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Local Power Mac G4 AGP Graphics!

68kMLA PowerPC 93 posts Jun 26, 2007 to Jun 30, 2007
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#1 Tue, 26 Jun 2007 - 16:31 Local Power Mac G4 AGP Graphics! — #1
I've pretty much won a Power Mac G4 on eBay. It must me an AGP graphics because it's a 450mhz single. My highest bid is much higher than what it's at and nobody looks very interested. I've gotten this mac to run Leopard once it is released. Before then, it will run Panther. I have two extra 64mb RAMs for it. I'll see what combo they used to put in 512mb of RAM. I'll also be running OS 9 as a dual-boot on it.

#2 Tue, 26 Jun 2007 - 17:15 Local Power Mac G4 AGP Graphics! — #2
It looks like 2x256mbs, but you shouldn't have posted the auction here..I've made that mistake before and then have been out bid by 68kmla members.

#5 Tue, 26 Jun 2007 - 20:08 Local Power Mac G4 AGP Graphics! — #5
I hope you're not bidding too high. I found this excellent buy.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Apple-PowerMac-G4-733MHz-1GB-25GB-CD-RW-OS-9-2_W0QQitemZ260131094776QQihZ016QQcategoryZ14912QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

A 733 Digital Audio is better than a 733 Quicksilver because the 733 in the QS has no cache. I'd grab this if I didn't already have one.

A little lower on the price scale and another really nice Digital Audio

http://cgi.ebay.com/PowerMac-G4-533MHz-512-60GB-DVD-CDRW-Combo-OS-10-4_W0QQitemZ120136139552QQihZ002QQcategoryZ51034QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

#8 Tue, 26 Jun 2007 - 20:15 Local Power Mac G4 AGP Graphics! — #8
Don't be fooled by the fact that the bid price is very low with only a few hours to go, thinking that you'll get a bargain - often the price jumps from next-to-nothing right up very high at some point in the last hour or so (not necessarily the last few seconds, but sometimes then, and sometimes half an hour before the end or something like that).

#23 Tue, 26 Jun 2007 - 22:01 Local Power Mac G4 AGP Graphics! — #23
NO I didn't hence the winking smiley face.

While I love adding machines and cards to my collection, I allways try to not get greedy so others can have a chance at them. There have been a few times I could have snagged a large lot on this forum but I just snagged a couple items so others could get some as well.

In general it is probably not a good idea to link to auctions here that you plan on bidding on. I link to items that are great deals that I don't want (already have it or budget is blown for the month etc).

#31 Tue, 26 Jun 2007 - 22:28 Local Power Mac G4 AGP Graphics! — #31
If your willing to spend a bit more, you might want to try a snipe service, even for a couple more dollars to say, $80. It'll throw people off who bid in the last 10 seconds.

#49 Wed, 27 Jun 2007 - 01:45 Local Power Mac G4 AGP Graphics! — #49
You've got it already? 8-o Did you sprint over there as soon as the auction ended or something?! :p

What OSes have you tried so far?

#54 Wed, 27 Jun 2007 - 02:08 Local Power Mac G4 AGP Graphics! — #54
Still, he must have been surprised that you wanted to come minutes after the end of the auction! Anyway, Panther must be nearly done now? (the one advantage of a G4 Mac over a G3: it doesn't take a week to get OS X to successfully install! :p )

#55 Wed, 27 Jun 2007 - 02:23 Local Power Mac G4 AGP Graphics! — #55
Actually, I just started it. My monitor cable is so short that it took a lot of time

to get it to stay in. But now it started and it's going really fast. It has a huge speed difference from my old iBook G3.

#56 Wed, 27 Jun 2007 - 02:32 Local Power Mac G4 AGP Graphics! — #56
It has a huge speed difference from my old iBook G3.
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*looks away* Don't say that!! iBook G3s feel really fast to me, and beige towers even faster, don't shatter my illusions and tell me that actually they're slow for Macs these days! :p ;)

#58 Wed, 27 Jun 2007 - 03:35 Local Power Mac G4 AGP Graphics! — #58
Panther has been installed. It's really fast. It let me choose 2xxx x something as my resolution if I wanted, but everything above 1204 x 768 on this 20" Trinitron CRT is too tiny and morphed to possibly read.

#62 Wed, 27 Jun 2007 - 05:34 Local Power Mac G4 AGP Graphics! — #62
Yes, it has a Rage 128 AGP. I'm going to install Mac OS 9 as a side dish. With

a G4 and 640mb of RAM, it's going to be amazingly fast in OS 9!

#64 Wed, 27 Jun 2007 - 14:12 Local Power Mac G4 AGP Graphics! — #64
Just so you know, the Rage 128 is the most basic video card for the G4 Powermacs. While it will probably handle most things fine, it won't be blazing fast and only has 16mb of memory so if you plan to do a lot of gaming or GPU intensive applications, you'll probably be looking for an upgrade soon. The 9800 Pro Mac Edition was the fastest official chipset for these machines. There are PC cards that can be flashed, though. I have a flashed Radeon 9700 in mine and it works great, but you will need an extension cable with a mini power connector as the AGP slot doesn't provide enough power for a nice graphics card.

