So, Beige G3's.

I currently have the following:

G3 Tower with G3/400mhz processor from my Blue/White G3

192MB RAM

4.3GB hard disk

Zip 100 drive

Wings A/V card from a G3 AIO

Panasonic 24x CD-ROM drive

USB 1.1 card

2MB VRAM

ATI Rage128 PCI video card with 16MB RAM

MacOS 9.2.2

I know that it has a Rev. 2 motherboard, but have no clue about the ROM version.

I use it for older games and for its A/V capabilities. When I get the urge I connect my Dreamcast to it to play games for that system.

As original with zip

replaced drive with 8gig disk

installed 10.2.8

I got an 8500 with a G3 CPU, thats my "beige G3"

Specs is in the signature.

I have a 233mhz tower. It has no RAM in it currently, the stock 4gb HD, pretty much everything is stock and barebones. Has the audio only IO card but it also has a modem, which makes me think it was at one time a personal home machine. I also stole the VRM out of it to see if that was a problem in my AIO. It has the earlier yellow board VRM, so methinks it was one of the first to roll off the line.

I also got a G3 AIo that I am having a lot of trouble with. I narrowed it down to the power supply. It's a shame too, because it's the much more desirable 266mhz model with the AV Io card, but no modem, and an "Apple Fast Ethernet 10/100" PCI card and USB 1.1 card. I hope to get it running soon.

Oh, both models have revision B ROMs, so I can add secondary hard drives if I see fit.

-digital

Mine is specced as follows:

G3 tower

266MHz G3

512MB RAM

Wings AV card

10GB hard drive (originally from a slot-loader iMac)

Mac OS 9.2.2

CD ROM

Zip 100

This machine is my Mac OS 9 workhorse which I use for any power-hungry apps that won't run on OS X, such as the (free) full version of Pro Tools (MIDI app).

ooh, I get to brag about my babies...

#1) g3 420mhz (oc from 400) Revision C ROM, 768 MB RAM

Superdrive from eMac Stock Floppy

40 GB ATA - OS: 10.4 9.2.2 in separate boot partitions. also separate swap partition, and partition for storing old software ect.

40 GB ATA with music library

Wings Personality

Radeon 7000 mac connected to 17" monitor

Combo firewire 400 / USB 2.0 card

Additional 10/100 NIC

Firewire External 160GB disk for backups of other machines

Mobile Black box FM transmitter

- upon boot, tunes and a VNC server are automatically started, so I can VNC from any computer and play music on any radio on my property.

- Also has the iTunes music from mine, my wife, and son's account (with passwords) shared so that anyone can listen to anyone else's music whether they are online or not.

Apple extended keyboard, Apple mouse

#2 AIO G3 317(?) mhz (oc from 300) Revision C, 640 MB RAM

ATA 7 GB with 9.22

ATA 4 GB 8.6

Stock CD, Stock floppy

Audio only card (what's that called again?)

Loaded with all my old classic games

Conectix VGS and ADB Game controller for playing playstation games

X10 controller software and serial interface - not currently used.

Apple extended keyboard, Apple mouse

My plan is to move all file storage/backup and music to a G4, and make the AIO the Classic only machine. Anyone in the ATL area need a AIO?

I have a pair of mini towers. A 266 and a 300. I just got some hard drives from another 68kmla'er because they didn't come with any. I also ordered a pair of 500mhz G3's recently that I am waiting on. If I can get everything working together I'll be putting 9.2.2 on them but I don't have an OS X disc so I'll probably be trying to find a 10.2 or 10.3 disc soon.

I have more than one.

The MT sitting in my closet is a 333MHz model with the ATTO U160 SCSI card. I don't recall RAM, but it's at least 256MB. It has a Wings card, 10k RPM 9GB primary drive (with OS X 10.2), an 18GB 10k RPM secondary drive (for stuff), and a 9GB 7200RPM drive (for OS 9), Zip 100, and a 12x10x32 CDRW. It also has an Intel 10/100 NIC. It only works under OS X, but that's what it runs mostly anyway.

My Molar Mac is pretty stock right now since I'm not using it. It's 233MHz, 128MB RAM, Wings card, Zip 100, stock CDROM, 4GB HD.

My super beige G3 is a MT, with an 83MHz-rated Grackle and Rev. F ROM. So, it runs 416MHz on an 83MHz bus with 768MB of PC100 RAM. It has a 12x10x32 CDRW, 30GB 7200RPM ATA drive, Zip 100, USB, and Wings card.

