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Cube for $20!

68kMLA Hardware 97 posts Aug 20, 2012 to Dec 4, 2012
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#1 Mon, 20 Aug 2012 - 00:48 Cube for $20! — #1
I posted on my local craigslist looking for old macs. While no freebies have come up yet, I have gotten quite a few odd emails. 1 wouldn't take a fair amount for 2 Core Duo Mac Minis for my entertainment room, one said they had an older Mac Mini, but in the second email said his house was broken into a while ago and it was stolen along with some other things and didn't realize it until now. Then I get an email from this lady saying she has 6 older Macs for sale and if I was interested to call and she sent a phone number. She sent me pictures of the computers which were 5 iMac G3 (1 Bondi with tray loading drive), 2 blue PowerMac G3's, and an old CRT Studio Display. I would have boughten the Bondi iMac, but I have no room at the time. So I went to call her back asking if there was anything else. She said she almost forgot about her Cube. When I asked her how much, she responded "$10". My immediate thought was "SCORE!". She said she had the speakers but nothing else for it, and I told her I would come and pick it up the next day. I went down to pick it up, and the Cube was still in a pile of junk in her extra room. I had to dig to get it. Coming out of the mess, I see a flat-screen Studio Display and told her that it would have been the period correct monitor, and she said I could have it for an extra $10. So I bought the Cube, original Studio Display, and broken speakers for $20. Not a bad deal. The Cube even has an AirPort Card in it, so if it doesn't work, I can transplant the card into my eMac.

The bad part is that there is rust looking spots on the top of the Cube on the metal inside the acrylic casing that she said was mold and that it was a common problem. I'm trying to take it apart, but haven't had any luck. No power supply, so I can't test it. Reeks of cigarette smoke. And the main Cube won't stay suspended in the enclosure anymore. I will take some pictures and post them later when I get a chance. For right now I'm just going to sit here drooling over it. :p

#2 Mon, 20 Aug 2012 - 00:54 Cube for $20! — #2
Forgot to mention, she said her brother worked for Apple as a Senior Engineer for about 10 years and thats how she got the Cube.

#3 Mon, 20 Aug 2012 - 01:54 Cube for $20! — #3
UPDATE #1: Was able to remove the "mold" from the Cube's outer shell. Gave everything a good cleaning, but it still smells like smoke. The entire machine cleaned up very well! Minus the scratches on the acrylic, it looks amazing! Going to screw the top back together, and let it dry over night and hopefully get the smell of smoke out of the internals of the machine. Going to take some pictures now to post. BTW: spec tag from the factory reads: 450MHz/1MB Cache/64 MB SD RAM/20 GB HD/DVD ROM/Radeon CRD 10-100T/MDM/Airport Card/Mac OS/KYBD. From this I'm getting a 450 MHz PowerPC G4 processor, 1 MB L2 Cache, 64MB of SD RAM, 20 GB Internal HDD, Radeon Graphics card, AirPort Card, has Mac OS (doesn't say OS X), and original came with a Keyboard.

#5 Mon, 20 Aug 2012 - 03:04 Cube for $20! — #5
UPDATE #2. Done for the night. Wish I would have gotten pictures of the Cube before I cleaned it, and the pile of stuff I had to move around to get to it, the Studio Display, and broken speakers. Yes, I have tested the speakers and they are officially dead. I'm sad about that. My MBP will recognize them and try to play music thru it, but nothing come out of the speakers.

2mmflo3.jpg.eeb5ac19e0c9bbf3af1177c2e1974578.jpg


More pictures will be posted later, but I need to find a quicker way to upload them to a photo sharing website. This photo I uploaded to TinyPic and it only lets me do 1 at a time and I have 9 pictures

#6 Mon, 20 Aug 2012 - 03:07 Cube for $20! — #6
Thanks! The woman had no idea what she had. If I had the space, I would have picked up a few iMacs. In the same room as the Cube I saw 2 G3s on the ground. One in Ruby and one in Indigo.