#65 Wed, 27 Jun 2007 - 16:29 Local Power Mac G4 AGP Graphics! — #65
I don't care about graphics because my Sony Trinitron makes everything look completely terrible. My Trinitron makes all blacks look green, and everything looks wiggly when it's at all near the edges.

#68 Wed, 27 Jun 2007 - 17:19 Local Power Mac G4 AGP Graphics! — #68
Time for a new monitor then, yes?
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I'd get one if I could, but I just spent all my money on my magical G4 Server. I've gotten the wigglies to mostly go away. The green tinge was a problem with all Trinitrons in TVs and Monitors, but the recall for all of those things is long gone. The green isn't as noticeable as it was on our old performa and TV.

I haven't been able to get OS 9 on it because it came with 9.0.4 with a unique Mac OS ROM. My 9.0.4 isn't special. Sometime, I'll get a 9.1 or 9.2 CD. I'm actually keeping the monitor at a super high resolution because it makes the problems less noticable.

#69 Wed, 27 Jun 2007 - 17:27 Local Power Mac G4 AGP Graphics! — #69
Get a cheap monitor from a thrift store in the meantime. The local TS by me has a 21" HP mammoth monitor with BNC connections+VGA, yours might have something similar :/

#72 Wed, 27 Jun 2007 - 17:53 Local Power Mac G4 AGP Graphics! — #72
There's CRTs (and decent ones too eg 17" or 19") literally every day on Freecycle in this part of the world, now that no-one wants them - isn't there anything in your area?

#73 Wed, 27 Jun 2007 - 17:56 Local Power Mac G4 AGP Graphics! — #73
After being a member of Freecycle for a year, the only computer item was a Packard Bell with Windows 98. I quit Freecycle after that since I knew nothing

I want would ever be on it.

#74 Wed, 27 Jun 2007 - 18:07 Local Power Mac G4 AGP Graphics! — #74
a Packard Bell with Windows 98
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Nice! :p ;)

I quit Freecycle after that since I knew nothing I want would ever be on it.
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You can get some really good stuff on there, you should have stuck at it - sometimes it can go for ages with nothing good and then suddenly a real gem appears :) I'd be surprised if there's no CRTs on there, given how many there seem to be round here!

#75 Wed, 27 Jun 2007 - 18:13 Local Power Mac G4 AGP Graphics! — #75
You don't see many computer things around here. I actually wanted the Packard Bell just to see what it was like, but someone claimed it a few minutes after it came up.

There actually was a 15" CRT at one point, but it was something like SuperBrand so I assumed that it was a generic junk monitor.

#76 Wed, 27 Jun 2007 - 18:15 Local Power Mac G4 AGP Graphics! — #76
I know about monitor problems. I have a Dell P991 (which is Sony inside) and the blacks look purple and I can see diagonal lines on the screen. I read that a resistor soldered to the back of a board that connects to the CRT will fix it, but I have so much to do I can't find the time to do it.

#77 Wed, 27 Jun 2007 - 19:04 Local Power Mac G4 AGP Graphics! — #77
I actually wanted the Packard Bell just to see what it was like, but someone claimed it a few minutes after it came up.
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Yeah it tends to be like that here too, where you have to be very quick to get anything half-decent. Chances are it wouldn't actually be that bad - it was probably good enough to run XP.

There actually was a 15" CRT at one point, but it was something like SuperBrand so I assumed that it was a generic junk monitor.
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Urgh, it was probably one of those nasty old ones that's really curved, has a very low refresh rate and resolution, and is all manky and yellowed :p Reminds me why I love my Apple LCDs :)

#78 Thu, 28 Jun 2007 - 03:04 Local Power Mac G4 AGP Graphics! — #78
Urgh, it was probably one of those nasty old ones that's really curved, has a very low refresh rate and resolution, and is all manky and yellowed :p Reminds me why I love my Apple LCDs :)
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*hugs Apple 20" studio display* :-p

#86 Thu, 28 Jun 2007 - 23:47 Local Power Mac G4 AGP Graphics! — #86
oh honeydews!
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You rang?
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Hehe, not Bunsen Honeydew! "Oh honeydews" is what you say when you're in deep-doggie-doo-doo. :p

I just bought an IBM E54. It's smaller than the Trinitron, but it's much much lighter and the colors are very crisp. I got it for only 26.50 including tax! :b&w:

*hugs E54*

#87 Fri, 29 Jun 2007 - 04:29 Local Power Mac G4 AGP Graphics! — #87
Almost all of my non-Apple monitors are Dell rebranded Trinitrons that I pick up from thrift stores around the area. Most of them I get have the same color problems where blacks appear green or sometimes purple. I've found that the "Color Return" feature of these monitors (I'm not sure if it's on other Trinitrons or not) works miracles.

