another $10 mac... G4 Tower

[AudioCraZ]

Re: another $10 mac... G4 Tower

FYI.

I have done this before, but been a while.

You can make an adapter cable to go from a standard 20 pin ATX power supply to a 22 pin iMac G5 mobo. If I remember correctly, you rewire the -12v and -5v pins on the connector to be +12v. The iMacs didn't use the voltage monitoring. The last two "extra" pins are +24v and -24v pins, which are only for the external vga port. For testing purposes, you don't need this, and I have personally never seen any iMac user having a secondary monitor.

This is the iMac G5 22 pin ATX connector:

This is standard ATX connector.pinouts.ru ATX Connector Pinout

The standard ATX connector fits perfectly into the 22 pin plug on the mobo, just minus the two ports. Will only go in one direction as well, Hope this helps some people.

[ratdude747]

Re: another $10 mac... G4 Tower

like colt said, use a different fan first.
or a big passive heatsink.. remember.. the 120mm fan is blowing towards the cards

otherwise.. here are original mac BIOSes and modified ones for flashing gfx cards..

http://themacelite.wikidot.com/wikidownloads2

read the flashing guides too.

with the help of that site, i upgraded my G4 with a FX5200. now i can finally use DVI

nope. it is a thermal adhesive heatsink. NO pushpins. it is not a standard fan.

found a pic of an identical one:



my other 128 HAS a big passive HS... but if it won't work, it won't. I do not feel like playing the hack and brick game with this.

i checked the thread in general electronics about re-oiling fans; the blades do not rock, a drop of oil ought to fix it.

[stj]

Re: another $10 mac... G4 Tower

if the blades dont rock then strip it, clean the shaft & oil it.
but you could find another fan with the same bolt spacing - looks like a 40mm maybe.
then mount the new one ontop instead of flush using longer screws.

i used to get fans like that from old 486 type heatsinks at street markets & junk fairs.

[seanc]

Re: another $10 mac... G4 Tower

Speaking of flashing cards, I need to see if I can flash my 9600LE to work in my G4 (and tape the pins).

My machine won't power on if I have something connected to the DVI port :/ I have to power it on, then plug the monitor in.

[Scenic]

Re: another $10 mac... G4 Tower

9600LE? most likely not..

http://themacelite.wikidot.com/fbg-9600

[seanc]

Re: another $10 mac... G4 Tower

Oh poo

I have two of those particular orange ASUS cards - I thought I might get away with the SE ROM, thanks for the link!

[ratdude747]

Re: another $10 mac... G4 Tower

the assholes superglued the screws. what a PITA to remove. i got them out, looked under the sticker, dry. i will add a drop of oil.

[ratdude747]

Re: another $10 mac... G4 Tower

sorry to d. post, edit will not work on my phone's browser...

will vegatble cooking oil work? it would be fresh...

[AudioCraZ]

Re: another $10 mac... G4 Tower

I think Vegetable oil gets corrosive over time.... or was that mineral oil?

[ratdude747]

Re: another $10 mac... G4 Tower

i think it is mineral oil... my googling of vegetable oil come up with veg. oil as a anti-corrosion agent...

i will try it and see if it works.

[ratdude747]

Re: another $10 mac... G4 Tower

the oil is working... i hope it lasts!

[Scenic]

Re: another $10 mac... G4 Tower

veg. oil will get gooey after a short time..
plus the fan may not spin up on its own when the card is cold, because its pretty thick. (once it seeped into the bearing)

i use vaseline when i have nothing else at hand and need to get a fan running..

[AudioCraZ]

Re: another $10 mac... G4 Tower

What about something like air tool oil? That should be fairly thin...

[JOHNBOY]

Re: another $10 mac... G4 Tower

A regular AGP car will not run on that. It needs to be a mac card incase you are trying to replace.

The fan on these is useless. You can tear it off and put a heatsink on it from any device. This is a $5 video card and it will make no diff. This same card actually comes in a heatsink version.

[ratdude747]

Re: another $10 mac... G4 Tower

yeah, i found the heatsink vs... it was out of a dell p3 box, has solder holes for a fan wire, i might see if it works.

[Uranium-235]

Re: another $10 mac... G4 Tower

we go like 2 G4's at work a while ago. The main one I wanted to get working was a PPC dual 550mhz. I put like a gig in there and tried to put ubuntu on it. It worked with a default vga monitor hooked up, but when I tried it with the g4 monitor (the CRT one that is powered by the ati video card itself) it refused to output any video to it.

so I managed to get my hands on panther 10.3. ran like S***T. even browsing the web in firefox or safari was crap. we just junked it

[stj]

Re: another $10 mac... G4 Tower

should have used yellow-dog Linux,
it's optimiised for ppc hardware.

[JOHNBOY]

Re: another $10 mac... G4 Tower

we go like 2 G4's at work a while ago. The main one I wanted to get working was a PPC dual 550mhz. I put like a gig in there and tried to put ubuntu on it. It worked with a default vga monitor hooked up, but when I tried it with the g4 monitor (the CRT one that is powered by the ati video card itself) it refused to output any video to it.

so I managed to get my hands on panther 10.3. ran like S***T. even browsing the web in firefox or safari was crap. we just junked it

The 24v circuit in the power supply is dead if the ADC monitor doesn't work.

The dual 550 with 1gb is actually half decent. I use a 867 and it does OK for basic stuff. The strengths of these powermacs is in audio and video, not trolling the web. I have an 867 that edits video but can barely play youtube.

[ratdude747]

Re: another $10 mac... G4 Tower

should have used yellow-dog Linux,
it's optimiised for ppc hardware.

if i want linux, i have 4-5 towers and a netbook that will do that. the mac is all i have that will do os x. I want osx to gain experience with working with mac os x, it looks good a resume for a part-time computer job (if linux skills were not enough).

besides, i read somewhere that yellowdog is not free money-wise... correct?

[stj]

Re: another $10 mac... G4 Tower

incorrect.
each release is sold on dvd with a manual,
then after a few weeks it comes available as a free download.

you only pay if you want a book, support, or you want to be "cutting edge"