#8 Mon, 20 Aug 2012 - 07:08 Cube for $20! — #8
Ok, here are the rest of the pictures (I decided to try Flickr):



Front of Machine by 68k TheMacGuy, on Flickr

Front of the Machine



Top After Cleaning by 68k TheMacGuy, on Flickr

Top of the Machine After "Mold" clean up



PowerMac G4 Cube by 68k TheMacGuy, on Flickr

Machine Logos



Worst Scuffs on the Machine by 68k TheMacGuy, on Flickr

Worst of the Scuffs



Front of the Display by 68k TheMacGuy, on Flickr

Front of the Display



Studio Display Logo by 68k TheMacGuy, on Flickr

Studio Display logo



Back of the Display by 68k TheMacGuy, on Flickr

Back of the display after cleaning



Display Plug by 68k TheMacGuy, on Flickr

Display Adapter



Broken Speakers by 68k TheMacGuy, on Flickr

Broken Speakers

#9 Mon, 20 Aug 2012 - 09:07 Cube for $20! — #9
UPDATE #3: Just ordered a genuine PowerMac Cube power adapter and a standard desktop power supply power cable for about $45. Total investment so far: $65. I'm also going to have to buy an older AirPort base station (pre-Extreme) M5757 to get it up on Wi-Fi along with my eMac. Cords should be here any day. Will update when the cables come in.

#10 Mon, 20 Aug 2012 - 10:44 Cube for $20! — #10
I use car wax on the Cube plastics to get them looking great. Gets rid of the small scratches!

#11 Mon, 20 Aug 2012 - 14:51 Cube for $20! — #11
There were small Acrylic Polishing kits available at sign supply stores and acrylic fab shops back in the day. With the correct polishing compounds it should be possible to get rid of fairly bad scratches on the AcryliCubicle.

#13 Mon, 20 Aug 2012 - 18:52 Cube for $20! — #13
I'll try the car wax and the Pludge ideas. I know have some somewhere in my house. Question is, are they still good? Guess we wil find out!

#14 Mon, 20 Aug 2012 - 19:43 Cube for $20! — #14
I believe those speakers only work on G4 powermacs so don't toss them yet. Wait until you have been able to test them with the cube or another powermac g4

#15 Mon, 20 Aug 2012 - 22:01 Cube for $20! — #15
Don't see why they wouldn't work with other computers. They are just USB Speakers that came with the G4 iMac/PowerMacs. The MBP recognizes them, and will push the audio thru the USB port, but no sound comes out of the speakers. Should I try them on my eMac? I know its the Cube or iMac G4, but its a G4 from about the same time period and has both 10.2.8 and 9.2.2 installed.

#16 Mon, 20 Aug 2012 - 23:07 Cube for $20! — #16
Don't toss the speakers!!!.

I believe that the somewhere in the early releases of 10.6 Cube speakers (probably the USB adapter) stop working. Either try them on a 10.5 system, or earlier, but definitely keep them until you can try them on the Cube.

If they don't work at all, may I ask for first salvage rights for the speakers and USB adapter for spare parts for my Cube.

#17 Mon, 20 Aug 2012 - 23:35 Cube for $20! — #17
All right. Going to try it on my eMac running Jaguar (10.2. 8) . Hope it works!

HOLY! THEY WORKED!!!!!!!!!!!! And sounded pretty good too!! Question is, how can I replace the rubber on the outside of the speaker?

#18 Mon, 20 Aug 2012 - 23:51 Cube for $20! — #18
Hurrah!

Did some looking. Looks like Cube USB speakers worked up to 10.6.3. With the 10.6.4 update and they are recognised, but don't do what speakers are supposed to do.

#19 Tue, 21 Aug 2012 - 04:30 Cube for $20! — #19
Looks like Cube USB speakers worked up to 10.6.3.
Click to expand...
These are different than the other kind that plug in to Power Macs with a special jack, right? I thought it would be neat to use these things on a more modern computer (for instance, an Intel Mac Mini), but it requires either cutting out the junction box, splicing the resulting bunch of cables together, or buying a somewhat expensive adapter that has the special jack.
I don't want to do anything destructive, so the adapter would be the way to go, except I don't want to spend that much money on something I probably won't use very much (but who knows?)

Maybe I can keep an eye out for the USB variant. One caveat, however:

With the 10.6.4 update and they are recognised, but don't do what speakers are supposed to do.
Click to expand...
Could that be due to a missing/crippled driver? Perhaps finding the relevant driver file in 10.6.3 and transferring it to a 10.6.4+ install would allow the speakers to work as they should.
c

#21 Tue, 21 Aug 2012 - 05:06 Cube for $20! — #21
If you want to, have a look at http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/apple- ... ost1346059 if you want to convert from the micro jack to a standard 3.5mm
Click to expand...
Hmm. That looks interesting! I didn't realize it was quite that simple.
I have two pairs, the first I'd like to keep as is, because I am currently using them on a Power Mac with the relevant plug, so there's no need to mess with them. The other set's cord is way too short, so this would be an opportunity to lengthen it a bit.

