G4 Cube Mystery Video Card Qs

[bunnspecial]

Went to Goodwill today and found another set of Apple Pro Speakers. Ironically, I bought a set off of Amazon for $20 shipped a week prior.

These were $3. The cord length is different, but otherwise work perfectly.

There were two versions of the Pro Speakers. One was intended for use with G4 towers(Digital Audio and later) and has a relatively long cord so that the speakers will comfortably sit on your desk while the tower is on the floor. The other is meant for the iMac G4(I think they shipped with the iMacs) and has a much shorter cord with the idea being it sits right next to the iMac.

 

[Johnny365]

Okay, thanks for the explanation. I guess the one's I bought a week prior are the longer length and the ones today are the short iMac G4 version. Has a slight break in the plastic where it joins the Y split, but nothing some reinforcement tape can fix.

 

[Johnny365]

Got the charger for the iBook G3 Clamshell and....the Clamshell works! Blueberry model.

300Mhz with 64MB Ram built-in, and a 256MB stick inside. 6GB HDD on OS 9.2.2

Edit: Looks like it was last used in 2005.
[doublepost=1464214393][/doublepost]So in case anyone is wondering, this USB Audio Adapter: https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-External-Adapter-Windows-AU-MMSA/dp/B00IRVQ0F8

Works in the G4 Cube to get sound out. It just doesn't have the audible "bong" noise when you first start it up. I tested this on 10.4.11. I do have 9.2 and 10.1 if anyone wants me to test it on those versions as well.

Cheap solution at $5.99. It's the...

Sabrent USB External Stereo Sound Adapter for Windows and Mac. Plug and play No drivers Needed. (AU-MMSA)

 

[0248294]

Not surprised it isn't giving the Mac Bong, the USB device isn't initialized until after that.

 

[Johnny365]

True!

 

[havokalien]

the powered usb port for the speakers should bong. One usb port is high power just for the speakers, and should bong. my turtle beach usb did, i just forget which port is the high power port.

 

[bunnspecial]

the powered usb port for the speakers should bong. One usb port is high power just for the speakers, and should bong. my turtle beach usb did, i just forget which port is the high power port.

As I understand it, any of the ports, including the ones on an attached Cinema display, should be able to switch into "high power" mode to drive the speakers. The key is that I only know for sure that this works with the official Cube speakers. One of my Cubes(in fact my most used one) is currently set up with the 17" ADC CRT and the speakers are plugged into the display. My Griffin iMic(which is a low power device) plugged into any port will give a chime, but I'm using it with externally powered speakers.

I'd guess the reason why the adapter doesn't work that early is because it's dependent on kexts/drivers in the OS that aren't active until the OS loads. Otherwise, it would give a chime.

 

[Johnny365]

So I bought a "Snow" Airport Extreme Base Station (the cone shaped one with dual B/G) for $8 at Goodwill. I set it up as B only so my regular "Airport" devices can connect to it. Everything seems to have worked fine. I can only connect wirelessly to one of my G4 Cubes and the rest, including the iBook Clamshell keep saying invalid password. Why is this?

 

[havokalien]

because its airport extreme. I would guess the cube has OS X then and the rest are classic? The grey saucer with normal airport is the one you want. Also be aware the saucers have actual airport and airport extreme cards in them if you take them apart.

 

[Johnny365]

The only thing I can think of is that the G4 Cube that works with that Airport Base Station is on 10.4.11. The other Cube is 10.1/9.2.2, and iBook Clamshell is 9.2.2

 

[havokalien]

Ya I have issues like that and found only the regular airport base station solves it.

 

[Johnny365]

Figured out how to connect to the iBook Clamshell with the Snow model Airport Base Station. I had to manually configure it via Ethernet and then after writing down the IP/Server address, I copied it to the Airport setup and it works now.

 

[CooperBox]

Cube 1: has 9.2 and 10.1 (discs sometimes get stuck)

This appears to be a common problem with the G4 Cube. I have 3, and only one has the drive which fully ejects a CD/DVD.
I've had the other two apart several times, tried all the possible fixes that I've found on-line, but never succeeded in finding a lasting solution. The two I speak about eject the CD so that no more than 3mm is visible. I then pull the CD out with a pair of tweezers (the ends of which are protected by a few strips of duct-tape).
If anyone has found a foolproof way of rectifying the Cube CD eject mechanism, I'd love to know.

 

[havokalien]

I used an old imac G5 slot drive with spacers , and wiring adapters to replace the aging drive in my cube. Its apple branded and supports burning, and now is replacable as long as they make laptop drives.

cube owner.com talks about this mod.

