cats.
Tiger (10.4) is probably the one you want, though Panther (10.3) should be OK. If you obtain original restore/install disks they may be anything from 9.2 to 10.1 or even maybe up to Panther. Retail disks will work with any non-intel Mac, while "install" or Restore disk are keyed to a specific range of systems. For example, my Mac Pro original Tiger Install disks work only with Generation 1 Mac Pros, Early Intel iMacs, Intel Mac Mini and early Intel, macbooks.

Apple does not sell older OS's, just the current one which is called Leopard (10.5) which would be a poor choice for an older system such as your G3.

Apple Operating systems do not use serial numbers or activations, so if you obtain a compatible restore disk or a Retail version of Panther or Tiger it will work with no activation hassles.
You might be able to find a disk image out there, which your PC can burn to CDs.

Have fun!
Keri

**stevo1210** · 03-04-2009, 06:26 AM

Re: Calling all Mac guys. G3 restore?

Oh dear, one client bought a mac laptop in for servicing at one time when I was still working at the PC store. I dunno what model it was but it was green, had a colour screen and looked like some futuristic plastic thing.
He wanted me to remove stuff and make it run faster. I was stumped and just did some random thing such as stop start up apps from coming up and I think that was about it. Never ever touched a mac from that time forward.

**Logistics** · 03-04-2009, 09:23 AM

Re: Calling all Mac guys. G3 restore?

Thank you, KeriJane. I researched my iBook on Wikipedia and found it normally came with OS 8.6 and I'm not sure if mine is the 300MHz or the 366 so I'll just stick with that. It may be best to find a restore disc because there was a portion on Wiki about 8.6 and this model iBook that said 8.6 would work with a model-specific version. So a basic copy of 8.6 may not work, but I'll try it, anyway... soon as I get this battery problem fixed.

hehe

**sofTest** · 03-04-2009, 03:13 PM

Re: Calling all Mac guys. G3 restore?

Or you might want to try a Linux distribution on it, like Ubuntu.

**Scenic** · 03-04-2009, 07:32 PM

Re: Calling all Mac guys. G3 restore?

for the PSU (and charging the battery)...

A 1/8" mini-phone plug works as a power plug.

/\ The tip. It's unused
--
|| This is the negative line from the power supply
--
|| This is the +24V from the power supply
||

PSU is 24V 1,8A (should maybe even work with a 19V "normal laptop" PSU..)

edit:

the shielding (the "tube" around that plug) isn't connected to anything (it's just for stabilizing the plug). the tip isn't connected either (the part sticking out on the photo)

**NxB** · 03-04-2009, 10:56 PM

Re: Calling all Mac guys. G3 restore?

We service apple when it comes up. That head is a pain, it lights up when you plug it in... ooooh. Standard install for someone who has no license for os X (no cd, basically) would be ubuntu, in this case you need the PPC distro.

You can also torrent whatever version of X you want but all it will do is run slower. Everything for osx PPC can probably be hacked to run on ubuntu anyway. Everything should work out of the box as mac has very few variations of hardware.

If you still want OSX, stay away from x86 distros and dmg/toast files. They don't want to seem to stay bootable and the x86 ones obviously won't work.

**Logistics** · 03-07-2009, 01:52 AM

Re: Calling all Mac guys. G3 restore?

I was going to put OS 8.6 on it, but if there is one of those low-system-requirement Ubuntu installs that would run better on this thing then I'll gladly use that. It's just going to be a net-surfing system, anyway as it's hardware is quite weak. It has an add-on 128MB stick of RAM in it so I guess it's a whole 32 or 64 + 128, whichever.

Also, how do you properly charge these batters? I was playing around with the pins on the battery and my DVM and found that the first four pins are positive voltage and pin 5 is negative, but pin 6 doesn't seem to share the same voltage as 1-4, so I'm not sure what that's about. But anyway, the battery was reading about 0.5V so I rigged up a +5V rail of a PC PSU up to Pin 1 and the negative to Pin 5 and ran it on the battery for about 3 hours and then the battery read something like 4.7V. Do I need to charge at higher voltage or will it eventually charge all the way up if I leave it like this? The battery doesn't get the least bit warm while sitting on the 5V rail.

**Scenic** · 03-07-2009, 08:17 AM

Re: Calling all Mac guys. G3 restore?

why don't you try to make a power plug and connect it to a PSU ?
would be a bit easier to charge the battery then

**Logistics** · 03-07-2009, 01:18 PM

Re: Calling all Mac guys. G3 restore?

