Cube for $20!

#91 Sat, 1 Dec 2012 - 05:40

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!