If you open up the settings menu, go down to "Color" and choose "Color Return," most of the time, the color problems will go away automatically and a beautiful true color image is restored. You have to wait at least 30 minutes though for the monitor to warm-up before trying the color return, but the control panel will tell you when it's able to perform the color return.

Additionally, I've had good luck with creating ColorSync profiles that compensate as necessary for weird hues found in older monitors.

And finally, some of these monitors don't have built-in VGA cables. The Dell 21-incher I use as a second screen on my PowerBook is like that, and I just pulled a cheap VGA cable out of a box I had lying around of them. Bad choice. I thought the monitor was just old and getting fuzzy and blurry. When I rearranged my office, I swapped cables for a much thicker, nicer cable and all of the color and blur problems went away. The lesson here is cheap cables produce a cheap picture, so when you have a monitor with a removable cable, get a nice quality VGA cable to attach to it.

#88 Fri, 29 Jun 2007 - 04:49 Local Power Mac G4 AGP Graphics! — #88
I tried everything and the monitor was hopeless. There wasn't a color return option on my monitor. The cable was attatched. Every color turned green, not just black as before. I guess I would call it greenscale, very unpleasant. Our old TV and Performa Monitor both had trinitrons back when we had those. They had to be repaired.

Repairing would cost more than buying a monitor, so I bought my IBM. The place I bought it from even gave me free recycling on my green 78 pound beast. My new E54 looks very good. Its cable is permanently attatched, but the cable is high quality. IBM seems to be excellent making monitors.

#89 Fri, 29 Jun 2007 - 06:00 Local Power Mac G4 AGP Graphics! — #89
Almost all of my non-Apple monitors are Dell rebranded Trinitrons that I pick up from thrift stores around the area. Most of them I get have the same color problems where blacks appear green or sometimes purple. I've found that the "Color Return" feature of these monitors (I'm not sure if it's on other Trinitrons or not) works miracles.
If you open up the settings menu, go down to "Color" and choose "Color Return," most of the time, the color problems will go away automatically and a beautiful true color image is restored. You have to wait at least 30 minutes though for the monitor to warm-up before trying the color return, but the control panel will tell you when it's able to perform the color return.

Additionally, I've had good luck with creating ColorSync profiles that compensate as necessary for weird hues found in older monitors.

And finally, some of these monitors don't have built-in VGA cables. The Dell 21-incher I use as a second screen on my PowerBook is like that, and I just pulled a cheap VGA cable out of a box I had lying around of them. Bad choice. I thought the monitor was just old and getting fuzzy and blurry. When I rearranged my office, I swapped cables for a much thicker, nicer cable and all of the color and blur problems went away. The lesson here is cheap cables produce a cheap picture, so when you have a monitor with a removable cable, get a nice quality VGA cable to attach to it.
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My SONY 19" 420GS has a factory restore button that does the same thing (and you do have to wait for it to warm up for 30 minutes to get to that option).

#90 Fri, 29 Jun 2007 - 06:08 Local Power Mac G4 AGP Graphics! — #90
Even if it had that option, I doubt the green would go away since that had to be repaired on two other things. Either way, the wiggly distortion would probably still be there. I saw some Dell trinitrons when I got the IBM. They were $55, much more expensive and wasn't in the mood for another trinitron.

#91 Fri, 29 Jun 2007 - 16:30 Local Power Mac G4 AGP Graphics! — #91
Almost all of my non-Apple monitors are Dell rebranded Trinitrons that I pick up from thrift stores around the area. Most of them I get have the same color problems where blacks appear green or sometimes purple. I've found that the "Color Return" feature of these monitors (I'm not sure if it's on other Trinitrons or not) works miracles.
If you open up the settings menu, go down to "Color" and choose "Color Return," most of the time, the color problems will go away automatically and a beautiful true color image is restored. You have to wait at least 30 minutes though for the monitor to warm-up before trying the color return, but the control panel will tell you when it's able to perform the color return.

Additionally, I've had good luck with creating ColorSync profiles that compensate as necessary for weird hues found in older monitors.

And finally, some of these monitors don't have built-in VGA cables. The Dell 21-incher I use as a second screen on my PowerBook is like that, and I just pulled a cheap VGA cable out of a box I had lying around of them. Bad choice. I thought the monitor was just old and getting fuzzy and blurry. When I rearranged my office, I swapped cables for a much thicker, nicer cable and all of the color and blur problems went away. The lesson here is cheap cables produce a cheap picture, so when you have a monitor with a removable cable, get a nice quality VGA cable to attach to it.
Click to expand...
I've tried the color return trick on mine. It seems I have one of the few it doesn't work on. :-/

I also read about a cable and interface you can build and software you can download to change the settings of the monitor internally to compensate the way a Sony technician would, but that seems like too much trouble.

#92 Fri, 29 Jun 2007 - 20:56 Local Power Mac G4 AGP Graphics! — #92
The tech software is expensive. There is only so much you can do in software, it is for fine tuning adjustments and will not fix dying electronics.