What did you do with your PowerPC Mac today?

[Knezzen]

So what did you do today with your PowerPC Mac? Be it just fiddling with it, upgrading it or doing something creative with it.

I myself unplugged my MDD, took it to the kitchen table to give it a good clean and move some air flow obstructing cables around, and remove the internal speaker to perhaps create a new route for air flow through the case.

Having done all this and taken some pictures of it (see below), I plugged it in again and pressed the power button. The button lights up for as long as I keep my finger on it, but the machine wont boot. PMU reset button does nothing, so I guess the original since 2002 PMU battery finely kicked the bucket. Just ordered a new battery off eBay and it will arrive next week. So a week without my MDD (my main computer). Hope it goes well. End of rant

[devils_advisor]

Did you hook up a xskey to the internal usb port? Btw remove all the cards and reset the machine again, that helped me last time. The machine should work with or without battery.

[Knezzen]

It's not an xskey but a Usb Bluetooth dongle. Will try more stuff when I get home. Going to Prague to drink beer over the weekend

[mrhappy]

Going to Prague to drink beer over the weekend

A worthy endeavor!! The Czech 'Budweiser' is COMPLETELY different from the US stuff and Much better!!

 

[Knezzen]

A worthy endeavor!! The Czech 'Budweiser' is COMPLETELY different from the US stuff and Much better!!

I have actually never tried any beer made in the US

[devils_advisor]

You go there to have some staropramen, that will knock you out of your socks.

[Knezzen]

You go there to have some staropramen, that will knock you out of your socks.

Its good stuff indeed! You can buy all the Chech beer in Sweden as well, but drinking them in their home country feels much nicer

[MacOS Plus]

Just remember to be careful to never share your beer with your PowerPC Mac.   (Seriously, I actually did spill half a bottle of beer in a PC keyboard before!  It took forever to clean it out completely.)

[dr bu]

Topic.

[IIO]

at least you, bu. nice one.

me... well not much. i was answering a few mails on the mac and then i went back to programming on the window lap - shame over me, but it saves energy, and the mac mini i ordered 5 day ago has not yet arrived at my house.

p.s. oh wait, i also had live 4 OSX open for a minute, to check something technical there.

[dr bu]

VSC 

[IIO]

could have been "acoustic and granular effect" as well.

[FdB]

Got the MDD and the G5 up off the floor and onto the “working table” yesterday and cleaned up all that surrounding chaos. I did install Adobe CS2 on the G5 and rough-tested some Photoshop tasking. (I did not like it.) Funny thing was, the MDD beat the G5 on boot-startup by a mile (using OS X on both at boot). Wondering now what I’ll actually ever do with that G5. May try Photoshop 7 PowerPC install.

Then, moved over to the G3 and did some file clean-up/trashing, getting it ready to be replaced soon by the MDD. Spent the entire day down there picking up, organizing and tossing junk.

Speaking of junk. Delved a little into an old Apple CRT monitor that either the flyback’s gone/going, or completely covered in dust/sludge. Nice bright arc and that wonderful ozone schmell upon attempted startup. Someday maybe, I’ll take the time… most likely however it’ll go to the recyclers along with the rest of my old CRT collection. (Apple discontinued flyback free-fix on that monitor back in 2005.) Big Blue LaCie’s still plugging right along.

Looked into ATI updates to see if I could get the G3 monitor resolution up to par in OS 9 versus OS 10.3.9 -- 1920 x 1080 resolution (for yes, the dreaded LG flat panel). This will be postponed/held up until later this week. New motherboard for G4 DA should arrive today, so that tops the to-do list.

Anyone know the screw/thread size for the old Apple Cinema Display back, lucite leg? Intend to do a temporary fix, drilling up and screwing from the bottom side. Again, not knowing how much life is left in that monitor… not going to invest a lot of time or $$$ on it.

That's..."Fronk-en-steen"

[Knezzen]

I'm at this very moment in the process of reinstalling 9.2.2 on my PowerBook G3 Kanga after it got a 30gb KingSpec SSD. It's amazing how quiet it is now compared to when it had the old original 5GB drive.

[Knezzen]

Just ordered a new battery off eBay and it will arrive next week. So a week without my MDD (my main computer). Hope it goes well. End of rant

PRAM battery arrived today. Just changed it and all is well again. Writing this from the mighty MDD. Now I just need to get the passive graphics card cooler and figure out how to silence my PSU... Onwards against the goal of having the ultimate MDD

[FdB]

Hey-Zeus de-Christo! (Patience is indeed a virtue.) Congratulations Knez.

Czech beer drinking and the ability to simply "give it some time".

[Knezzen]

Just finished installing my new passive Zalman cooler on my GeForce 4 Ti4600.
Works great and fits without any modifications

[mrhappy]

Pretty groovy Knez!!!

[FdB]

Almost posted this elsewhere but I finally found / stumbled upon, this thread again.

Tore down and deep-cleaned an Apple 17” LCD/ADC Studio Display last night. (It looked as if someone had intentionally sprayed coca-cola on the screen and had allowed it to run down into and “cook” behind the bezel). Then, used (now nearly forgotten), *Novus Scratch Remover & Plastic Clean and Shine on the external clear plastic/lucite bits and got it looking pretty good overall. (*Good stuff, always used on motorcycle fairing windscreens and helmet face shields.) Fired it up and all was well… except for many dark “smudgy” areas on the screen’s display when powered up.

I think this monitor had been stored flat on its “back” and possibly with some weight resting upon the screen.

Now, I’m aware of the historic backlight and inverter problems associated with this monitor, but this seems more LCD-screen related. (Identical spots in same positions no matter which machine it’s attached to.)

So now (after all this time - monitor originally built around 2001), I’m wondering about a low-cost source for TFT replacement screens?  (Sorry, just can’t see sinking over $200 on a new screen.) I’ll keep looking. Anyone?

It will work fine as a palette monitor (non-color critical), but it would be nice to find a low-cost source and have a fully functional like-new monitor without the smudges. AND of course, this LCD has yet to develop the overall magenta color shift, so common with monitors of this type.

Yet, if this keeps up I may finally be attempting the (long-avoided and highly-dreaded), CRT discharge and flyback transformer replacement(s) effort… on all the big dead CRTs that I’ve yet to dispose of. (Threatening myself.)

So… what did you do with your PowerPC Mac today?

[Astroman]

if you're familiar with the 17" inverter problem you know that it's strictly area based and as such can tell the difference.
I remember an Apple 15" monitor of similiar built that only got one short hit while beeing transported on a backseat, but this never healed.

My G3 B/W will do it's ProTools TDM job as regular and happily exchanges with the rest of the family via Synology NAS. No problems with handling resource forks whatsoever, appears like a native Apple fileserver.

The Macbook Alu 1ghz 15" will get some rest. Running in a usable way with 2nd screen (Eizo CGW) at 1900x1200, but some flaws:
Network doesn't negotiate and runs 100/half duplex, FW and PC-card dead, and most of all the CPU seems locked at 500 MHZ. Cross-checked with the same app that only taxes the CPU on the G3 and results were nearly identical.
(need to aquire some open firmware knowledge before dugging deeper)