Even more non-destructive would be to figure out some sort of adapter to which one can plug the speakers, and the other end is a standard 3.5mm plug, without any cutting done to the speaker's cord, keeping them completely stock.

I have a dead QuickSilver logic board, so maybe I can figure out how that jack works and use it to make this hypothetical adapter?

c

#22 Tue, 21 Aug 2012 - 05:32 Cube for $20! — #22
I have two pairs, the first I'd like to keep as is, because I am currently using them on a Power Mac with the relevant plug, so there's no need to mess with them. The other set's cord is way too short, so this would be an opportunity to lengthen it a bit.
Click to expand...
The pair with the short cable would've come from an iMac, and the longer cable from a PowerMac. The iMac version's short cable keeps the desktop uncluttered by "excess" cable, but makes it painful for use on a PowerMac.

Finding a commercially available extension cable is going to be difficult, as they weren't easy to find when Apple was selling the ProSpeaker. Best bet is to do a DIY hack to 3.5mm on a spare set of speakers. 2.5mm micro jack extensions are available, but they won't fit the Apple "designed" plug. Hackery is going to be involved somewhere, might as well just go the 3.5mm route.

#23 Tue, 21 Aug 2012 - 05:45 Cube for $20! — #23
The pair with the short cable would've come from an iMac, and the longer cable from a PowerMac.
Click to expand...
I figured as much when I got them, although I speculated that the pair with the short cord came from a cube, but that uses special USB ones. Whatever...
Finding a commercially available extension cable is going to be difficult, as they weren't easy to find when Apple was selling the ProSpeaker.
Click to expand...
I am definitely going to try making my own.
Best bet is to do a DIY hack to 3.5mm on a spare set of speakers. 2.5mm micro jack extensions are available, but they won't fit the Apple "designed" plug. Hackery is going to be involved somewhere, might as well just go the 3.5mm route.
Click to expand...
Right. I was going to take the 2.5mm jack from my dead QS board and use that to attach a longer cord with a 3.5mm plug at the other end, without doing any cutting of the speaker's cable, making it completely reversible.
c

p.s. I'm sorry if I've hijacked this thread.

#24 Tue, 21 Aug 2012 - 06:04 Cube for $20! — #24
I like the QS salvage for the socket, and some heat shrink and Sugru would finish it of nicely.

#26 Tue, 21 Aug 2012 - 07:27 Cube for $20! — #26
Ok, I'm still trying to find away to replace the the rubber around the speaker without having to remove the actual speakers. Main part of the power cord will be here on Wednesday and the 2nd should be here by the beginning for next week (1st being the plug from the computer and the 205W box, Part 2 being the part that looks like a standard desktop power cord that runs from the box to the wall). Guess I'm going to have use some donor parts from my old HP. I could find the original Apple cable, but when I saw an unboxing on YouTube, the cord looked almost like the cord that went the G3 iMac. Either which way, I will be happy (or mad) once I get to chance to test this bad boy. Updates to follow!

#28 Wed, 22 Aug 2012 - 21:33 Cube for $20! — #28
UPDATE #4: Mail came and the only part in it was the 2nd part of the power cord from the 205W box to the wall. Looks like standard desktop tower power cable. I re-read the auction details on the main part of the power cord and it sounds like it comes with the original Apple cord from the converter box to the wall. We will see. It should be here tomorrow. If not, there is something wrong at the post office.

#29 Wed, 22 Aug 2012 - 23:23 Cube for $20! — #29
Wait - did it say "power cord" or "power supply"? The "power cord" would be white with a clear plug. The "power supply" will be the big brick with cheese grater holes in it.

2r4lfyd.jpg.2a02456bfdf25f0c0e5b2f94a2fce205.jpg


#30 Wed, 22 Aug 2012 - 23:53 Cube for $20! — #30
Power supply will be here tomorrow, the 3rd party power cord came today. But after reading the eBay auction for the power supply, it sounds like the original power cord maybe included too.

#31 Thu, 23 Aug 2012 - 00:17 Cube for $20! — #31
Another interesting thing, my Cube says "Assembled in the USA" while others I have seen said "Assembled in Singapore" or something else. Very strange.

