Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with g3

Old Mac, new life?

bsexton — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 20:36:15 -0800

A friend gave me a Powermac G3 this afternoon It's not the fastest in the world, but it has OSX installed 10.4.11. What are some cool things I can do with this machine? I had an ibook g4 before a few years ago, but I ran over it :( so I do know a little about Apple computers, other than don't run over it with a car.

I would like to do something cool with it, to make it useful in some way. I was thinking of a media streaming server, but it only has a 6GB hard drive installed at this time. I don't mind installing a new one if I can test it for a usefulness factor first.

My setup is this:
XP/Ubuntu dual boot desktop
Win7 laptop
and new/old MacG3

I thought about installing boxee but that's Intel only. Any other suggestions?

I also have an iphone, xbox360 (streaming media through the xp machine), and a wii if any of that matters.

And of course I would like to this without a huge $$ investment.

I'm also an IT student so I really got it to learn a little more about Apple computers and get a little more familiar w/ OSX.

Rain rain go away, although this game is moderately fun to play

Your Time Machine Sucks — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 06:29:06 -0800

Awesome but slightly rambunctious 8th grade class going on a school trip to the country. Rain is possible. Possibility of ultra-rare recreational computer access is likely to be a highly compelling reward for good behavior. The kids speak German. With all of these givens, what non-crack-like game should I install on the beater iBook G3 12" running 10.4 that I'm sending the teacher off with? Disclaimers: there is already a no-tech primary rain strategy involving books, indoor sports, board games, the lost art of conversation, etc. For those folks who feel that every second of a trip out of the city should be technology-free, I think the goal here is that nearly all of the seconds should be technology-free, but only a newbie teacher wouldn't keep an ace in the hole on a weeklong trip. For those folks who feel that every second of kid technology exposure should be educational, I'm mostly setting up the computer so the kids can take and store photos and blog their trip if they get antsy, [see last clause of previous sentence]. Just write me privately if you're bothered by the underlying premise, that's totally fine and I won't bite.

So, Mac-compatible non-system-demanding games which don't specifically require English skills (a few words are fine or even possibly beneficial), ideally which don't have unusually addictive qualities, with bonus points for having a cooperative mode. If you can further suggest something with redeeming virtues, I'd be most indebted. Thanks!

Pimp Mom's clambook!

mdonley — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 21:08:23 -0800

What free/low-cost/simple kinds of things can be done to the clamshell G3 iBook my mom uses for really basic web stuff to make it function better? So mom got this thing from a friend of my teenage brother for, like, a hundred dollars or something. The friend wiped it, installed OS 10.2.8, and handed it over; she started using it. And she loves it! She's never had a computer of her own before. It runs pretty smoothly when she checks her e-mail or reads the news, considering its advanced age: Firefox can have multiple tabs open, starts up pretty quickly, no huge, glaring technical issues - day to day, it does what it says on the box, so to speak.

However (according to her):

- Things are slooooow...not achingly slow, but enough to be frustrating for her. It's got 128 MB of RAM, a 4 GB hard drive, and has a 366 MHz PowerPC processor. Are we doomed, or can we quicken things a bit?

- There's no word processor, so .doc attachments to e-mails aren't readable (as far as we know). Lightweight (but .doc-friendly) apps to solve this? Could the thing run a version of Microsoft Word that wouldn't paralyze it or be incompatible with what's around today?

- Lots of streaming web content doesn't work. She says that videos, audio, that kind of thing have caused problems or just been invisible. This isn't too surprising, but can anything be done? Are there plugins we can get to ameliorate this, or are we hosed?

Any other advice? We're happy to invest some money in this if it keeps it usable for a while. The primary uses of this machine are, again:

1) E-mailing (web-based only - not using Mail, etc.)
2) News reading
3) Pretty light web browsing: buying the odd plane ticket, reading a New Yorker article, looking at a Flickr album, that kind of thing.

Thanks!

How to fix a malodorous laptop?

speek — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 18:23:36 -0800

How do you remove an odor from a laptop without killing the laptop (or yourself)? I recently bought a new-to-me iBook G3 from somebody in the middle of Massachusetts. I didn't notice it when I got it, but I realized that the computer smelled like barbecue sauce. It isn't that big of a deal, but it's sooooo annoying.

