F.A.Q. for PowerPC Macs

[Anonymous Freak]

Two reasons:

1. The "advertised capacity" of a drive is measured in base-10. So 750 GB means: 750,000,000,000 bytes. (Give or take, even then they round.)

OS X measures in base-2. So "750 GB" to OS X is 750 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024 = 805,306,368,000 bytes. A large spread.

Which also means that what a hard drive manufacturer calls "750 GB", OS X calls 698.49 GB.

You're still a little shy of that, though, so...

2. The drive could be partitioned, or have bad sectors, or some other reason it doesn't show a full "698.49 GB". Your best bet if it has data on it is to make a backup, and boot to an OS X Install CD. Run Disk Utility, do a complete re-partition of it and disk check, then restore your backup.

Note that while some systems do reserve part of a hard drive for specific purposes (OS X Intel systems reserve a very small partition for the EFI boot loader, and Lion and newer create a "recovery partition" of a couple GB,) OS X doesn't do it for more than a few GB.

 

[Cox Orange]

@xtempo:

download SMART Utility by Volitan Software. It will show you if it has bad sectors or reallocated bad sectors or if the so called reserve sectors are already all used.
Also recent (at least last years) Seagate drives are known for having problems with their firmware. It is so much of a problem that Seagate has even turned it into an advantage, which they advertise "now you can even flash the newest firmware yourself", because they put them on the market and have not completely worked out the Firmware. Users become beta testers.

 

[xtempo]

I have used the demo for Smart Utility and it showed it was failing. What do I do now? Can I do anything without buying the program?

Also I don't have the install discs which I hope to get sometime.

 

[jrsx]

I have used the demo for Smart Utility and it showed it was failing. What do I do now? Can I do anything without buying the program?

Also I don't have the install discs which I hope to get sometime.

You should post a thread - this section is more for information, not questions.

 

[xtempo]

ok

 

[skinniezinho]

Thanks for the users who sent me pm with suggestions for updating this F.A.Q.
ALthough I don't have any macs now I will continue to post updates as people tell me.

 

[Cox Orange]

Update concerning my post about the Mac OS 9 lives Forum.

They now focus on:

1) Installing, Maintaining, and Extending the functionality of Mac OS 9

2) Installing Digital Audio Software & Music/MIDI Hardware interfaces under Mac OS 9 for Veteran & Beginner Musicians, Producers, and Artists.

3) General questions for Mac OS 9 enthusiasts.

 

[MacDude21]

Wow... With all this stuff for PowerPC, I REALLY wish I still had my good ol' iMac G3. Unfortainitly, my Dad RECYCLED it!!! Gah. Even to this day I still can't believe he did that. That thing was a good computer, and ran outstanding considering its specs.

 

[MysticCow]

Thanks for the users who sent me pm with suggestions for updating this F.A.Q.
ALthough I don't have any macs now I will continue to post updates as people tell me.

Thanks for continuing to support us! For iBook G3's with the 750FX processor, you can overclock it through software using iCooked. http://www.alxsoft.com/files/icooked1211.zip

And I really need to go visit the Mac OS 9 Lives forums.

 

[Cox Orange]

I found a nice overview / database of Mac video related software

http://www.pure-mac.com/video.html

 

[egy195]

hey guys, i was wondering can a power mac g5 be the main computer for basic browsing and youtube videos ? not hd but 480p

 

[jrsx]

hey guys, i was wondering can a power mac g5 be the main computer for basic browsing and youtube videos ? not hd but 480p

It is an excellent machine for browsing, not so much for youtube. However, it is a G5, and every G5 owner I have heard of says that they run YouTube well although it is not supported. I've been having strange occurrences on my PowerBook, where YT runs decent in 360p, and the CPU isn't at 100%, instead around 88%. Idk, I'm baffled though.

 

[egy195]

It is an excellent machine for browsing, not so much for youtube. However, it is a G5, and every G5 owner I have heard of says that they run YouTube well although it is not supported. I've been having strange occurrences on my PowerBook, where YT runs decent in 360p, and the CPU isn't at 100%, instead around 88%. Idk, I'm baffled though.

thnaks for replying, always been fascinated with these little ppc computers that i want to sell my old tower and buy an even older ppc one

 

[Altemose]

hey guys, i was wondering can a power mac g5 be the main computer for basic browsing and youtube videos ? not hd but 480p

It can play them in that size with no issues in MacTubes or YouView.

 

[egy195]

It can play them in that size with no issues in MacTubes or YouView.

but i have seen people on youtub playing them on the website itself, is that possible ?

 

[Altemose]

but i have seen people on youtub playing them on the website itself, is that possible ?

With the latest version of Flash you can still play it on the site. However, most PPC users will agree that MacTubes or YouView is the better method.

On my dual 1.8 I play it in WebKit half the time and the other half MacTubes or YouView.

 

[Cox Orange]

guides for flashing Video cards:

ATI 9800 http://www.cubeowner.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8804
ATI 7000-9000 http://www.cubeowner.com/forums//index.php?showtopic=8798
ATI 9200 http://www.cubeowner.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8806
Nvidia Geforce 2, 3, FX http://www.cubeowner.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8807
Cube video cards http://www.cubeowner.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8455

Further threads on flashing/hacking or capacitor mods (re ATI 9000) http://www.cubeowner.com/forums/index.php?showforum=44

 

[supernova777]

nice post!
check out http://www.macos9lives.com forums sometime guys!

 

[Cox Orange]

see post 113 and 131 ;-)
But no issue. If it occurs several times, someone who will not read all posts, has the chance to find it still.

What I found interesting is, that they have the model number of the Quicksilver mainboards that support bigger drives than 128GB (because not all Quicksilvers do).
They also can "help" with the OS 9 install.

 

[MysticCow]

With the latest version of Flash you can still play it on the site. However, most PPC users will agree that MacTubes or YouView is the better method.

On my dual 1.8 I play it in WebKit half the time and the other half MacTubes or YouView.

As a corollary, I'd require WebKit with ClickToFlash and ClickToPlugin. They're so good, I use them on my Intel Macs also.

Flash barely runs on my system anymore and for good reason.

 

[poiihy]

Broken images

Some of the images on the FAQ here are broken. They say "Click and Discover ImageShack". I've seen a lot of these broken images that say "Click and Discover ImageShack". I don't understand why they break like that.
I hate ImageShack.

 

[MagicBoy]

Imageshack have developed a nasty habit of deleting older images that don't get accessed that often.

 

[Zotaccian]

Do PowerPC Mac Mini machines which did not come with Airport preinstalled have the board which hosts AP and Bluetooth by default? Or was it only bundled with AP card if you bought the optional AP + BT when buying the machine?

 

[Intell]

It does not come preinstalled.

 

[Riviera122]

What's the best version of word to use on a PPC? I have a 1.5gH PowerBook G4 running Tiger.