#32 Thu, 23 Aug 2012 - 00:23 Cube for $20! — #32
I have an iMac G3 from around that time period that was "Assembled in USA" also. Maybe they were remanufatured?

#33 Thu, 23 Aug 2012 - 00:37 Cube for $20! — #33
I don't know. The Cubes were/are so sparse, I doubt any got remanufactured. Thanks to a serial number decoder, I was able to obtain this info:

Serial number: XA0440***** (covered for protection)

Model Number: M7642

Group1: PowerMac

Group2: G4

Generation: 4

Machine Model: PowerMac5,1

Model introduced: 2000

Production year: 2000

Production week: 44 (November)

Production number: 48 (within this week)

CPU speed: 450MHz

Memory - flavour: PC100-L-100

Memory - maximum total: 1.5GB

Memory - largest module: 512MB

Factory: XA (ElkGrove/Sacramento, California)

The Cube came out in July of 2000, so I think this one was manufactured a little to early to remanufactured or even refurbished.

#35 Thu, 23 Aug 2012 - 01:06 Cube for $20! — #35
I'm confused. When did the plant turn into a refurb factory? That also explains why my refurbed iPad came from an Elk Grove address.

#36 Thu, 23 Aug 2012 - 08:40 Cube for $20! — #36
I have two slot load iMacs -a Summer 2000 and an Early 2001....they were both built in Taiwan. I haven't seen a Mac from Singapore since....the Platinum era? *shrugs*

#37 Thu, 23 Aug 2012 - 09:37 Cube for $20! — #37
I haven't seen a Mac from Singapore since....the Platinum era? *shrugs*
Click to expand...
Weird, very weird.

Anyway, on a (semi) good note, I browsed thru eBay and found the original power cord that runs from the converter box to the wall. Cord is white and the ends are translucent. For $10, I splurged. Total investment is up to $75. Not as much as I would have liked to spend, but still cheaper then the price of a working Cube on eBay. I can return the power supply even if the computer doesn't work and get my $40 back, but I'm stuck with the Apple power cable, but I can use it with an iMac G4. Even if it Cube doesn't work, I'm keeping it. I will feel much better when I know that it either works or doesn't, and its not in my brain 24/7. HOPEFULLY, USPS doesn't mess up again and say that its going to be delivered tomorrow and never does (like today). Typically, (knock on wood) my mail lady comes in the morning, around 10ish. So, I will hopefully know by tomorrow early and won't have to wait all day.

#38 Thu, 23 Aug 2012 - 11:49 Cube for $20! — #38
I have two Cubes - one made in the US, one made in Singapore, so it sounds right.

#39 Thu, 23 Aug 2012 - 18:59 Cube for $20! — #39
UPDATE #4: I think the Cube tried to kill me.

I wake up and sitting on my door step is a Priority Mail shipping box. Seeing how it was San Jose address, I knew it was my Cube power cord. So I grabbed it, and went out to my mailbox to get the mail. I walk in, go get the Cube, monitor, and my eMac's keyboard and mouse and set it up in my kitchen. I plug in the power supply to the Cube, then the power cord to a standard 120W US wall outlet (not a surge protector, straight into the wall). It made a "pop" noise. I tried turning on the monitor, nothing happened. Tried turning on the Cube. Almost instantaneously, I smell this very weird and potent smell, and unplug the power cord from the power supply. As soon as I return to a normal sitting position, the Cube starts emitting a white smoke. 8-o Not wanting to burn down my house, I quickly pull out the power adapter from the Cube, then the monitor cable (ADC cable). What could have caused this? I'm afraid to lift the guts of the machine out of the acrylic case thinking that its going to burst into flames. Please help.

PS: Yes, I'm fine and the Cube didn't cause any harm or damage to me, my friends (who where here) or my house.

#40 Thu, 23 Aug 2012 - 21:45 Cube for $20! — #40
It sounds like it's time to take it apart and look for what's burnt.

#41 Thu, 23 Aug 2012 - 21:51 Cube for $20! — #41
You released the mystic blue smoke.

From my own experience, this is not a good sign. I am crossing my fingers it's a simple problem with a simple solution.

:'(

#42 Thu, 23 Aug 2012 - 22:13 Cube for $20! — #42
If R2-D2 has taught us anything, it's that everything is okay unless you see the magic smoke.