I have a couple desktops and another MT, but don't recall what they are. A couple run strictly OS 9, so they have IXMicro TV tuners and Voodoo video cards. In the future I'll be installing the other 83MHz-rated boards into some of those, particularly the Molar Mac. I plan to upgrade that with a 466MHz G3 (run at 476MHz), CDRW/DVDROM, and maybe an Ultra160 SCSI hard drive. I've looked into replacing the onboard video with a Rage 128 or Radeon, but it's a bit of a job with one of those.

I have one G3 MT

G3-433 (oc 400 had it at 466 but turned it down)

512MB RAM

6MB VRAM

Wings card

13GB IDE

OS 9.2.2

Firewire card

Targa 2000 Pro Video capture

68 pin SCSI card

18GB 10KRPM HD for video

8x CDR (replaced the stock cdrom)

Zip 100 drive

Cool, you guys have some pretty nice machines. I've got several more desktops and another server tower, but nothing really built up. I probably won't build any more close to what I already have...it took me forever to round up all the parts for that one!

I'm really contemplating finding a faster G3/4 for my other server tower...currently I think it's a 333, and maybe throwing some RAM in it. I had a lot of fun with Jag and Panther back in the day so I may see if I can build a decent box to do it again.

Most of my Wings cards (I think I have like 5 or 6...) came from AIOs that I stripped. I came across a load of those with dead screens and it seemed the decent thing to do...kind of like organ donors

Upgrading machines is like an itch you have to scratch to me for some reason.

B&W's, PCI Powermacs, and Beige G3s are just so cheap to get and upgrade these days and they are actually usefull when upgraded, kind of hard not to.

I have more than one. The MT sitting in my closet is a 333MHz model with the ATTO U160 SCSI card. I don't recall RAM, but it's at least 256MB. It has a Wings card, 10k RPM 9GB primary drive (with OS X 10.2), an 18GB 10k RPM secondary drive (for stuff), and a 9GB 7200RPM drive (for OS 9), Zip 100, and a 12x10x32 CDRW. It also has an Intel 10/100 NIC. It only works under OS X, but that's what it runs mostly anyway.

My Molar Mac is pretty stock right now since I'm not using it. It's 233MHz, 128MB RAM, Wings card, Zip 100, stock CDROM, 4GB HD.

My super beige G3 is a MT, with an 83MHz-rated Grackle and Rev. F ROM. So, it runs 416MHz on an 83MHz bus with 768MB of PC100 RAM. It has a 12x10x32 CDRW, 30GB 7200RPM ATA drive, Zip 100, USB, and Wings card.

I have a couple desktops and another MT, but don't recall what they are. A couple run strictly OS 9, so they have IXMicro TV tuners and Voodoo video cards. In the future I'll be installing the other 83MHz-rated boards into some of those, particularly the Molar Mac. I plan to upgrade that with a 466MHz G3 (run at 476MHz), CDRW/DVDROM, and maybe an Ultra160 SCSI hard drive. I've looked into replacing the onboard video with a Rage 128 or Radeon, but it's a bit of a job with one of those.

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I wish I could find a beige with 83mhz parts.

My desktop:

Stock CD, HD

USB dual-port card

OS 8.6(going to upgrade to 9.2.2 shortly)

233 MHz

112 MB RAM

Still love it though!

I have a beige g3 desktop too, but the tower is my favorite and has most of the upgrades.

Finding a G3 with 1MB cache will speed those systems up. Built in video isn't too bad, the 4MB upgrade to 6MB helps if you need high rez and 24bit color.

If you want to use slave drives you will need to find the B and C ROM chips.

The worst thing about the G3 towers is that Apple shortened the case (same layout as the 8600/9600) and removed those 2 bottom HD bays.

Mine was my main machine until recently. Paid $600 for it in about '99/2000, sold the internal ZIP for $100, and got a good six-seven years of use out of it. I'm still working on the transition to my new dual 533 DA.

Rev C 300 desktop

Upgraded to a 466MHz G4 ZIF

768 MB of RAM

2 x 10GB Seagates

Original 24x ATA CD-ROM (most of the time)

Generic USB card

ATI Rage 128 PCI video card

6MB VRAM on the motherboard

Pair of 21" Dell CRT monitors

Wings AV card (replaced the Whisper)

OS X 10.2.8

I'd love an AIO for shits and giggles, but they're rarer than gigantic hen's teeth Down Under

"The worst thing about the G3 towers is that Apple shortened the case (same layout as the 8600/9600) and removed those 2 bottom HD bays."

I wonder if anyone's tried mounting a G3 motherboard in an 8600/9600 case.

