G3 B&W ATI Radeon 7000 PCI 64MB Video Card not working

You may have a PC--not a Mac--card. The retail Radeon 7000 Mac Edition was 32MB VRAM; then ATI skipped all the way to 128MB VRAM for the retail Radeon ME 9200. There were Radeon 7000/64MB cards made for Windows with but they would have to be flashed to work in a Mac.

Has the 7000 ever worked in the B&W or another Mac you own? If not it could be one that wasn't flashed.

"I seem to remember that these do not support 16:9 monitors. Is there anything to this?"

No, that isn't true. The B&W G3 sitting next to my desk has the same ATI Radeon 7000 Mac Edition (32 MBs, VGA/DVI/S-Video ports). I use a 19" (16:9 aspect ratio) display with an optimal resolution/refresh rate setting of 1440x900 @ 60Hz. In the Monitors control panel, you may need to select "Show all resolutions," in order to set it correctly. My other Macs with a Radeon 7000 card have the "PC" versions (32 & 64 MBs, VGA port) that were manufactured by ATI, and not by others ("Powered by ATI"). I flashed the EEPROM in those cards to make them Mac-compatible and all support a 16:9 aspect ratio. Even when booted from a utility or installer disk, the display should work - although not at the optimal settings. I'd suggest checking the gold-plated pins on both edges of the graphics card. If you see any discoloration/oxidization, gently scrub them with a soft, white eraser. Be sure to blow off any eraser shavings, before reinstalling the card. Additionally, if you just acquired this G3 and it has been sitting in storage for a while, the motherboard's internal 3.6-volt, ½AA lithium battery may likely be very weak or dead. Replacing it can avoid some common startup issues.

Forgot to mention: if you opt to go with the Radeon 9200, there was a glitch somewhere between ATI video drivers pre-installed with the OS and the R9200 that only affected OS9. We had to complete remove all prior ATI extensions from teh OS9 system folder, then reinstall them from the CD that came with the 9200, before the card would work in OS9. No such issues with OSX, however.

I have a Beige G3 that started with its built-in Rage Pro with 6MB VRAM, then got an ATI Rage Orion 16MB card. Later I scored an original Radeon ME 32MB card (much faster than the later 7000). It finally ended up with the R9200 128MB card. The latter was pretty neat but did not support Quartz Extreme under OSX, meaing 3D performance was smokin' but simple 2D things like dragging a window were choppy.

"Unable to boot off a 10.4 install CD holding the C key down or the option key.

Is this a retail (universal) 10.4 installer disk (black with a large "X" across it)? That's what you need, because a Restore disk for another model Mac (especially Intel-based) won't boot your G3. Also, keyboard shortcuts for booting from the optical drive can depend on the compatibility of the specific optical drive installed. If the drive has been changed, a third-party drive may not be recognized for booting purposes.

"I tried plugging the CD drive into one of the HD cables."

I assume that you plugged the optical drive into the unused connector on the hard drive's ribbon cable. Was the hard drive left connected to the ribbon cable or did you disconnect it? If both the hard drive and optical drive occupied the same ribbon cable, the drive configuration jumpers would have needed to be changed. The hard drive would need to be set as "Master" or "Master with Slave Present," and the optical drive would have to be set as "Slave." The B&W G3s don't support the Cable Select setting. When you acquired this B&W G3, did the (OS 9.2.x) hard drive successfully boot the computer with the original graphics card installed, or did you buy it without an installed graphics card?

"I'm going to lay the motherboard and all components out on a desk and use an OCZ ATX power supply I have. However when I first got the G3 and it wouldn't power on. I plugged the OCZ into the motherboard and HD. It still would not power on."

Although the B&W G3's power supply looks identical to an ATX supply, there is an important difference. On an ATX P-S, pin #18 provides -5v, whereas pin #18 on the G3's power supply is a ground. Those who wanted something more powerful than the Apple/OEM 200w power supply often installed an ATX P-S and either modified the existing wiring harness (cutting conductor #18 about 3" from the connector and looping it around to splice to another ground), or did the same mod to an ATX P-S extension cable. The latter method keeps from voiding the warranty on a new power supply. Additionally, the large chassis fan needs to have its small connector adapted to fit an unused molex power connector on the ATX P-S. I used a small connector with twin leads removed from a PC's front panel power or reset switch, which I plugged the fan into, then spliced the two wires into a molex connector.

As for third-party replacement optical drives: I upgraded one of my B&W G3s with an LG DVD±RW drive, but it wouldn't boot from installer disks - either from a keyboard shortcut or by changing the startup disk via the control panel. It would spin up and down - then again, as if the disk were a foreign object it had never seen before, but this took so long that the computer finally booted from the hard drive instead. When the initial spinning occurred, I found that if I opened the tray and immediately closed it, it would (if done fast enough) boot from the disk. This was too annoying, so I pulled the drive and replaced it with a Pioneer DVD±RW drive. Booting from the optical drive functioned normally after that.

You can convert an ATX PSU for use on a G4...

http://atxg4.com/sawtooth.html http://atxg4.com/gige-da.html

http://atxg4.com/quicksilver.html

http://atxg4.com/mdd.html

http://atxg4.com/

"What model is the Pioneer DVD±RW drive?"

It has been a while since I bought them, but it's the (now-discontinued) Pioneer 16x DVD±RW drive (model DVR-110D). You can always check ebay for a used one or a seller with "new" Old Stock. I wouldn't pay a fortune for it. After the 18x model, Pioneer and Asus formed a partnership, wherein Asus began manufacturing "Pioneer" optical drives (not sure about the high-end Blu-Ray Pioneer drive). Asus continued using the familiar Pioneer faceplate, but one noticeable difference was that the manual eject access hole was moved to the right side. I think the older drives manufactured by Pioneer were of a better quality, and the Apple "SuperDrive" DVD burners were also Pioneer drives. Pioneer seemed to be the most Mac-compatible of third-party drives. Does your G3 have the second revision motherboard with the corrected IDE controller?

If you haven't checked out the "Accelerate Your Mac" website, there's a lot of useful info about the different generations of Mac computers through the years. The section with articles about the G3s is now almost at the bottom. This article covers the new features of the B&W G3s having the new motherboard and improved Rage 128 graphics card.