#43 Thu, 23 Aug 2012 - 22:44 Cube for $20! — #43
You released the mystic blue smoke.
Click to expand...
Steve put it in there. :beige: A friend who owns a computer shop says he can do a tear down diagnosis for $35 and can put the money towards the repair. I'm think I'm going to do it myself. We'll see.

#44 Thu, 23 Aug 2012 - 23:52 Cube for $20! — #44
I'm doing the repair myself. Good experience. Anyway, I went to take the pillars out and one looks burned. Upon further investigation, its the pillar next the VRM, and it looks like the VRM has a couple little white and yellow boxes puffing out. Anyone have a spare board?

#47 Fri, 24 Aug 2012 - 05:31 Cube for $20! — #47
UPDATE #5: Tore apart most of the Cube, down to the logic board (backside of the processor). The poor thing has (what I originally thought was soda) coffee all over the inside. I had a hard time trying to reinstall the RAM, as slot #3's (farthest in away from the edge) RAM holders have dried coffee in them. The HDD and RAM were upgraded. Originally, from the factory, it would have had 20GB HDD and 64MB of RAM. It has currently a 80GB Western Digital HDD, and 1.5 GB of RAM. With these specs, I'm guessing the lady I bought it from bought it second-hand, now I bought it third-hand. If the lady would have cared more about the machine, I would have said I was the second owner. But who ever had this machine originally, cared about it.

Coffee stains:



Coffee & RAM by 68k TheMacGuy, on Flickr



More Coffee by 68k TheMacGuy, on Flickr

On the worse side, the video riser card fried. I'm guessing thats what smoked. Now up to 2 boards I have to replace, the DC to DC board (VRM) and the video riser card. Here are the pictures of it fried:



Riser Card is fried 2 by 68k TheMacGuy, on Flickr



Riser Card is fried by 68k TheMacGuy, on Flickr

#49 Fri, 24 Aug 2012 - 06:53 Cube for $20! — #49
Are you sure that's coffee? Based on your earlier pics, it's probably smoker's tar. If it is definately coffee and never cleaned up, it's most likely corroded away parts of the motherboard and is not repairable. I'd be really wary even if you repair/replace the VRM that it will smoke out just as quickly once again.

Same goes with the video riser board - that's a fairly simple part (it just reroutes the video connector right angles, more or less), that shouldn't fail unless something is seriously up with the motherboard itself. Be wary. Cube motherboards are pretty cheap now, I'd consider replacing that before all else (+ VRM which looks toasted, I don't think that'll be repairable). Resoldering the things that have "popped" off the board will most likely release more of the magic smoke ... what has popped off (tantalum caps, and ?) is not normal for a plain VRM failure (usually it's the MOSFETs that fail on these, and just the VRM fails, not everything else going all toasty).

#50 Fri, 24 Aug 2012 - 08:08 Cube for $20! — #50
Are you sure that's coffee? Based on your earlier pics, it's probably smoker's tar.
Click to expand...
Tell you truth, I have absolutely no idea. No one in my family has every really smoked. It could be this "tar" but on the aluminum pieces in the Cube, the residue looks like a brown drop. I mean it is EVERYWHERE. If it is coffee, I guess its time to look for a donor machine.

#51 Fri, 24 Aug 2012 - 08:09 Cube for $20! — #51
I don't have a soldering station, but I quick trip to my dads and I'm pretty sure he does.

#52 Fri, 24 Aug 2012 - 14:49 Cube for $20! — #52
Sadly, I learned the hard way about coffee last night; tried to fix an old Apple Design Keyboard only to find that the coffee had completely etched the traces off the laminate. Bummer.

If you are set on repairing instead of replacing (GOOD ON YOU!!) I shouldn't think it would harm it to drop the board into a plastic container of isopropyl alcohol and try to just generally clean any debris and residue off the board before trying to remove/replace those caps, would it?

#53 Fri, 24 Aug 2012 - 16:54 Cube for $20! — #53
Remember that alcohol doesn't do much good on sugar-based goo so if that "coffee" was some Starbucks abomination, warm water would be a better cleaning agent.

#54 Fri, 24 Aug 2012 - 17:18 Cube for $20! — #54
Ah yes this I hadnt considered.

Hey would warm soapy water be okay if I rinsed the soap residue after?

How long do you let your boards dry after rinsing them? I've always figured as long as possible, but isn't there a chane of oxidizing things? Do you towel dry them?

