I finally got one...

[ScreenSavers]

So, first of all, I've been wanting one of these for a few years, but never actually got one, and I've seen them become more collectable, so I figured I was done waiting...

Secondly, I have an iMac G3, iMac G4, a bunch of Clamshell and Snow iBooks, a Titanium PowerBook G4, a bunch of Mac Mini G4s, and a Power Mac G4 (AGP Graphics) tower. (And those are only the PowerPC Macs!)

So, obviously, most of you probably know what's missing from that era...The Power Mac G4 Cube!

I've been waiting for one to come up on eBay for a long time now, and I like a good project, so when an untested one came up for $150+$30 of shipping, I couldn't keep myself from offering $90, which the seller accepted. I also had to pay a good chunk for the power supply separately. The cube finally came today.

It arrived in really bad condition. The "inside" portion of the cube was out, and the top plate which has the power button board had stayed inside the case, so the 5 pin connector for the touch power button had ripped right off the board. There was no Hard drive, tons of screws were missing, the heatsink was floating loose in the logic board area, and the DVD drive didn't (and still doesn't) work. It was also really dirty.

After about three hours of cleaning, soldering the connector, upgrades, and finding screws, it actually worked! And not only that, but to my surprise, it booted off of a 10.4.6 USB drive. It's got a 450MHz G4, 512MB RAM I had laying around, a new 160GB IDE hard drive, and an AirPort card. Overall I'm pretty happy with how it came out, especially since this one was definitely saved from the trash. What do you guys think?

Thanks for looking, Luke.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Love threads like this. Thanks for sharing.

 

[iAssimilated]

Super sweet!!! Now, if only the rumored new Mac Pro looked so good

 

[MultiMan]

New teardown of this beautiful device:

 

[ScreenSavers]

Thanks!

 

[ScreenSavers]

Well this is not good- I think it died overnight. Next morning it won’t boot and smoke is coming from inside. Something burned off on the board here.

 

[CooperBox]

Congratulations on restoring this Cube, especially as you bought it in a pretty bad shape.
What I pain that it's now blown what appears to be a surface mount capacitor. If I have a removed DC/DC powerboard I may be able to identify that component.

 

[ScreenSavers]

Yes it is a small capacitor. I am trying to identify which one it is too.

 

[CooperBox]

Voila, this is from a Cube I have currently disassembled for re-paste and general clean-up.

And a closer detail of the composants. C19 and C21 appear to be the blown culprits.

Even with a good magnifying glass, there doesn't appear to be any additional idents on either C19 or C21.
Someone more knowledgeable than myself may be able to advise further, especially on what may have caused these to fail - paging LightBulbFun, DosDude1 or aNother......

 

[ScreenSavers]

Nice. Thanks. Want to sell the board?

 

[CooperBox]

Nice. Thanks. Want to sell the board?

Afraid not, as this will be re-installed in a perfectly serviceable Cube. If I should come across an unserviceable Cube, then I may review selling individual components. Keep checking here periodically........

 

[ScreenSavers]

Afraid not, as this will be re-installed in a perfectly serviceable Cube. If I should come across an unserviceable Cube, then I may review selling individual components. Keep checking here periodically........

Thanks. Hoping to give this one another chance.

 

[ScreenSavers]

If anyone has that DC board that supplies power to the IDE drives I would be interested in buying it. Otherwise I’ll wait for a cracked cube to come up on eBay, or something like that. I still want to revive this thing!

 

[ScreenSavers]

Just ordered another complete unit that has a lot of issues- hoping to combine the two and get a good one again!

 

[swamprock]

Here's one. Grab it while it's still available!
https://grandrapids.craigslist.org/sys/d/grand-rapids-apple-cube/6925033456.html

 

[ScreenSavers]

You better jump on it there... good money making opportunity!

 

[swamprock]

You better jump on it there... good money making opportunity!

This Cube pops up on CL every few months. It started about 6 years ago at $650, and has steadily gone up since, with no takers. The guy is tenacious, I'll give him that...

 

[ScreenSavers]

Well so far combining the two has been a success. First I had issues with the power button board but I was able to fix that.

Second, it booted up the first time but when I shut it down it started letting out some smoke. That sure scared me! After a lot of searching I discovered the smoke was coming from a blown capacitor on the control board of the hard drive. Phew.

It looks like when the DC board on the old cube went out it took the hard drive with it. I threw in the hard drive from my Power Mac G4 AGP to test it and the graphics card failed on the second boot. Wow.

So I switched the graphics card with the one from my old cube and now all is working for the time being. We will see how long it lasts.

It will read CDs but not DVDs. It has a very hard time ejecting, unsurprisingly.

 

[1042686]

Well so far combining the two has been a success. First I had issues with the power button board but I was able to fix that.

Second, it booted up the first time but when I shut it down it started letting out some smoke. That sure scared me! After a lot of searching I discovered the smoke was coming from a blown capacitor on the control board of the hard drive. Phew.

It looks like when the DC board on the old cube went out it took the hard drive with it. I threw in the hard drive from my Power Mac G4 AGP to test it and the graphics card failed on the second boot. Wow.

So I switched the graphics card with the one from my old cube and now all is working for the time being. We will see how long it lasts.

It will read CDs but not DVDs. It has a very hard time ejecting, unsurprisingly.

Geriatric computing at its finest. Glad it’s working for you

 

[CooperBox]

Here's one. Grab it while it's still available!
https://grandrapids.craigslist.org/sys/d/grand-rapids-apple-cube/6925033456.html

I reckon that seller got his currency's confused, and it should be 2500 Ethiopian burr or something similar....

I occasionally pay top whack for a very collectable Mac in excellent condition, but surely nobody would be so crazy at $2500 US. Subtract a zero and he should get an offer - if functional.
As a guide, for my last fully functional G4 Cube and screen three years ago, I paid 120euros ($US130) - with temperamental optical drive of course. Rarely see them now for less than equivalent of $US300.