This is pretty wild. Somebody at my office was throwing out an old power mac g4. Thankfully I stopped them and I was able to take it. Needless to say I'm thrilled. BUT - It has a problem (which is possibly why they were going to throw it out, I don't know).
When you hit the power switch, it just goes 'Beeeeeep' and you can hear the fans humming. To me that sounds like an error message. So I opened it up and sure enough, all of the RAM banks are totally empty!
So now I need to know what kind of RAM to put in there... and I have no idea which G4 this is. I think it's going to take SD RAM as the slots have 3 breaks (instead of 2 like DDR uses), but I don't know at what speed. It has a DVD-ROM drive, an IBM deskstar 20gig PATA hard drive, and an AGP slot of some kind. And on the hard drive is says 'Apple HDD Firmware 1999', which implies it's a first generation system as I think they first came out around then.
So what do you think this is, and what is causing that error? I'm used to PC's where a no ram error is a sequence of beeps, this is just one long beep.
And also, can I just buy any standard parallel interface hard drive and throw it in here? Or as the sticker says, does it have to be apple specific? I've never dealth with hard drive firmware before....Argh!
Anyway if I don't get many responses or if more info is needed I will try and take some pictures of it tomorrow and maybe that will help.
You're looking for PC133 SDRAM. Any IDE/ATA drive will work, but nothing larger than 120GB.
The long beep signifies no RAM.
__________________ WARNING: If you see links to ads in the above post, blame the cheesy ad-linking software used by the owners of this website. I do not endorse these ad links. Don't click on them.
If it is an AGP slot G4 machine, then it will take PC100 or PC133 RAM up to 512 Mb. The 512 Mb module MUST be a 16-chip module. Although there is physical room for 2 Gb (4 x 512) but only the first 1.5 Gb will be recognized.
If it is the PCI-slot graphics first gen G4 machine ("Yikes" motherboard), then it will only take 256 Mb module, and that 256 Mb module needs to be a 16-chip module.
Also, you would be well to replace the PRAM battery for $10 or so. 1/2AA 3.6V Lithium.
I just wonder about the RAM, does it max out at PC100 or PC133? I know SDRAM can clock itself down to match the bus of the motherboard, so what would be best here?
non issue I suppose since most sd ram is going to be 133, but 100 isn't going to work in a digital audio.
__________________
The rules and regs of this forum state that my posts are authored by me and are my own views. This may not be true. If you see links in my posts to items for sale etc., they are not my links, nor my views. I do not wish to be held responsible for anything that occurs as a result of clicking these links inserted without my permission, So if you click any of these links, do so at your own risk.
ah sorry I misread thought you said it had 3 slots (3 'breaks').
carry on.
__________________
The rules and regs of this forum state that my posts are authored by me and are my own views. This may not be true. If you see links in my posts to items for sale etc., they are not my links, nor my views. I do not wish to be held responsible for anything that occurs as a result of clicking these links inserted without my permission, So if you click any of these links, do so at your own risk.
You might be able to narrow it down to a model or two by color and noticeable features.
But by the sounds of your description, the above have given you good info on the type of RAM. (Since it's an older G4, by the sounds of it, it's PC100 or PC133 RAM).
This was definetely it. Thanks for the link! It says PC100 RAM, so it won't really matter if I get 133 or 100 as they are both the same price basically.
CPU
CPU: PowerPC 7400
CPU Speed: 350/400/450/500 MHz
FPU: integrated
Bus Speed: 100 MHz
Data Path: 64 bit
ROM: 1 MB ROM + 3 MB toolbox ROM loaded into RAM
RAM Type: PC100
Minimum RAM Speed: 100 MHz
Onboard RAM: 0 MB
RAM slots: 4
Maximum RAM: 2 GB (1.5 in OS 9)
Level 1 Cache: 32 kB data, 32 kB instruction
Level 2 Cache: 1 MB backside, 1:2
Expansion Slots: 3 64-bit 33 MHz PCI, 1 2x AGP (filled)
Video
Video Card/Chipset: ATI RAGE 128 Pro
VRAM: 16 MB
Max Resolution: all resolutions supported
Video Out: VGA, DVI
Storage
Hard Drive: 20 GB (up to 3 36 GB available BTO)
ATA Bus: ATA-66
Zip Drive: optional
Optical Drive: DVD-ROM/RAM
Input/Output
USB: 2
Firewire: 3 (1 internal)
Audio Out: stereo 16 bit mini
Audio In: stereo 16 bit mini
Speaker: mono
Miscellaneous
Codename: Sawtooth
Gestalt ID: 406
Power: 200 Watts
Dimensions: 17" H x 8.9" W x 18.4" D
Weight: 28.7 lbs. - (This thing is really heavy!)
Minimum OS: 8.6
Maximum OS: 10.4.7
Introduced: September 1999
Terminated: July 2000
I wonder if it has the airport card or not... It has this little riser card that says 'Hongkong Telecom' on it, no idea what that's for. And also those PCI slots are really long, I almost thought they were ISA slots! But the hard drive explanation is a little wierd, what does it mean by 3 36gb BTO? Is BTO Built To Order? So does that mean it tops out at 36gb hard drive? The ATA-66 interface is incredibly old so I don't really know, would it support a more modern ATA speed?
Last edited by optical; Feb 20th, 2007 at 05:44 PM.
I found a power mac G4!
Needless to say I'm thrilled. BUT - It has a problem (which is possibly why they were going to throw it out, I don't know). 
Linear Mode