 

[Gamer9430]

This appears to be a common problem with the G4 Cube. I have 3, and only one has the drive which fully ejects a CD/DVD.
I've had the other two apart several times, tried all the possible fixes that I've found on-line, but never succeeded in finding a lasting solution. The two I speak about eject the CD so that no more than 3mm is visible. I then pull the CD out with a pair of tweezers (the ends of which are protected by a few strips of duct-tape).
If anyone has found a foolproof way of rectifying the Cube CD eject mechanism, I'd love to know.

I got lucky with a misc box of cube accessories to get the Cube's DVD drive board with the connections reversed. On normal cube boards, the connections are reversed so you can't use a normal SuperDrive from, say, a PowerBook G4. However, with a special made board with the connections reversed, you can use any SuperDrive that uses IDE. So I took out the old board and broken DVD drive (same eject issues), and put in the new DLSD ODD and board. I had to set the HDD to Cable Select since unlike the original Cube ODD, the new one didn't have a switch to choose between Master and Slave and was permanently set to CS. So after I did that, i tested it out and it works flawlessly. Disks read, write, and eject perfectly. Not sure where you can get these special boards, but I highly recommend them to aid in fixing the broken eject issues.

 

[Johnny365]

I decided to upgrade the noisy 20GB drive to a 250GB one I had laying around. It's much quieter. Decided to opt for just 10.4 for now. Quite easy to remove the hard drive too.

 

[bunnspecial]

The best thing you can do on a lot of Cube repairs is completely ignore iFixit-a lot of things can be done without the level of disassembly they show. I can change an HDD in about 5 minutes because all I do is unplug the cables, loosen the three heatsink screws, slide the old drive out, and slide the new one in.

In any case, the optical drive is the same as that used in the slot load iMacs, so a dead one of those can be a potential source. In addition, I've bought new(or at least refurbished drives) from WeLoveMacs. They offer a Superdrive upgrade, which I've never broken down and bought(I think it's $100 if you have a DVD and $60 or $70 if you have a CD-RW).

 

[Gamer9430]

I decided to upgrade the noisy 20GB drive to a 250GB one I had laying around. It's much quieter. Decided to opt for just 10.4 for now. Quite easy to remove the hard drive too.

The 250GB HDD works without issues? @LightBulbFun told me there had to be special SMC or OF hacks in order for it to work properly. If not, I'm definitely putting my 250GB WD Caviar in instead of my small 40GB HDD.

 

[Johnny365]

No, you have to partition the main OS as less than 125GB and then install some patch to have the other partition show up the rest of the amount. I just opted to have 125GB max as I won't be using this for much of anything.

 

[Gamer9430]

No, you have to partition the main OS as less than 125GB and then install some patch to have the other partition show up the rest of the amount. I just opted to have 125GB max as I won't be using this for much of anything.

Ah I see, even then it's much better than 40GB!

 

[bunnspecial]

Even in computers with an HDD limit of 128gb, larger drives will work fine without any hacks, tricks, or software drivers. The key is that the drive is only recognized as a 128gb at the most.

Some of you know that I've been dealing with a rather problematic series of G4s at work, and at one point(after a series of hard drive failures) the person in charge of the computers wanted to buy a new hard drive. Absent NOS, I did the best I could do(with what I had on hand) and sold him a sealed 160gb refurb from my inventory. I set the drive up for him, and formatted it at 120gb.

 

[havokalien]

I do the same thing with older performa's but with them you need 2 gb partitions or less also. Never made more than about 8 partitions, but I am sure you could go to 60.

 

[Johnny365]

New issue: Since upgrading the HDD, the system freezes when trying to do system updates. I touch the case and it's incredibly hot. Right now, I have it cooling off, without the cover, in front of my Air Conditioner unit. Could this be the replacement HDD running hotter? (trying to do updates on 10.4 Tiger)

 

[Johnny365]

I think the HDD I put in is faulty or something. It's about 11 years old and had some fairly high usage back in the day in an external enclosure. Applications would pause and freeze, Over Ethernet, I get slightly further in downloading the updates, but they still freeze when trying to install. Going to test another HDD I have.

This other HDD is an 80GB from 2002. Noisy like the stock 20GB in the G4 Cube, but if it runs software update fine, then I know to junk the 250GB HDD.

 

[havokalien]

If you want quiet and cool there are some ide to cf adapters for cheap on eBay or amazon that will go right in. They are fast, silent, dont produce heat like a hard drive and take less power.