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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

43 replies

Dec 2, 2009 7:03 AM in response to Dan-Lempesis-Omega

Hey Dan,

I've been fine.. well, as fine as can be while virtually unemployed as I am. (Thank goodness for savings accounts!)

It most certainly has been a while.

I'm surprised that you've not had any success with the last update of Tiger. I know that getting it in took three tries this last time around for me. I of course was having problems with the optical drive - of all things - and it wasn't the no-name FireWire and USB PCI cards. Who'da thunk that?

So what do you think of my new beige table? I can't wait to get it done, but of course I've got to fight with getting my car through inspection this month, so my activity is elsewhere right now. Hrrmph!

Deb.

Jan 20, 2010 9:50 AM in response to Deborah Terreson

Okay.. still working on the wooden keyboard top and that whole sliding drawer that it sits on. The table is done, but now I have to put in a second optical drive below the first - a wonderful person sent me a beige G3 with the DVD-ROM/Bordeaux PERCH card combination (Now THERE's a Hen's tooth!) that means that I can get the machine to play DVD's. Here's to hoping that it doesn't choke up, as that was/is a problem with the 1Ghz Sonnet card that's installed.

Is there an OSX driver for that specific card or not? The Tiger startup makes note that the card's in and calls for a "burgundy" something.. then goes straight to an Exit on the line.. Hmm. I'm going to go see a friend and poke through his Jaguar install disk and see if there is.

Here's a picture of it sitting in the living room earlier today merrily blasting out webradio.

http://home.comcast.net/~foodandart/AlmostFinishedTabletopG3.jpg

Deb.

Jan 21, 2010 12:10 AM in response to Deborah Terreson

Wow, that looks fantastic. Great project, thanks for sharing your progress.
Truly one-of-a-kind.

You could also have iPhoto play a slide show of your photo library while blasting the radio. Nice to have both playing in the living room.

Jan 21, 2010 12:36 PM in response to Deborah Terreson

Do you really want an additional CD/DVD faceplate poking through that nice box? What about just replacing the CD Reader with a DVD reader?

Jan 21, 2010 8:08 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

I suppose I can do that. What's in there is actually a CD burner, but I rarely burn CD's anymore. I do have a SuperDrive in an external FireWire case, but that seldom is used since anything to be burned is transferred to the MacPro over the home network.

There are some vents that still need to be cut out, so I've got to get it pulled apart anyhow. The picture is somewhat misleading as to the surface of the box - it's in serious need of a refinishing - my original idea was to paint it matte black. With a black keyboard and mouse to match. I went as far as to get the top of two black MacBooks and pry off the keys and try them on the keyboard - I hot melt glued the 'qwerty' row on and set the wooden top down and it looked stupid! No, worse than that.. power stupid!!

I am however, having a blast!

Deb.

Jan 22, 2010 8:47 AM in response to Deborah Terreson

I think the technical term used for interesting old furniture that needs refinishing is "it has a lot of character". The older and more interesting the piece, the more folks are willing to accept the lack of an excellent patina and still consider it something special.

I urge you NOT to cover up the wood grain with opaque paint of any hue. If you did that, it may as well be a plywood box (complete with half-present knots and the football-shaped repairs in the veneer) instead of a piece that is MORE interesting because it is handcrafted clear solid wood with interesting wood grain and -- BOINK -- a computer inside it.

I am writing this while taking a break from the grand stair in the front hall. Years ago, someone painted everything with darkened shellac. It did not completely snuff out the wood grain, but pretty close. In stripping off that old dark finish, I am seeing the funky semi-random wood grain burst forth. It is not perfect, as many of the boards include the whole width of the tree, and the grain pattern goes from regular to wild in the same piece of wood.

The grain pattern has some of the expected regular, well behaved grain, and some right next to it with grain so crazy it is bordering on burly. They are clashing to define what this huge woodwork is all about, and arguing about whether the work as a whole should be seen as regular and formal or burly and funky. But lightly stained (so that the lights and darks are slightly emphasized rather than obscured) it has a vastly nicer feeling and, in my opinion, is vastly more interesting.

Message was edited by: Grant Bennet-Alder

Message was edited by: Grant Bennet-Alder

Jan 22, 2010 8:55 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Staining softwoods:

If you find that some of your wood behaves like a softwood in that it goes completely dark when stained, there is a solution for that problem. Minwax makes a product they call "Stain Controller". basically, it is all the stuff that is in stain except it has NO pigment.

You brush it on, it fills up the pores, you wait about half an hour, then apply a regular stain over it and it comes out much more like what you expected. It is not difficult to work with if you adhere to the timing they suggest.

Jan 22, 2010 2:48 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Hmm. I'll check that out, thanks!

Right now, the wood that I used for the legs (poplar) has a cherry stain on it, done twice to get it darker. The tabletop, turntable shelf and bottom were of commercial grade mahogany that I picked up on a jobsite many years back, they were stained with a single coat of the stain. I finished it with Ben Moore Interior Wall glaze - satin finish - and in the right light it has a wonderful soft sheen. THAT is what I may try to bring up on the box itself.