I did read about the burning glue issue on iBook G3s, but I don't think that's the issue as
a) the whole computer smells like bbq sauce and
b) the cords that came with it smell like bbq sauce.

Thanks!

mac system schizophrenia

Toekneesan — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 16:25:15 -0800

How do I reset the SCSI ID of the boot drive on a G3 PowerBook, without actually booting that computer up? or... Did I just turn this laptop into a doorstop? Went to visit my Dad and he offered me a Mac G3 that he goosed up. Had 3 sets of system folders on it and Virtual PC with Windows XP. He doesn't really use computers he just likes to see what he can make them do. Like old guys used to do with tinkering with cars.

Anywho, he asked if I could use it and I said I might give it to our three year old. But I'd prefer it have 10.4 or later on it. Her two fav games (Blues Clues and Hello Kitty, Bubblegum Palace) require it. So he gave it to me with an 80GB slot HD, DVD slot drive, Firewire card, and a wireless card, with about a gig of RAM. PowerPC of course. On the slot HD it had two partitions, each with it's own set of system 9.? and system 10.2.iForget on it. He also had both systems on the 10GB internal drive. When I got it it was configured to boot off the slot drive. Then it all went terribly wrong.

One of the extensions was Conflict Catcher. Annoyed the crap out of me. Seemed to control which files were startup files. Rather than the preference setting. I tried several times to get it to change to the internal X boot but it continued to boot from 9 on the slot drive. Then I noticed a SCSI ID preference. I changed it to 01. Got a warning about how it would disable Conflict Cathcher, smiled, and did it anyway. And I'm pretty sure I then thought better of it and then changed it back to 00 but feel compelled to note it here. I got it to boot into 10.2 before this started, by changing the startup folder in Conflict Catcher. It hasn't rebooted since.

So now when I try to boot it goes to that system 9 mac icon, then restarts and does it again and then sticks on the smiling mac icon screen. Is this a SCSI ID issue? Did I perhaps kill a perfectly functioning mac?

Here's what I tried, pulled the slot drive, reset PRAM, asked it to find an alt system folder, bupkis.

So did I ruin a perfectly good computer? Any idea how to get this thing to boot?

Why won't my G3 boot?

Orb2069 — Fri, 25 May 2007 16:52:37 -0800

My G3/700mhz (DualUSB) iBook is not booting in a strange way: I definitely need a hint on this one. Lots and lots more inside.

A while back, the machine started having problems while tidying the disk up with Applejack or Disk Utility - only occured once per run, and fsck would finish running. Rerunning fsck with Applejack would produce the exact same error at the same time. I don't remember the exact error, but it was always the same, and googling it convinced me that it was file-structure related, and not hardware related. I took this as an opportunity to install 10.4, and reformatted the hard drive - Since the machine dosen't have a DVD drive, I used an external firewire drive to boot 10.4, format the disk using a 'wipe clean' setting, then install. It did so without errors.

Now, If left to it's own devices, it boots to the grey apple screen, then the gear spins endlessly. If I boot it in Single-User(command-S) or view boot mode, the boot hangs with:

BSD root: disk0s10, major 14, minor 10
disk0s10: I/O error.
disk0s10: I/O error.

...Which to my mind says 'Disk bad!' but:

The disk is more than six months, but less than a year old - an odd time to die IMO.
If the laptop is booted in Target mode(command-T), it mounts fine on my Blue & White G3, and Disk Utility can scan it without problems.

I've even installed 10.4, then 10.3 on it in target mode when I thought that the new OS could be the source of the problems. It still exhibits the same problem.

The tech at the local Apple store booted it off a FW drive, ran some diagnostics, and noted that the machine had problems until the CD drive was ejected, and suggested that I remove the CD drive and see if it would behave itself. I tried it, and it did not.

To sum: It's probably hardware, but I'll be dipped if I can think of what it is.

Any ideas of what I can try next?

Stupid ancient iMac.

bash — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 15:14:10 -0800

I have one of those crappy old iMac G3s that is pink and looks like a piece of bubble gum and it won't turn on. Help? So I have this G3 and I wanted to use it as an external hard drive, but I can't get the derned thing to turn on. I haven't turned it on in probably a year or so, but I just realized that I could use it as an external drive and now it won't turn on. It's just been sitting here. Could it just be dead from not being used? I don't think it's the electrical cord because it's just been sitting in a box for the past year untouched. I finally have a use for the stupid thing and I can't get it turn on. I'm sad.

