OS9 Helper

Does the Radeon 9200 manual specify the compatibility requirement for the PCI slot, as to whether it must be 2.1 or 2.2-compliant? The 7600's PCI slots are probably 2.0-compliant, which could pose a problem.

This may or may not apply to your upgraded 7600, but ATI's Knowledge Base article #737-468 ("Problems with Mac OS 9 and RADEON 9200 MAC EDITION on G3 and some G4 systems") states:

"The RADEON 9200 MAC EDITION may cause the system to hang when booting into Mac OS 9. Moving the board to a different PCI slot or rearranging the existing PCI cards in your system may remedy the problem."

This symptom has been found in the Gigabit Ethernet, Digital Audio, and Sawtooth G4 models, as well as in B&W and beige G3s. Apparently, this problem doesn't occur when running OS X.

You might also try changing your monitor resolution, then changing it back.

If that doesn't help, maybe a PRAM reset or pressing the cuda button would help.

Beige G3s are so cheap now, you can get one from eBay for pocket money. Don't buy a power supply, buy an entire used beige G3, and live happily ever after.

The beige G3 is a great old Mac, it is happy to run 9.2.2 with no helpers, and can grow to support up to 10.2 from Apple, up to 10.4 with XPostFacto. It has an IDE Bus, a SCSI Bus, 3 PCI slots, and takes up to 3*256 MB memory. Your Radeon Card should move right over and be happy.

I like the All-in-One beige G3, but it weighs 65 pounds or more.

It has its entire card cage in a drawer at the rear, which can be removed for extended service. It uses the same motherboards and other parts, but has its own unique power supply. The included 15" display can go to some higher resolutions. Tools available can put many screen adjustment controls onto the screen for recalibration and adjustment when needed.

There is a hardware hack available online that tells how one use modified the internal cables to allow a PCI video card to be used with the built-in display.

My initial suggestion was in reaction to your contemplating buying a beige G3 power supply. For not much more money, you could have a complete beige G3.

I buy them off eBay, but I buy the ones I call "slightly distressed".

If you cannot take it out of the box and do meaningful work with it the same day, most of the retail buyers will not bid. That lowers the price.

If you can read the description and say, "Why that Mac just needs a ... to be perfectly useable!" you may be on your way to a really affordable Mac. One small trouble is, lots of other fixer-uppers know what to do to that Mac to get it going, too, and may bid against you.

To make all of this work, you need to decide that you may get a dud from time to time, and take it as a learning experience.

Do NOT try to build a Mac from eBay parts -- you will pay at least twice as much as if you bought a working one in the first place, and lots more than one that does not boot (but may almost be working). Most parts are fairly affordable, but processor upgrades are still fairly expensive.

Craig:
I got a B&W off eBay for $28 + shipping (about $30). It was advertised "for parts" and had no hard drive, and only 128MB RAM. It did have the video card, a low-end SCSI card, and a DVDRom. It's also a Rev 2 machine.

I put in an old 6GB HD I had laying around, borrowed some RAM from my beige, installed 9 and X and she's up and running.

The sweetest part about this deal is that the case had a broken handle and missing bezel and when I contacted the seller about them, he apologized and refunded my entire payment.

There are good deals to be had.