G3 mobo ?

#1 Sun, 14 Sep 2008 - 20:26

Will a beige g3 mobo run without a personality card installed?

#2 Sun, 14 Sep 2008 - 21:37

I've never tried, honestly. Probably because I always wanted it to have one, usually the Wings card.

Anyway, the way those things are designed, the Personality Card slot is essentially a PCI card (with a separate PCI channel for the modem). Since it's designed to be interchangeable with at least three separate cards, there's nothing on any one card that's required to be present for the Mac to run.

I can't guarantee that the machine will boot and work like it should, but it won't explode or anything; at most it just won't boot. If it does boot, it may be a little screwy: no Macs are supposed to be missing the audio section, so software might get a little confuzzled, especially under OS 9.

Don't think about trying this on an AIO, though, because those use the personality card for video passthru and display control.

#3 Sun, 14 Sep 2008 - 23:10

It will in OSX, but OS9 requires it for audio as Franklinstein said. I think it gives some sort of error about audio hardware on boot, but I can't remember for sure.

#4 Fri, 19 Sep 2008 - 23:47

Why do you want to run the G3 without the personality card?

#5 Sat, 20 Sep 2008 - 01:03

Why do you want to run the G3 without the personality card?

Because then it would be like a mega church.

#6 Sat, 20 Sep 2008 - 02:30

Are they like the PDS cards that need a terminator installed if nothing is connected?

#7 Sat, 20 Sep 2008 - 07:47

It will in OSX, but OS9 requires it for audio as Franklinstein said. I think it gives some sort of error about audio hardware on boot, but I can't remember for sure.

Always comes with with "Bus Error" on my G3 DT under OS 9. Mac OS X it has no issues booting without the card fitted.