Mine:

G3 MT 300 @ 500MHz now with a G4

768MB PC100 RAM

2 x 40GB Maxtor HD's

Sonnett ATA/100 Card

Rage Orion 32MB PCI Card

Sonnett Tempo card w / firewire and USB

LG 16x DVD, CD-RW Drive

Zip100

Floppy

WingsAV Card

Great machine.

I wonder if anyone's tried mounting a G3 motherboard in an 8600/9600 case.

Click to expand...

I've considered it. I have a few spare beige motherboards and a dead 9500.
The other nice thing about the beiges is that the motherboards are actually pretty small - good for recasing projects. Especially if you can live without the PERCH card.

Beige G3 DT and MT, both with Rev. C ROMs; 768MB of RAM; Sonnet G4/500MHz CPUs; AsantéFAST NICs; Rage Pro video cards; USB, FireWire or combo cards and 40-60GB of drive space in two or three drives. And they bolt in OS 9.2.2. I'm in no hurry to install OS X of any kind because I have Macs that support it natively and without artifice, so why bother? The longterm puzzle is to find a Gefen EXT-VGA-2-ADC adapter so that they can share a 17" ADC Studio Display.

de

Gefen

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Griffin?

with an 83MHz-rated Grackle and Rev. F ROM. So, it runs 416MHz on an 83MHz bus

Click to expand...

I wish I could find a beige with 83mhz parts.

Click to expand...

Yeah word. How do you identify which version of the Grackle IC you have? And Rev. F ROM? Never heard of that one.

Gefen

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Griffin?

Click to expand...

Nein. Gefen. Google it, and you may be much taken with some expensive but nifty gear.

de

Yeah word. How do you identify which version of the Grackle IC you have? And Rev. F ROM? Never heard of that one.

Click to expand...

Rev. F? Must've been the "scientifically-proven" affinity for one's own name that clouded my mind on that one. I meant the Rev. C. Gotta have the ATA slave capabilities, after all.

And as for the Grackle, it's pretty easy to read. Printed on the chip will be an identification string, which looks something like this: MPC106ARXxxBG. The xx is the rated speed of the chip. If yours says 66, then obviously you've got the 66MHz part. It may be overclockable, but it's not guaranteed. However, if yours says 83, then you've got the 83MHz part, and can clock it to 83MHz with complete stability.

Unfortunately, these were only available in the first and possibly some of the second version of the Gossamer board (so they have the slower video), and on the 250 and 292MHz Wallstreets (which actually ran at 83MHz).

I don't know why Apple did this. Perhaps they planned to offer some 83MHz machines, but changed their minds. They already changed the specs on them once (originally they were to run a 50MHz bus), so it wouldn't be a surprise to change it again.

Where is in on the motherboard?

Holy crap, I found it here:
http://www.theapplemuseum.com/index.php?id=45'>http://www.theapplemuseum.com/index.php?id=45

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That page is interesting but is missing lots of data.

Pippin, Nike, Swee' Pea (Sweet pea), and Brutus all we from same apple division. few are ever discussed on the internet.

In fact I can't google up any info on Nike, Swee' Pea (Sweet pea), and Brutus.

Nike = iphone sized mac OS wrist strap mac with radio link to two sensors in running shoes, kept track of jogging workout, for health nuts, but also was personal information manager -> spawned from eMate+Newton group

Swee' Pea (Sweet pea), and Brutus = TV set top boxes, I forgot which of the two did what, but ONE of them was identical to the Apple set top (68040 processor, 4 MB RAM, a 2 MB ROM ) on page : http://www.theapplemuseum.com/index.php?id=45

...but that page says codename was UNKNOWN. Its NOT UNKNOWN its either Swee' Pea (Sweat pea), or Brutus. (I will look it up better somehow)

The device came entwined with a morality license agreement from Apple Legal, as did the "Pippin" : no overtly violent games, no sexual laden games allowed, nothing that offended Apples morality, and no entertainment content demeaning toward women.

Apple legal also killed the Newton with a 3% (three percent) take of your companies GROSS RECEIPTS in royalty contracts. Amusingly no one minds 2008 and 30% for iTunes store for iPhone.

Grand Theft Auto 4 shows that morality contracts on gaming consoles dooms such wimpy console to a quick death. All hail "Grand Theft Auto 4" !!!

Someone should email theapplemuseum.com and tell them the codename was either Swee' Pea (Sweat pea), or Brutus.

As for how I know this Brutus stuff. I seem to have knowledge of far far too many things in my head.

Where is in on the motherboard?