Luck would have it, I've a huge assortment of art glazes in earth-tones so I can make many transparent layers to match the colors on the legs. The more I think about it, I like the idea of just swapping the DVD-ROM in.

I'm wondering if I DO replace the optical drive, if I can get the burgundy audio device drivers that came with Jaguar (which apparently supported that Bordeaux card, if what I've found is correct) to open up the RCA ports on the back. Apparently as that PERCH card model is the rare one with the AV circuit/DVD decoder built-in, it may run them. If not, I've got to find a FireWire/USB combo card cheep, and then I can install the 2496 Audiophile card.

What I wouldn't give for just ONE more expansion slot!

I've already sussed out that I can install a second jumbo hard drive. If I get one of those universal USB/ATA drive adaptors and run it to the internal USB port, I can tuck it in next to the first drive and power it off of the third molex connector.

Deb.

P.S. Send pictures of that woodwork when it's done, it sounds lovely.

Feb 9, 2010 4:53 PM in response to Deborah Terreson

Got the table closer to finished.. Cutting out the keyboard top turned out to be a fight as the wood - a piece of lauan from Home Despot - curled like a ski. Endless hassle to get it flattened. But I was not bested by an inanimate object.

With the discovery of the video app called Mplayer OSX, that runs FAST, I can push video directly to the teevee through the S-video port on the Radeon! Only a few dropped frames here and there and it skips over without being noticeable.

I have to copy files off the MacPro to the hard drive on the beige first, though. Even with the ethernet wired, it's just too much for the system to handle if it streams in from the network.

All that's left is the detailing, I need to cut out a grate cover for the fan, and work out how to affix a filter so when I have one of my inevitable cooking scorch-ups, the oily smoke that fills the house stays for the most part out of the computer (this may be wishful thinking on my part).

Still need to put down a cloth pad for the mouse.. black felt.. maybe..

http://home.comcast.net/~foodandart/TopShelfDone.JPG

Deb.

Feb 25, 2010 10:22 AM in response to Deborah Terreson

I just noticed this today while blasting out music through the stereo system with my frankentablebeige..

When I have my mouse pointer on the side scroll bar slider in iTunes, and I'm dragging it down scrolling the list, there is a weird whine that changes as the text field of my library whizzes past. It changes based on the amount of text - shorter song titles have a different register than longer ones. Weird.

I've just spent the last five minutes with the stereo turned up high to hear it, and it's definitely a new one on me. Maybe I should record this and make a dance track out of it.. hmmm. Now I recall that even in OS8, I could hear slight pops, tics and buzzes when I'd open and close or resize finder windows, so noise had always been a part of the system.. but this is something else!

It only is in the iTunes library list, and oddly enough it happens in OS9 and Tiger. LOL!

I love my beige (well, what's left of it) I am having so much fun with this thing - it's always something new!

Feb 25, 2010 4:56 PM in response to Deborah Terreson

Deb-

Did you remove some of the metal EMI-RFI shields and the top cover when it went into the wooden box? The computer may be radiating stray signals that are getting picked up by unshielded cables or amplifiers and then the signal levels are getting boosted up into the audible part of the music.

Feb 25, 2010 7:14 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Ah! That may be the culprit. I definitely knew that amplifying the sound to Jet Engine levels - I was blasting music this afternoon - would let all those noises that the system has emitted since day one fly large, but this one is completely new! It's just in the iTunes library window. If I scroll a finder window, with it set to list view I get the normal soft buzz..

I do still need to work out a filter to keep dust from getting in through the top, so maybe one of those cheezy thin slotted broiler pans cut to fit the lid and screwed in with bibb washers for spacing will do the trick. I still need to sort out the dust filter for the fan cover.. and that needs to be cut out as well, though I am really not looking forward to that. I may see what's available at the Ace hardware.. maybe a slotted dryer vent painted gloss black and cut to fit.

Good catch on the EM shields - I'd stripped most of that out and of course, those bits were among the first to go over the years, once they got bent they never went on right and after the third or fourth time I rent flesh fighting with it.. that's it, they're gone.

Thanks, I'll get on that lid and see if it helps.

Deb.

Feb 26, 2010 5:08 AM in response to Deborah Terreson

ElectroMagnetic Interference and Radio Frequency Interference (EMI and RFI) radiate in three dimensions, and therefore lose power very rapidly as the distance increase. (At a one-over the cube-of-the distance rate. )

Look at cables where you may be picking stray signals up by having the cables act as antennas. If you have a loop of cable, as opposed to randomly strewn cables, that can be a very effective antenna. You could try using twisted-pair cable (like Ethernet cable) or coaxial cable (like cable-TV cable) instead of flat wire from the Mac to the amplifier. Also look at the placement of your amplifier. Sometimes just moving the amplifier can reduce the noise pickup.

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