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Tiger in the Beige G3 and A Few Observations on it's Behaviour..

I am SO happy!

I'd been trying to get Tiger into my Frankenbeige for almost a year. I pulled all the PCI cards out and left IN the 1.0Ghz Sonnett ZIF card - it runs w/o the Sonnet Enabler and self-reports as a G4 600mhz card.

It was an almost flawless install but for the screen blacking out thing RIGHT as it was getting ready to have me switch to the second install disk.

That was easy enough to recover from, by rebooting back through XPostFacto4 and picking up the install - I ended up just fiddling with the mouse and keeping it 'awake' through the finish. (would have to do the same thing with my Panther installs to get them to take)

First thing to install was the Sonnet software, THEN reboot back to OS 9 and shut down.

Installed the Radeon 9200, the USB card and the FireWire AND swapped out the Apple CD drive I'd installed with, to the Pioneer SuperDrive.

4 PRAM zaps later all the hardware is sitting pretty and then boot into Tiger.

Heaven.

I'd been trying to finger out a way to get the networking from OS9 to OSX on my home network to function right and it just never did anything but hang if a file bigger than 500k was transferred.

As the beige is officially the Household Jukebox, since it's connected to the stereo system and I burn my vinyl LPs and tapes into it, it was getting old moving all the mp3's around with the external hard drive or the memory sticks - ALSO, OS9 only supported USB 1.1 so it was s-l-o-w-e-r than molasses in winter moving files on OR off the externals.

Once Tiger was in I took ALL the system updates before ANYTHING else, so there'd be NO conflicts on any later installed software.

I discovered last night with the latest QuickTime installed and the Perian codec pack in that MOST of the DiVX avi files I have will play smoothly! The high res stuff is right out but running on the native monitor resolution of 1024x768 in fullscreen mode only uses 65-90% of the processor and the bus manages to sustain the video handily. There's only a few points that I'll notice frames dropping and oddly enough, it's in places where there's low action onscreen so I think it may be an issue with coding compression that isn't visible on faster machines.

iTunes took FOREVER to load the library and if there is a way to get around that album art indexing - it took LONGER than the OS install! - I'd love to know about it. I don't care about the 'cover flow' view, it's an eye-candy function I've no interest in whatsoever.

My Unsanity ShapeShifter control panel took well enough but the CrystalClear skin, with the alpha channel input manager put the video right into flick-o-vision mode, so that was a wash. Shame too, since that is the prettiest skin with video running over it there is, esp. if you have a dark desktop as I do.

I DID need to get PatchBurn4 to make the SuperDrive play nice, I believe not having it in the computer when I installed Tiger was the culprit, but after three failed Tiger installs WITH it I decided the CD-ROM was probably a safer bet.

Right now, I've got some .shn files of Grateful Dead shows being unpacked on the Beige and it's chugging along quite nicely. I may see how it handles hulu.com later today, though I don't hold out much hope - anyways the video is a fun extra, the music is the main focus of the thing, and having it run over the home network is the icing on the cake.

I am SO happy with this! Not bad for a 10 year old box. Not at all.

Deb.

MacPro 2.6Ghz w/2 dumpster-dive CRT monitors.., Mac OS X (10.4.11), Beige G3 MT w/1Ghz Sonnet G4 ZIF w/ OS 9.2.2 and 10.4.11

Posted on Apr 5, 2009 8:37 AM

Reply
43 replies

Apr 5, 2009 3:34 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Hmmm. That is a minor issue now that I have Tiger in and updated, since it puts all the machines on the home network at 10.4.11.

I'm STILL fighting with the SuperDrive being internally installed.
PatchBurn notwithstanding, it's the same problem I had with Panther, in that I get the "SAM Multimedia READ or WRITE fail.." in the Console and the system locks up so hard I have to reboot. Funny thing is, OS9 LOVES the SuperDrive. I just locked up encoding a CD in OSX and finished encoding the remainder of the disk in iTunes in OS9.

