05-02-2005, 02:52 PM

Well I just bought a G3 Blue and White from eBay, and the system does not have a video card, memory or hard drive. Now i have the memory and a hard drive, my question is what video card can i put in here? I have read several sites talking about buying a ATI card and then flashing it in a PC with the mac ROM? So I am curious to get advice from someone that has done that, and also wil this use a USB keyboard and mouse or do i need to purchase a ADB keyboard and mouse? Thanks in advance from a new mac owner.

05-02-2005, 04:33 PM

I think u can flash the card, but there is no guarantee that it will work.
At least I think I've seen people with flashed cards, complaining that they didn't work.
As for the usb question, I don't think it has usb (at least on everymac.com it didn't say it has), so I think you'll have to use an adb keyb. and mouse or u can add an usb port card, since the g3 b&w has pci slots, in order to have usb ports.

Congrats for the deal ... have fun

05-02-2005, 05:25 PM

Originally Posted by Crypt0

I think u can flash the card, but there is no guarantee that it will work.
At least I think I've seen people with flashed cards, complaining that they didn't work.
As for the usb question, I don't think it has usb (at least on everymac.com it didn't say it has), so I think you'll have to use an adb keyb. and mouse or u can add an usb port card, since the g3 b&w has pci slots, in order to have usb ports.

Congrats for the deal ... have fun

hmm according tho this
http://www.lowendmac.com/ppc/g3c.shtml

and the ebay auction, it does have 2 USB ports, would OS X recognize a USB kb and mouse? Thanks!

05-03-2005, 12:03 AM

My BW G3 has 2 USB and 2 Firewire ports. OS X will use a USB keyboard and mouse just fine. The only thing I use the ADB port for is my old Wacom tablet.

As far as the video, go to ClubMac or any Mac web vendor and buy a PCI or AGP video card for a Mac.

05-03-2005, 01:14 AM

Originally Posted by cradom

My BW G3 has 2 USB and 2 Firewire ports. OS X will use a USB keyboard and mouse just fine. The only thing I use the ADB port for is my old Wacom tablet.

As far as the video, go to ClubMac or any Mac web vendor and buy a PCI or AGP video card for a Mac.

cool thanks, the BW mac only has a PCI slot tho right? I didnt think it was AGP capable

05-03-2005, 07:15 AM

Yes, OSX recognizes usb kb and mouse without a problem

Good news for u then. Good luck

05-03-2005, 10:07 AM

It has 4 slots, 1 AGP and 3 PCI. Mine came with a Rage 128 in it (for some reason System Profiler shows it as a ATY instead of ATI).

Handy link: http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/G3-ZONE/
Almost anything you want to know about the BW.

05-03-2005, 05:00 PM

Originally Posted by cradom

It has 4 slots, 1 AGP and 3 PCI. Mine came with a Rage 128 in it (for some reason System Profiler shows it as a ATY instead of ATI).

Ahhhh No. That is a 66 MHz PCI slot. He needs a PCI graphix card.

I have a flashed PC Radeon7000 (someone else flashed it for me... so don't ask), but it is slower than the fo shizzle Mac edition cards and sme times they break during the ROM flash (so i've read). If you want a brand new card the radeon9200 works or there are lots and lots of 7000s on ebay. or you can find the older ATI rage pro 128s for a little less if you aren't concerned about games or video editing type stuff.

AGP cards WILL NOT work, sadly.

Good Luck.

05-04-2005, 12:04 AM

Sorry, my mistake. I re-read the service manual. Guess when I saw "accelerated graphics" I assumed AGP.

05-04-2005, 12:21 AM

thanks for the advice, looks like the best card is the 9200 PCI mac edition i found it for about $95 from newegg. so thats not too bad, plus it has full OSX support. I might go that route.

05-12-2005, 08:47 PM

agp cards will work, you just have to do some contact taping. you need os9 for flashing though..i think?

06-01-2005, 11:37 AM

Originally Posted by MadSkillzMan

agp cards will work, you just have to do some contact taping. you need os9 for flashing though..i think?

Sorry to be bringing up old shizzle.... but do you have a link for how to mod AGP cards for PCI slots? I would like to see that. I didn't even think the contacts would line up since the agp contacts are set further back than the PCI.