Is a super cheap iMac really worth it for a PC user?

taita_cakes — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 05:28:17 -0800

Apple Filter: I'm a PC man, in a PC house, but I'm hoping to pick up a iMac G3 super cheap. What can I do with it? And yes, I have read the aritcle on digg etc. here...

Generally, I have a few questions. They can be researched, but I have so many it's much easier to get a general opinion:
1) Can all iMac G3s be updated to OS X?
2) Obvious one, there is a OS X download for VLC Player, so I take it I would be able to watch movies and tv eps problem free? Even on an old [333-400mHz?] system?
3) I'm unfamiliar with Apple systems, if this only has a CDROM drive, the DVD drive can be plugged in via usb? I remember my cousins using external disk drives like floppy etc. And how much can one of these cost?
4) I have a Belkin four-port wireless router. What is the chance of connecting to this? I have it set up already with two of the LAN ports taken by PC's. Fair impossible I think?
5) Are there any other great uses for a mac like this? It will probably sit up in my room, so I don't want it folding constantly. I also tend to do most of my graphic design and animation right here on this family PC. I chat a lot, but it might be a bit useless if I can't connect it to our four-port router [but it is wireless too].

imac boot failure

mcsweetie — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 07:49:08 -0800

I've been given a pretty old g3 iMac that boots up to "MacOS: Boot failure - unexpected value for MacOS ROM entry in segment table" and what appears to be a prompt. I know nothing about macs! Is this thing fixable? And if so, how? Here's the whole thing:

MacOS: Boot failure! (0xFC3481F6) MacOS: Boot failure - unexpected value for MacOS ROM entry in segment table Apple iMac Open Firmware 3.0.f3 built on 12/02/98 at 10:25:41 Copyright 1994-1998 Apple Computer, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ok 0 > _

I don't have any of the original included software and I dunno if this is relevant, but it's green.

Help my power up my Powerbook one last time please

dismitree — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 20:21:19 -0800

Please help me power up my Powerbook G3 Wallstreet 300mhz one last time. I'm on my second 45W power supply... and the connection just before the plug to the computer has severed again. It's been soldered a bunch of times, but is beyond repair this time.
The local shops (I live in Toronto) have quoted a price of $100 for a new 45w power supply which I can't quite rationalize as it is no longer my everyday computer. The thing is that it still has all my photos, short stories, and journals from when I was living in Europe...and I'd really like to be able to recover them.
Are there any other (cheaper) power supplies that I can buy that would work with this computer? Is it possible to bypass the connector on the back, open up the computer and solder the power cord directly to the board inside?
Thanks

Can AMD Motherboard be powered by G3 powersupply?

Napierzaza — Sat, 21 Jan 2006 08:51:54 -0800

Here's a technical question. Will this motherboard work with a G3 (Mac) power supply? Gigabyte GA-6VTXD Also in the motherboard is an AMD Athlon 900Mhz. Is that fast? What's the comparison to Intel chips? I've never really understood the conversion. I thought it would be neat to use an old, unwanted G3 case for something like this. Also will a 900MHz AMD chip make a good Debian computer?

can a sony jukebox talk to a mac?

ClanvidHorse — Wed, 18 Jan 2006 11:18:00 -0800

Trying to use a Sony NW-HD3S with a G3 Mac. IS there any software or workaround to allow communication/ basic functionality -similar to what XNJB manages for Creative mp3 players- on a mac? My friend just got gifted a G3 Mac. He has a Sony Atrac based jukebox 20gb and all mp3s need to be converted into atrac before they will play on the sony device. He is just competent with computers and Im not much better so any solution would need to be reasonably straightforward.

Any ideas or solutions would be welcome. Thanks

Make my own RAID

Napierzaza — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 08:05:42 -0800

I recently got a large Mac G3 tower and stripped everything out of it. Does anyone know what I could do to make it a true external hard drive? Possibly with 4+ hard drives in it? I'm considering RAID BTW. It already has a power supply so I guess that is taken care of. Anything else I should be aware of? Is there anywhere that I could just buy the chipset?