Bah. I'm in one of those either/or spots.. do I keep the drive internal and burn with it in OS9 only - I do have the last Toast version that works a charm.. or do I yank it and stick it in the ancient Que Drive FireWire enclosure and burn in Tiger as an external? I was hoping this was a Panther-specific problem, but I guess it MAY be the drive itself, but who knows? OS 9 may just be more robust with the IDE devices the same way it is with items on the SCSI chain being turned on or off without problems.

::sigh::

I suppose the external configuration would be more adaptable, I CAN use it with all the computers and tote it around if I need to.

Eh. it's a small issue, I'm just glad I can get the computers all talking to each other and moving files around.

Deb.

Apr 6, 2009 9:42 AM in response to Deborah Terreson

Deborah Terreson wrote:
...I may see how it handles hulu.com ...


My maxed out G3 desktop can barely play back YouTube or NBC/hulu videos. It will keep track of the audio, but the video is really jumpy, and it basically demands so much of the CPU the machine becomes unresponsive to keyboard/mouse until the video stops. Also, with iTunes sharing from my MacBook, audio works fine, but streaming videos from iTunes over the network has the same kind of poor performance. (G3 is wired 10BaseT, MacBook is wireless 802.11n via Airport Extreme Base Station)

The G3 is great for audio/photo libraries, but maybe not so much for video, at least not with the latest high-bit-rate video formats.

Deborah Terreson wrote:
...the 1.0Ghz Sonnett ZIF card ... runs w/o the Sonnet Enabler ...

Yes, but without the Cache Enabler the CPU will basically be idle while waiting for data to make it's way from the motherboard rather than being able to use the on-board memory cache to operate at full speed. If you are getting lock-ups when you install the enabler when the CPU is under load, then you might have an overheating problem, (maybe even in the MiniTower), that is really hard to determine for sure. That really stumped me for a while, but after adding another internal fan my desktop (the desktop requires the integrated fans on the 1GHz CPU heat sink to be removed) has been running smoothly.

Jul 2, 2009 10:51 AM in response to Glen Doggett

Heee! I moved the internet cable connection coming into the house and put the AirPort into the living room. The beige (which is wired) is now sitting next to the stereo system and on a lark, I holmesed out an Unsanity application called ShadowKiller. It removes the drop shadows from the menu and windows.. that was ALL the extra needed to stream video from the MacPro in the studio out to the living room! Almost NO flick-o-vision for any of the .avi files I have now. Of course the 720p and 1080p are right out, but I don't have a monitor large enough to give that video justice anyhow!

This just gets better and better! 🙂

Deb.

Jul 29, 2009 12:19 PM in response to Deborah Terreson

I also have an 8500AV beigeinstein. I haven't had it hooked up for around 3 years and my concern is how it will do running OS9 work on the internet and with what browser. When I had it working I was using Internet Explorer, can't remember what version now.

My question is what you're using to browse the internet with and what version. I'll be hooking the beast up soon.

Jul 30, 2009 5:52 PM in response to Finch Arakawa

Yaah, Internet Explorer 5 is pretty much dead. It doesn't display pages properly anymore.. even in OSX. That may be a Microsoft thing, don't know.

In OS9 I was/am using mozilla 1.3.1 - and I get around quite handily, though NO java intensive sites, like ABC or CNN really load. BBC news does offer a low-bandwidth portal (bless their fluffy hearts!) that is perfectly useable. Turn java off and just live with the restrictions. There's also iCab, which has the most up-to-date java that can go into it, so you may find that it has accessibility to a few more sites, but not many more so that's about it.

I do use the browser occasionally, but not so much.. If there's a web-radio station that doesn't have a link in the iTunes1.1 radio list, I fire it up then and get a stream link that way.

Mostly when I run the G3 in OS9, I'll be ripping vinyl and using the older, BETTER version of SpinDoctor to make the .aif files and iTunes 1.1 to encode to .mp3.

Other than that, it's usually running while I'm playing games like Myst - still trying to make the continental crossing in Oregon Trail! - I just can't do it! LOL! I'd have made a terrible pioneer!

Deb.