#55 Fri, 24 Aug 2012 - 17:41 Cube for $20! — #55
Personally, when I use water I get at it with a soft toothbrush then blow it out with compressed air. I check it again in a day or two with more air to be sure that everything is dry. If it needs it, I'll follow up with some cotton swabs and alcohol.

#56 Fri, 24 Aug 2012 - 18:41 Cube for $20! — #56
Thanks for all the help. I'm serious, thank you. My Cube may just live again!

If you are set on repairing instead of replacing (GOOD ON YOU!!)
Click to expand...
Thats the plan. So far 2 boards are going to need to be replaced, video riser and VRM (DC to DC) board. The soldering for the broken piece for the VRM board is so small, it's going to be tuff. And the video riser board, well, that's damaged beyond repair. The board is chard around the chip that caught fire. The side of the logic board facing away from the DVD drive looks good, minor to no repairs needed. Guess it was good I pulled the plug out immediately after the smoke started.

But for this weekend, I'm going to take a break, relax, and come back to the Cube on Monday or Tuesday. For now, all the parts I took out are in anit-static bags stored below the Cube in the acrylic casing (good place to put it until I get it running).

#57 Fri, 31 Aug 2012 - 22:50 Cube for $20! — #57
Ok, about to start repairing again. I've just been so lazy over the past couple of days. :D Lets see what we find. I will try and remember to take pictures.

On a better note, my iCEO plush Steve Jobs look-a-like by Throwboy should be here today, and we all know how Steve loved the Cube!

#58 Fri, 31 Aug 2012 - 23:54 Cube for $20! — #58
Ok, finished for the day. Its to hot in Southern California, and I don't want my sweat dropping into the computer. Its hot even with A/C! Logic board is out, nothing looks to serious. I will take a closer look tomorrow. The only things left in the shell are the CD drive, main Heat sink, and AirPort antennas. Also, my Throwboy Steve came right in the middle of the logic board coming out. Weird timing. Anyway, I got number 300 of 1200! Even number! Going on top of my 512kE.

#60 Fri, 7 Sep 2012 - 01:11 Cube for $20! — #60
To get rid of scuffs/scratches on plastic, you must use Novus 1, 2, and 3.

#61 Thu, 15 Nov 2012 - 08:53 Cube for $20! — #61
Well, to sum up so far:

DC-to-DC board has blown "capacitor" (at least I think its that)

Video Riser card is (for the most part) FRIED

What ever the liquid was it is EVERYWHERE

I still don't know what the liquid inside was, but nothing looks like its starting to deteriorate. The Cube has been fully reassembled in unworking condition. But I hope to someday have it up and running with its original specs. For now its just going to sit on a shelf as a collectable while I wait for parts to fix it. I have a local Apple Certified service center on the look out for the parts.

#62 Thu, 15 Nov 2012 - 10:38 Cube for $20! — #62
I have a local Apple Certified service center on the look out for the parts.
Click to expand...
Why? You can get replacement parts on eBay - especially these parts - cheap and readily available.

#64 Sat, 24 Nov 2012 - 20:40 Cube for $20! — #64
Well, I have some new parts on order for the Cube that I got off the 'Bay. Logic, Video, Video Riser, and the 450MHz processor boards, as well as new RAM. I also bought from another guy a VRM board, so this will be a complete internal overhaul. I was wondering though, is it was possible to make the software recognize the Cube's original serial, rather then the serial on the new Logic Board?

#65 Sat, 24 Nov 2012 - 21:26 Cube for $20! — #65
I would say off hand no. Serial number is normally set in hardware as to be identified if stolen and the like.

#66 Sun, 25 Nov 2012 - 00:45 Cube for $20! — #66
What about when Apple installs a new logic board into an old computer? It keeps the same serial number, but has a new logic board.

#67 Sun, 25 Nov 2012 - 01:05 Cube for $20! — #67
Oh that? That's just written in blue ink on a piece of masking tape on the bottom of the board! ;)

#68 Sun, 25 Nov 2012 - 02:22 Cube for $20! — #68
All logic boards I have had replaced have always changed the serial in OS X. Has that not been anyone else's experience?

#69 Sun, 25 Nov 2012 - 02:24 Cube for $20! — #69
That only being two tho. G3 B&w and I lamp iMac due to a port dying from ele trivial surge from storm.

#70 Sun, 25 Nov 2012 - 03:28 Cube for $20! — #70
All logic boards I have had replaced have always changed the serial in OS X. Has that not been anyone else's experience?
Click to expand...
Not when I have had it replaced by Apple. When a private person does it, then that would change the serial. But with an Apple-Replaced logic board, it stays whatever the Serial was when you bought the computer.