Creating an external DVD drive for a G3 iBook

incomple — Wed, 28 Dec 2005 23:30:26 -0800

For Christmas, my roommate bought me an internal LG DVD+R/RW drive. The trouble is that I have a G3 iBook (900 MHz, the last model produced before they went G4). From my scouring, it seems that Roxio Toast 6 is the latest bit of software to support G3 Macs. Will that, along with a firewire/USB2 enclosure to make it act as an external drive, be all I need to pirate like mad? Follow up question: Where would I be able to find an enclosure in downtown Manhattan? Is it as simple as going to Radioshack? Please say it's as simple as going to Radioshack. Also, if forced to choose, is firewire or USB2 preferable?

B&W G3 OS9 as television server

juliewhite — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 07:01:52 -0800

I’ve got a B&W G3 running OS9 (actually, mostly gathering dust) - can I slap a big hard drive in it and use it to feed downloaded television to my TV? In particular, is there software for OS 9 that will work with contemporary video codecs? And if you have any particular software to recommend, that would be great.

Tiger's QuickTime Misperforming on an iBook G3?

WCityMike — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 08:35:09 -0800

Ever since upgrading to QuickTime 7 and Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger), I've noticed that apparently what I think is the H.264 and H.267 codecs play very choppily on my machine. The audio track doesn't freeze, but the video stops, then moves forward slightly choppily, then goes forward, then repeats the cycle a few seconds later, making the resulting video mostly unviewable. I've noticed this specifically on videos from the iTunes Media Store and Apple Movie Trailers.

My machine isn't horribly ancient, but it's not top-of-the-line, either: an 800 mHz iBook G3 with 640 MB RAM (which is the maximum available for this unit). I know the G3 is at the hind end of the pack nowadays, but I can't believe it's been entirely ignored when these codecs were tried out at Apple.

I have tried three things: increasing the QuickTime cache (no effect), reducing the number of open applications at the time (very little or no effect), and letting the whole video load before trying to play it (very little or no effect).

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

G3 Tower DIY

Napierzaza — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 08:37:48 -0800

DIY: What can I do with an old G3 tower computer (or maybe a couple). I'm thinking maybe a file server or a web server. Any other neat ideas???

Pismo DVD Drive Dead?

AllesKlar — Wed, 08 Jun 2005 11:03:49 -0800

I recently acquired a G3/Pismo via ebay and decided to upgrade the hard drive. Upon doing so, my dvd/cd drive no longer functions; Help me sort through my options! I am a new mac "owner" but casual user; I am well versed in pc hardware and the like. The old hard drive didn't have any jumpers, so I assumed that master / slave is determined >somehow< by the machine / Os; The drive worked with both cd's and dvd's prior to the hd upgrade; The only drive that shows up in system profiler is the wd scorpio drive. "About this mac" 500 MHz PowerPC G3 512 Ram, Max OS 10.3.9; I'm curious if I some how damaged a ribbon, or something when replacing with the new hd; CD's and DVD's will spin up, but will not mount on the desktop; I've seen reports of the drives going bad, but it seems suspicious that the drive would quit working after installing the new hd. I've also seen vague accounts of soldering "things" to designate master / slave etc. Is there anything else I can do to trouble shoot or fix this problem? I've got external dvd drives, but that negates "portability." Also, suggestions / experiences with using a "cheap" alternative by replacing drive in caddy with pc / oem parts? Thanks in advance for you help and or suggestions!

Access a G3 with no monitor?

anarcation — Wed, 27 Apr 2005 21:17:06 -0800

AppleFilter: I have an old tower G3 that I'd like to update, but I have no external monitor. Can I use another Mac to access the G3? I have a few other Macs running both OS 9 and X, all with integrated monitors (eg. iMac, iBook), which I can use if such a maneuver is possible. The G3 is running either OS 8 or 9.

Troubleshoot this G3 PowerMac!

armoured-ant — Wed, 19 Jan 2005 04:05:11 -0800

So, I bought my friend Tom a G3 PowerMac on eBay, which turned up, then booted to a blank screen. After a reboot, it started up, then the power supply went flash, bang and off. I've since connected my PC's power supply to the G3, tried the PRAM battery from my G5, and no luck. When the power button is pressed, the fans in the PSU twitch, and the lights on the motherboard come on, but then go out straight away. Is this a power supply compatiblity thing, or is the logic board fried?