Jul 30, 2009 7:27 PM in response to paulpen

Ooo! Nice! Will check that out. I can see I'm going to have to pull up the folding chair in the living room on the weekend, fire up Booger in 9 and try this out.

Also, I DO still have the wamcom-131-macos9-20030723.sit (14.6 MB in size) if anyone needs it. Just get in touch with me at my e-mail and I'll send it along somehow.. Hmmmm...

Deb.

Aug 28, 2009 7:46 AM in response to Deborah Terreson

Well, the inevitable finally happened last week. After over a decade of faithful service the power supply finally went 'fzzzt!' during one of our area's interminable power fluctuations and that was it.

The beige, rest it's silicon soul is finally kaput. 😟

To the end that nothing is ever truly lost, the ATI Radeon 9200, 768 MB of RAM and the 1 Ghz Sonnet card are now merrily chugging away in a Yosemite B&W G3 belonging to an old high school friend who's a bit down on his luck. Think he's going to have fun with that.

The Super-Drive is now in a new Quicksilver dual 1 Ghz, that came my way recently, (that has it's OWN issues - and how! - ) and I have transferred the contents of the OS9 drive to my MacPro for storage until I get a new hard drive - something went pear shaped with the drives and they were left in an unstable state after the power surge/spike - whatever - that took out the beige power supply - they would not take installs and constantly locked the Quicksilver. Hmm. Will be good when I get OS9 into it to see how it works.

So I finally close a chapter in my Apple computing experience and open a new one in Fun With G4's!

When I get done with this hardware reshuffling I will put up a short list of remaining beige parts that are for the taking. I have some small memory sticks, VRAM, a proper Wings A/V PERCH card and other bits and bobs set to go.

Deb.

Aug 28, 2009 8:40 AM in response to Deborah Terreson

Your posts are always such a pleasure to read...

I am sure there is some deep significance to the events you have reported. Surely it is not a coincidence your venerable beige bit the dust just as Snow Leopard started shipping. I wonder if the computer goddesses are trying to tell you something??

Please do keep us informed about the G4's you are nursing back to useful lives.

Sep 6, 2009 3:01 PM in response to Deborah Terreson

The G4 is ded. It was a freebie, so it will be going back to whence it came, and I am now determined more than ever to make a go with the remains of the beige. I ended up with a spare Sonnet card from my original upgrade and a handful of RAM and lo, I just discovered the wonderful world of modified cases! Since the power supply is gone and I DO have a spare power supply from a beige desktop, I'm going to swap them out into a new case. I have a problem with the leads - in the tower there is an extra set and of course, they are longer so I have to finger out a way to make this work.

I'm thinking a steampunk motif would look sharp and with all the years I've been in building, I've tons of nice bits of wood to work with. Also I recently picked up a whole bunch of PCI cards - one of them being an Audiophile 2496 sound card that apparently is the Cadillac of audio equipment.

Does anyone know if a SATA PCI card (got one of those too) means that I can add jumbo drives or will I still be subject to the 137 GB address limit?

Deb.

Sep 7, 2009 5:26 AM in response to Deborah Terreson

Greetings from one pack rat to another! 😉

Hey Eustace!

Deb since you closed the Quicksilver thread I have a question. Did you ever take a compressor to your power supply and fans?

I just rescued a G4 PowerBook that was acting funky like your Quicksilver, turned out the fans were full of dust and....

Other thing, do you think someone was playing around with the jumpers on the cpu card on your Quicksilver? Possible someone was trying to overclock and botched it....

http://powermac-g4.com/g4quicksilverclockup.html

Re the Beige, what SATA card did you find? The Adaptec?

Re 137GB limit by using a card you should be able to get past this limit as it wasn't the OS but the motherboard. I run an Acard ATA card in a Beige to run 500GB HD's. I haven't tried SATA though I have a couple of Adaptecs in the basement.

A wooden case for the Beige, that sounds cool! Sort of like the Apple I?

Kevin

Tiger in the Beige G3 and A Few Observations on it's Behaviour..

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