Click to expand...

If you're looking at the CPU ZIF socket, the Grackle is north a bit, between the ZIF and the drive connectors. In fact, the Grackle looks very similar to the PPC 750, only slightly rectangular: it's a ceramic flip-chip BGA device with exposed die, the only chip like that on the board. It looks like this (best accurate picture I could get in under a minute).

Oh, yeah...there seems to be a decent amount of interest in Apple prototype stuff but no "complete" database of information about these.

Thank, Frank. That should be easy to find.

On the other hand, what is it with beige motherboards dying? I replaced the one in mine twice over the years. Both times the symptoms were a non-booting OS X install, OS 9 booting fine. Tried everything logical, but only swapping out the mobo seemed to fix it.

Driverguru, the "Nike" you're describing was a shipping product from not that long ago. It was an add-on to the iPod, not a custom MacOS portable device. And "Nike" wasn't a code name, Nike the shoe people were the partners in the project.

On the other hand, what is it with beige motherboards dying? I replaced the one in mine twice over the years. Both times the symptoms were a non-booting OS X install, OS 9 booting fine. Tried everything logical, but only swapping out the mobo seemed to fix it.

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I have a wild theory, and its an ugly and pessimistic one.

BAD SOFTWARE PROGRAMMING, NOT HARDWARE.

True, salt ions in the air can corrode contacts if you live near an ocean, and true, some capacitors from a certain era on all motherboards will fail because the stolen chemical formula replicated by the chinese taken from japan was missing a key ingredient, affecting all capacitors in the world deriving from that plant... but the reason is BAD SOFTWARE PROGRAMMING, NOT HARDWARE.

How ?

Well OSX likes to set things up for "OpenBoot" a strange and complex set of technologies that was to be a open standard. The try to get their way and tuck stuff in PRAM.

When pram battery charge is off, low, corrupt, whatever, or you THINK you cleared it with Command-Option-P-R at startup with capslock off and watch it double boot.

Well it DOES NOT REALLY ZAP THE PRAM.

Apple is full of assholes that keep squeezing a byte or two of vital non-crc-checked data into the parameter non volatile ram area (PRAM) and putting these unsanctioned new bytes in areas NOT CLEARED EVER by Command-Option-P-R.

result ? bad serial ports that are not really bad !! (i replaced 3 motherboards at 410 dollars apiece before writing a PRAM clearing program to really fix the bug)

Yep ! Many Apple engineers are assholes. They want you to buy hardware whenever they pollute the PRAM. Draining battery and using paperclips will not help. You want all bits zeroed.

YOU ARE IN LUCK! You can repair a dead motherboard by using a PRAM zapper tool not written by apple that clears the DRM areas that contain odometer information (hours your machine used, manufacturing date, etc).

goddamned DRM.

really zapping PRAM should reset mouse and sometimes clock zone and also :

AppleTalk status

Serial port configuration and port definition

Alarm clock setting

Application font

Serial printer location

Key repeat rate

Key repeat delay

Speaker volume

Alert sound

Double-click time

Insertion point blink rate

Mouse speed

Startup disk

Menu blink count

Monitor depth

32-bit addressing

Virtual memory

RAM Disk

Disk cache

Use MicroMat's free TechTool or commercial TechTool Pro to salvage "dead" motherboards that are not really dead, because zapping PRAM is useless using apples methods

I would be less hostile on this topic if I did not have to buy so many motherboards in the past because of the scam.

Driverguru, the "Nike" you're describing was a shipping product from not that long ago. It was an add-on to the iPod, not a custom MacOS portable device. And "Nike" wasn't a code name, Nike the shoe people were the partners in the project.

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Wrong. The Nike I am describing was presented to Apples board in 1994 and work performed on it by the same groups that worked on Brutus , Swee Pea, Pippin.

1994 is way way before the ipod !

The first mp3 player in history was in 1997 (MPMan), the first hard drive one proposed was a few years later, and Apple was late to the scene : October 2001 for iPod.

...and it was not clear in 1994 that the corp 'Nike' would be the real partner in the long run, but it was the code name no matter how stupid a code name it was. QuickTime was a codename that was so good Apple SHIPPED using it when they became enamored with it. xbox was a code that for some reason microsoft SHIPPED using it after becoming enamored with it and had to pay millions to buy the domain xbox.com.

nike WAS the code name. (nike is also a greek goddesss) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nike_%28mythology%29

Nike was indeed a code name. And we are talking 1994 here.

(and 'no' i was never on Apples board, but everything I type on this site is 100% factual).