#71 Sun, 25 Nov 2012 - 04:33 Cube for $20! — #71
Maybe imac600 can confirm but I believe when an Apple Service Tech uses an Apple Service spare logic board, it comes with a blank serial. There is a serial change utility they use to "burn" a number to the board. The utility only works wih a blank board and cannot be used to change the serial number on an old board.

#72 Sun, 25 Nov 2012 - 04:43 Cube for $20! — #72
That makes since. Thanks mcdermd!

With the Holidays, I probably won't be able to work again on the Cube until after Christmas. With the logic board will be 1GB of RAM, and I ordered 4 512MB sticks of Kingston PC133 RAM for the Cube and eMac.

#73 Sun, 25 Nov 2012 - 18:44 Cube for $20! — #73
Just FYI the cube is pretty finicky about ram in my experience. I had a bunch of ram, after huge swapping and restarting finally got three sticks of 133 512 mb sticks it would like. It seemed to hate non apple hard disks. Of course going over the 120 gig deal was interesting road block to hit. Got a DVD Rw out of a dead G5 iMac and with mount kit and IDE adaptor with pin 40 removal trick thing works like a dream. Found a 32 meg card to put in for super cheap so it can sport the big ADC display. All in all very "prissy" little machine. I wish processor upgrades for it were not so expensive. I'd love to try 10.5.8 on it.

#75 Sun, 25 Nov 2012 - 19:18 Cube for $20! — #75
I believe there is. Who ever the last owner was maxed it out. 1.5GB of RAM and 120GB WD HDD. RAM and HDD are soaked in whatever liquid was spilled on the Cube. Maybe I should throw the RAM in the dishwasher. VRM and Video Riser are goners.

#76 Sun, 25 Nov 2012 - 19:30 Cube for $20! — #76
I'd wash it all unless you see burn marks you may never know.

#78 Wed, 28 Nov 2012 - 23:25 Cube for $20! — #78
The interrupt/reset button board looks like it has the liquid all over it. Can I run the Cube with out it and is there a way to clean it?

#79 Wed, 28 Nov 2012 - 23:30 Cube for $20! — #79
Ran it under water and scrubbed it with a brush. Looks better. I think I'm going to install the logic board today as it came it earlier then I thought.

#80 Wed, 28 Nov 2012 - 23:50 Cube for $20! — #80
Was that thing in a flood? Or do you mean the power switch?

#81 Thu, 29 Nov 2012 - 00:18 Cube for $20! — #81
I have no idea. I think something was spilled on top of it.

All the parts came today! Heres a complete list from order #1:

ATI Rage 128 card

DC-to-DC board with HDD and Disk Drive power cable

Video Riser card (with cables)

PRAM battery holder and original Battery

Logic Board

Ethernet board

Modem board

1GB of RAM (2x 512MB sticks)

450MHz PPC G4 Processor card

Order #2:

2GB of RAM (4x 512MB sticks) for eMac and Cube.

New Batteries for eMac and Cube are on their way.

Total part investment for Cube: $105

Total Investment: $165

#82 Thu, 29 Nov 2012 - 05:35 Cube for $20! — #82
Well, the display works. I plugged in the ADC cable and the Power Cable. The power button turned white. Display power light turned yellow, and a little folder with a blinking "?" and Finder.

"IT WORKED!!!!!".

Now, to find a install discs.

#83 Thu, 29 Nov 2012 - 21:09 Cube for $20! — #83
Just FYI the cube is pretty finicky about ram in my experience. I had a bunch of ram, after huge swapping and restarting finally got three sticks of 133 512 mb sticks it would like.
Click to expand...
I bought 4 512MB Kingston PC-133 sticks, I put one in last night, it was fine. Tried it this morning, didn't want to boot. Removed the new RAM and it booted fine.

#84 Thu, 29 Nov 2012 - 23:16 Cube for $20! — #84
Yep had the same issue. Also switching from OS 9 to OS X changed what ram it liked also. Funny huh.

#85 Fri, 30 Nov 2012 - 16:59 Cube for $20! — #85
It seemed to hate non apple hard disks. Of course going over the 120 gig deal was interesting road block to hit.
Click to expand...
Do you know what kind of HDDs it does likes? It turns out the HDD is dead.