Fixing Mom's Mac's Modem

sillygit — Fri, 17 Dec 2004 15:47:30 -0800

Parental Computer (Mac) Assistance: Should I attempt to replace the internal modem or scour the web for suitable external modem for my mother's Powerbook G3? [MI] This company www.pbfixit.com offers an internal modem complete with install guide, but I am afraid once I do this it will crap out like the other one did and I will not be there to rectify the situation for my mom. Plus, I am not too sure about opening up the guts of the thing.

[Yeah, it’s an old notebook, but she doesn’t use it for anything more taxing than email and is pretty computer-phobic, so buying her a whole new computer isn’t really an option owing to her comfort with this one and the parental thrift factor.]

Worth upgrading from 600Mhz G3 to a 1Ghz G4 iBook?

scarabic — Tue, 28 Sep 2004 20:12:50 -0800

600MHz G3 iBook / 30GB / 256MB
-->
1000MHz G4 iBook / 60GB / 512MB

Worth the upgrade? Or do I need to dig deeper into my wallet? I'd like better AVI playback and iMovie performance, as well as the ability to run GarageBand.

Firewire -> USB?

fionab — Wed, 25 Aug 2004 17:07:44 -0800

We're trying to figure out if we can continue using my old PowerBook G3 (bronze keyboard) for another year. The deciding factor will be if a Firewire external drive can be somehow connected to it -- it doesn't have a Firewire port though. Is it possible to somehow get a Firewire --> USB connector? [MI] It would be fantastic if this was possible...we've got it running OSX, and it is still working just fine otherwise. Any ideas? If not, where is the cheapest place to buy a new PowerBook these days? We could use an educational discount, but some of the sites are offering free upgrades in RAM, shipping, etc. that pretty much negate the educational offerings from Apple proper.

Help deciding between Apple computers

blueshammer — Sat, 27 Dec 2003 19:04:24 -0800

As an extension of this previous thread: I've decided on an iBook. I have the opportunity to get a 14" 900MHz G3 refurb'd for $900. I can also get this discontinued model new for $1000. The comparable G4 iBook, which has almost exactly the same specs (save the processor, of course) is $1300. My $1000 could also buy me a 12" 800MHz G4.

I'm having trouble parsing the literature about the chips. I understand that, particularly with Macs, it's not just about the MHz, so should I expect the "slower" G4 chip to outperform the G3 I'm looking at? I expect to use this computer until at least spring '06, which seems like a long way off considering that the G3 chip is now technically obsolete. Also, there are obvious form factor issues; does anyone have a strong opinion about the old iBook design vs. the new? Has anyone been personally affected by the logic board problems I've heard about for the last-gen G3 iBooks? Any warnings about Apple-refurbished machines? [slightly more inside] I have to say that the ability to boot into 9 has a little appeal for me still, though not a lot, and I will appreciate being able to recycle my Airport card, since I don't plan on buying an Airport Extreme hub anytime soon. There's also the possibility that my G3 Pismo memory will be compatible with the new iBook, though I'm not yet sure and am not counting on it. My understanding is that the refurb'd G3 is running Panther, so that's not a point of comparison. And there's definitely an appeal to me of not moving all the way down to a 12" screen.

Also, if anyone is here from the previous thread: My Pismo finally gave up this morning, or rather, the contortions I'd been placing on my power cord to enable my failing power supply finally put the kibosh on the cord; when I took it into a service place this afternoon and tried a new cord, I was able, with further contortions, to get the machine to boot, but it's clear a new cord is not going to be the solution.

I almost hate to abuse Ask MeFi by resurrecting a thread not yet a week old, but I can't not take advantage of the knowledge base and friendliness assembled here before dropping this kind of money.

Buy G4 now or wait for G5 Powerbook

adrober — Mon, 22 Dec 2003 16:20:37 -0800

My G3 Powerbook is 3.5 years old. I love my Powerbook and intend to stick with Apple. Unfortunately, my G3 is starting to deteriorate. The CD ROM is broken and programs randomly close for no reason. I lost several pages on a paper I was writing. Which is all to say that my parents generously offered to get me a new computer for Hannukah / graduation (I graduate in a few months). Since I definitely want to buy another Powerbook, should I just go out and buy the Titanium G4? Or do you think a G5 Powerbook will come out soon and I should wait?