That's what I'm wondering, though; can you charge a battery of, say, 14V by leaving a +5V line on it or will it simply charge up to 5V that way? I don't really know the ins-n-outs of battery charging.

**Scenic** · 03-08-2009, 09:59 AM

Re: Calling all Mac guys. G3 restore?

uhm.. i meant the plug for the ibook, not the battery.
if the ibook powers up, you can just pop the battery in and charge it in there..

post #6 has the "pinout"

**Logistics** · 03-08-2009, 05:39 PM

Re: Calling all Mac guys. G3 restore?

Yes, I understand; I don't have any sources of 24V around. This is why I wanted to just leave the battery on a voltage rail to let it charge, but I don't know if the voltage at the battery will ever charge to anything higher than the voltage on the rail.

**momaka** · 03-08-2009, 08:49 PM

Re: Calling all Mac guys. G3 restore?

I know that if you have an ATX PSU, you can plug the negative wire of your battery to the -12v and the positive to +12v, thus getting 24v total. However, I don't have experience with this, so I don't recommend you do it. Perhaps someone with more knowledge here can confirm if what I suggested is safe or not.

**Wizard** · 03-08-2009, 09:12 PM

Re: Calling all Mac guys. G3 restore?

Problem with this is -12V circuit is very weak on current capacity.

Look at another solution and figure out to get full current capablity.

Cheers, Wizard

**hardwareguy** · 03-09-2009, 01:21 AM

Re: Calling all Mac guys. G3 restore?

-12 usually maxes out at 1-1.5A.

If you can get 1.5A the machine MIGHT start without its battery. (the battery presents an additional load to the power supply)

See if eBay has anything in the way of the appropriate AC adapter or if you can use a 3.5mm stereo jack as the end plug and a switching power supply from a surplus house like allelectronics.com

A battery WILL NOT charge to full voltage on anything less than the battery's rated voltage. In fact, to charge, you need to force current in by applying a slightly higher voltage. (for example, a 12V car battery charges at 13.5-14V.)

Putting just 5V on the battery will charge it to no more than 5V.

**relkin67** · 03-09-2009, 11:42 AM

Re: Calling all Mac guys. G3 restore?

Originally posted by Wizard

Problem with this is -12V circuit is very weak on current capacity.

Look at another solution and figure out to get full current capablity.

Cheers, Wizard

NO, no, no. Please don't jury rig some old AT power supply.

Batteries of this era most likely have a voltage limited charge curve. 14 volts or so is applied and current decreases down to a trickle as terminal voltage is reached. Applying 24V is going to cook the battery. 5V is actually going to force a discharge and will bring individual cells below a safe level (and may reverse a weak cell destroying the battery!)

These chargers are cheap so just buy one. You can even use the older brick meant for the 1400 (has same connection). If you can't find one, I have an old one I'll sell you for a nominal fee just so you don't do anything stupid.

**relkin67** · 03-09-2009, 11:45 AM

Re: Calling all Mac guys. G3 restore?

These clamshell iBooks run best with OS 9. With enough memory (256 suggested min), you can reasonably run 10.3 or even 10.4.

**Wizard** · 03-09-2009, 12:12 PM

Re: Calling all Mac guys. G3 restore?

I did not say to charge through a battery. I assume the user is making a new PSU to output 24V and use notebook itself to charge battery up.

Cheers, Wizard

**relkin67** · 03-09-2009, 01:27 PM

Re: Calling all Mac guys. G3 restore?

Originally posted by Wizard

I did not say to charge through a battery. I assume the user is making a new PSU to output 24V and use notebook itself to charge battery up.

Cheers, Wizard

My mistake then for not reading thoroughly. I apologize.

**Scenic** · 03-09-2009, 01:37 PM

Re: Calling all Mac guys. G3 restore?

an old Texas Instruments laptop i've got here had no original PSU when i got it.
needed 22V 1,5A (thats what the label underneath said).

works fine with a PSU brick from another dead laptop, which puts out 19V 2A..

those older laptops aren't that much of a hassle if the PSU voltages don't exactly match the original ones..
a PSU with slightly lower voltage, but higher amperage compared to the original one usually works fine, but don't overdo it .. ( a 12V 5A PSU won't really work on a laptop that needs 20+V 2A ...

)

that's at least what i can tell from my experience with older laptops..

Calling all Mac guys. G3 restore?

Calling all Mac guys. G3 restore?

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