What have you done with a PowerPC today?

[Doq]

Okay, before I go in to what I was going to post....

My titanium G4 has max resolution of 1280x1154 ?

Isn't the native resolution of later Titaniums 1280x854? The same as non-HR Aluminiums.

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Besides that, I've been suffering in the realm of installing Adélie Linux on my Companion, to mixed results ranging from completely borked to almost functional. GRUB on OF is still something I've yet to fully understand. I'll figure it out eventually though. Maybe. I might pop into the Void thread and see what's in there about GRUB because I know Void also uses GRUB on OF instead of Yaboot.

 

[Macbookprodude]

Okay, before I go in to what I was going to post....

Isn't the native resolution of later Titaniums 1280x854? The same as non-HR Aluminiums.

---

Besides that, I've been suffering in the realm of installing Adélie Linux on my Companion, to mixed results ranging from completely borked to almost functional. GRUB on OF is still something I've yet to fully understand. I'll figure it out eventually though. Maybe. I might pop into the Void thread and see what's in there about GRUB because I know Void also uses GRUB on OF instead of Yaboot.

Sorry, I did not know exact resolution, but you understand what I wrote.. regarding the popping sounds under OS 9 while DVD watch.

 

[B S Magnet]

For a weekend project and also for science, I completely disassembled my PowerBook5,8 (the one I use as my testing setup for Snow Leopard on PowerPC) because one of the fans had stopped working a couple of months ago and the other was making all the telltale noises of starting to become stuck.

The science part was to try something I’ve never done: taking apart the two fans (after removing the heatsink/fan assembly).

I went onto the internets to find discussions on servicing laptop fans, as finding replacements for these final series PowerBooks is an expensive proposition with a very long wait time and no assurances that the parted-out used fans will work for very long. Neither the cost nor the wait are in my budget.

In the end, I used a soft brush to clean out the fine dust in the fans and also in the electromagnets (accumulated after two solid years of use). Then I let the separated fans (which have ring-shaped magnets in them) soak for a couple of hours in 99 per cent isopropyl alcohol, spinning them manually inside the alcohol every few minutes to dislodge any residual dust and grime in the spindle area and also around the ring magnet area. There wasn’t a tonne, but there was enough to see junk on the bottom of the soaking container.

Unlike some of the suggestions in the threads I found on this topic, I did not add any liquid or solid lubricant. They were, from everything I can tell, never engineered for use with a lubricant. I just cleaned them thoroughly.

Following their reassembly (and seeing how both fans had gone from being hard to turn manually to spinning freely when I blew on them), I threw on some fresh thermal paste, brought it all back together, and powered it up to find both fans are working silently once more and keeping this gear running for much more Snow Leopard testing. 💪

 

[Macbookprodude]

Is it hard to change one of speakers ?

 

[MacFoxG4]

Played with my iMac G5 some more. Everything was going great until I noticed that my external SSD would randomly unmount or not mount at all if using the FW ports instead of the USB ports. Also noticed that a thin vertical red line has formed on the left side of the screen and now that I have seen it, I can't unsee it.

 

[B S Magnet]

For a weekend project and also for science, I completely disassembled my PowerBook5,8 (the one I use as my testing setup for Snow Leopard on PowerPC) because one of the fans had stopped working a couple of months ago and the other was making all the telltale noises of starting to become stuck.

The science part was to try something I’ve never done: taking apart the two fans (after removing the heatsink/fan assembly).

I went onto the internets to find discussions on servicing laptop fans, as finding replacements for these final series PowerBooks is an expensive proposition with a very long wait time and no assurances that the parted-out used fans will work for very long. Neither the cost nor the wait are in my budget.

In the end, I used a soft brush to clean out the fine dust in the fans and also in the electromagnets (accumulated after two solid years of use). Then I let the separated fans (which have ring-shaped magnets in them) soak for a couple of hours in 99 per cent isopropyl alcohol, spinning them manually inside the alcohol every few minutes to dislodge any residual dust and grime in the spindle area and also around the ring magnet area. There wasn’t a tonne, but there was enough to see junk on the bottom of the soaking container.

Unlike some of the suggestions in the threads I found on this topic, I did not add any liquid or solid lubricant. They were, from everything I can tell, never engineered for use with a lubricant. I just cleaned them thoroughly.

Following their reassembly (and seeing how both fans had gone from being hard to turn manually to spinning freely when I blew on them), I threw on some fresh thermal paste, brought it all back together, and powered it up to find both fans are working silently once more and keeping this gear running for much more Snow Leopard testing. 💪


View attachment 1915301

EDIT: Whoops! Turns out my isopropyl-dry-clean-out of the spindles and blades wasn’t quite enough — particularly with the left fan. First (second) fix was adding a small puff of graphite powder to the spindle hole. This worked for about a day (for the left fan; the right fan is working fine once more) before briefly making that loud, whining noise, followed by just stopping entirely. The second (third) fix, for the left fan only: leaving in the residual graphite powder but adding a very small amount of dry-ceramic lubricant (engineered for higher-end road/touring bicycle drivetrains). It is now running quietly and its low speed before shutting off is no longer in the 1000–1200rpm range; rather, it’s a bit slower 500–700rpm (the ceramic lubricant’s viscosity is likely why). Not perfect, but it’s enough for now.