#86 Fri, 30 Nov 2012 - 18:46 Cube for $20! — #86
It just IDE but anything less than 120 gigs should work. The jumper setting seemed to be an issue as some drives need to be set as master and some as cable select. Just start off cd after installing, use disk utility to format then install. While you have it all apart I suggest adding a whisper quiet fan mod. ADC issues seem to hurt the cube a lot. That 28 volts just waiting just stress that machine for no reason. Even while asleep so when not in use I turn mine off.

#87 Fri, 30 Nov 2012 - 19:58 Cube for $20! — #87
So don't use the ADC monitor? Also, does anyone know why it's so finicky with RAM? Kingston PC-133 didn't work.

#88 Fri, 30 Nov 2012 - 21:52 Cube for $20! — #88
Try of 100 stuff, found that worked better. Doesn't matter wether you have an ADC monitor hooked up its still pulling the 28 volts. That's the issue. Also the power supply is external and has no fan so that's always a high failure issue. Again all this is why I turn the machine off when not in use.

#89 Fri, 30 Nov 2012 - 22:29 Cube for $20! — #89
I was choosing between the eMac and Cube to put on my new work desk (even though I'm going to live here for maybe another year) and choose the eMac. Good thing I only paid $15 for the RAM, as the guy has no returns > :( . Any particular brand of RAM?

#90 Fri, 30 Nov 2012 - 23:57 Cube for $20! — #90
Pc133 in theory is supposed to work, but again the cube is a low power strange bird. I have piles of 256 stuff I tried and the PC100 stuff worked more often than the 133.

#91 Sat, 1 Dec 2012 - 05:40 Cube for $20! — #91
I wonder why it is so finicky. Is it something to do with the firmware or the actual physical hardware?

#92 Mon, 3 Dec 2012 - 21:28 Cube for $20! — #92
There is a possibility that the IDE cable is dead. I tried running the 10.0.3 installer and it won't recognize the original HDD or the replace I got today. I switched out the power cable to be safe, but that didn't fix the problem, but it does work because the disk drive spins up on boot up. Now that the big stuff is out of the way, it's just time for the little stuff.

#93 Mon, 3 Dec 2012 - 22:18 Cube for $20! — #93
Ok first does the DVD drive look original ( twice thickness of a laptop thinner than a full sized drive. Should also have an adapter board screwed to it to attack normal power and IDE cable. If its not its possibly set to master, if that's possible snap off pin 40 to create a cables select option, then make sure hard drive is set to master. Then try to boot. That's hat I had to do when I mounted a laptop DVD drive in mine to make it boot, and be able to boot from OS disk in DVD drive. Most laptop drives are apparently set to master and when directly plugged into the IDE cable confuse it, snapping pin 40 off fixes it. No jumper or jumper set to master for the hard drive, try it both ways while booting from cd, run disk utility or you won't see it because probably not Mac formatted yet (silly right). Hopefully I'm helping?

Good luck

#94 Tue, 4 Dec 2012 - 00:50 Cube for $20! — #94
Yes the disk drive is original but it doesn't work. It makes a sound when starting, but nothing else. mcdermd is getting me one for the iMac that will work. What pin do I cut or where do I move the jumper?

#95 Tue, 4 Dec 2012 - 01:37 Cube for $20! — #95
The pin would be on the disk drive, just look up cable select 40 pin fix on any search and it should one right up. As for the hard drive jumpers, the cable select, master, slave pins should be marked or labeled near the cable and power plugs on the drive.

#96 Tue, 4 Dec 2012 - 06:15 Cube for $20! — #96
Well, the original HDD works. I read over everything on the label and it said to move the jumper to a certain spot to put in into cable-select. I did that, put the Cube back together and booted with the option key down to try and install 10.0.3. When I did that, low-and-behold the internal drive showed up with some random name. Clicked on it, booted to it, and it came up running 10.4.11 Tiger but had some very, very, very, VERY GROSS pictures on it. I really don't want to go into details.

ANYWAY, booting into 10.4 now to wipe the drive. Hope to install 10.0.3 soon.

#97 Tue, 4 Dec 2012 - 23:15 Cube for $20! — #97
Well, it didn't like the fact I tried to install 10.0.3, but it had no problem with 10.4! Infact, guess how I am typing this? I have it hooked up to a spare AirPort Express via Ethernet. It runs very well! The only problem, I left it inactive for about 2 minutes, and it turned off on me. At least it works!