 

[alex_free]

 

[xbpr]

I resurrected my mother’s old 17” PowerBook G4 and restored some “classic” programs from a backup cd. I went through all of my old documents and saved off copies in more neutral formats (ps/PDFs, RichText, CSV, etc). I haven’t touched these files in years, so why bother? Why not. I’ve had this PowerBook in storage, and old backup cds to make it happen.

The PowerBook still runs pretty good, but there is no sound. AHT is reporting a motherboard issue.

 

[Doq]

Got my Chillhop CD today, Winter Essentials 2021, and as per usual I sat down with my Titanium and I entered in CD info to send off to GnuDB for others to not have to.

Also, there's something oddly nostalgic about playing a CD through old laptop speakers instead of in my not-hi-fi.

 

[alex_free]

Got my Chillhop CD today, Winter Essentials 2021, and as per usual I sat down with my Titanium and I entered in CD info to send off to GnuDB for others to not have to.

Also, there's something oddly nostalgic about playing a CD through old laptop speakers instead of in my not-hi-fi.

I bought a sony CD man from febuary 95 and added CD burning/ripping to PPCMC 7.2.5 for the samw reason!

 

[LightBulbFun]

I wonder what Leopard does if you have a setup that “necessitates” a 256-colour mode, such as this one. (You'd either need a G4 upgrade in that particular laptop or e.g. an original PowerBook G4 which also has a GPU with 8 MB VRAM.)

you called?

sadly I dont have any other VGA capable monitor on hand with a higher resolution then 1080p

(also shown is an xBench benchmark of one of 2 Industrial 32GB CF cards I managed to get my hands on primarily got these for windows stuff as they show up as fixed disks on an ATA bus and not removable disks like consumer CF cards do which upsets windows, but just had to test one out in the Pismo while I had it out )

 

[Amethyst1]

you called?

Thanks! So you’re getting 16-bit colour at 1080p ‘n’ I got 8-bit at 1920×1200.

 

[alex_free]

Got 2 new IDE HDDs for the clamshell and G4 mini.

 

[Amethyst1]

Got 2 new IDE HDDs for the clamshell and G4 mini.

These are among the fastest 2.5" PATA HDDs.

 

[alex_free]

These are among the fastest 2.5" PATA HDDs.

And 225 100 star reviews? Both are still on the originals from 2005 and 2000.

 

[Amethyst1]

And 225 100 star reviews?

I'm not sure I know what you mean? In any case, an SSD still totally obliterates them.

 

[juanstdio]

Just discovered https://ppcappstore.wordpress.com/ (PPC App store), it makes my life easier to install software

 

[alex_free]

I'm not sure I know what you mean? In any case, an SSD still totally obliterates them.

Yea true. The seller was what i was referring to, for $10.99 each brand new cant complain.

 

[Macbookprodude]

Got 2 new IDE HDDs for the clamshell and G4 mini.View attachment 1926490

Where does one get brand new PATA drives at ? I prefer M2SATA drives which are faster.

 

[Macbookprodude]

I am playing with Sorbet Leopard on my G4 Titanium and some reason itunes does not work.

 

[B S Magnet]

These are among the fastest 2.5" PATA HDDs.

Before upgrading it to mASATA-to-IDE in 2018, my clamshell iBook G3 ran with the fastest available HDD in 2007: the Hitachi 7K100 — 7200rpm at 100GB.

While the 7K100 was peppy enough (especially in contrast to the 4200rpm OEM HDD it came with!), I wasn’t prepared for the speed bump of an SSD on such old hardware until I installed that SSD solution: it completely maxed out the ATA-4’s 25MB/s bus.

 

[alex_free]

Where does one get brand new PATA drives at ? I prefer M2SATA drives which are faster.

Random ebay search: "new ide hdd". Turned up this chinese seller with 100% positive feedback and a ton of new 160GB 5400RPM 2.5 inch IDE HDDs for sale. I know SSDs are better, call me old fashioned. All my backups are on mechanical drives as well. I have seen with my own eyes an almost 22 year old HDD in the clamshell still work fine in 2021 (just a bit noisy).

I sometimes do these searches just to see if in current year, can you purchase something like this? Turns out yes.

 

[Macbookprodude]

Random ebay search: "new ide hdd". Turned up this chinese seller with 100% positive feedback and a ton of new 160GB 5400RPM 2.5 inch IDE HDDs for sale. I know SSDs are better, call me old fashioned. All my backups are on mechanical drives as well. I have seen with my own eyes an almost 22 year old HDD in the clamshell still work fine in 2021 (just a bit noisy).

I sometimes do these searches just to see if in current year, can you purchase something like this? Turns out yes.

I agree with you there.. just as on PCs, DOS still can be used to boot machine if emergency happens, as well as best to use mechanical hdd over SSD because SSD can go bad over time.

 

[Amethyst1]

as well as best to use mechanical hdd over SSD because SSD can go bad over time.

If you’re referring to the lack of TRIM with “SSDs can go bad over time”, that’s not nearly as much of a problem as it used to be. There’s pretty much no reason to use slow-as-molasses HDDs over SSDs these days unless you need tons of affordable storage — or like your computer to be slow.

 

[Amethyst1]

Before upgrading it to mASATA-to-IDE in 2018, my clamshell iBook G3 ran with the fastest available HDD in 2007: the Hitachi 7K100 — 7200rpm at 100GB.

IIRC the Samsung HM160HC is a tad faster than the 7K100. I had a 7K60 (60GB 7200rpm) in my Mac mini G4 when I used that as my main machine from 2005 to 2009 and it was a lot peppier than the stock 80GB 4200rpm garbage.