Quiet G4 MDD 1.33 - box of trouble

Hi all I just bought off fleabay a 1.25 dual with USB2 on a VT6212 PCI card and an Airplus PCI wireless card. The seller has 2 more for sale in London. Aside from most of the promised software not being on there (in the dock, but not in the applications folder) the thing keeps crashing for no apparent reason: I get a 'restart your computer' message or just a stuck screen. This has happened a dozen or more times since I got it home yesterday. He says he fitted 1.33 MHz processors from an X-serve, and there is a 100mm fan wedged beside the heat sink which prevents the temperature rising and boosting the main fan. The power supply fans are still noisy. The seller is not answering my calls.

I found by searching forums that the VIA PCI card is often troublesome so I removed it, but after a restart the computer froze when exiting System Profiler. I then took out the wireless card and it has been running for a whole hour - Wow!

PLEASE can anyone reassure me that these processors are OK in this computer? Is the problem likely to be the PCI cards? Any other ideas? Thanks, Marvin

Think you got a lemon. Get straight onto eBay and lodge a complaint and this hackintosh.

G'day Harry, and thanks for your reply. I've removed the PCI cards with no improvement. Disk Utility repaired a page and a half of permissions, then 'verify' found a load more. Repeated that, and was repairing for the third time when the hard disk disappeared - DU stopped and the HD was no longer on the desktop. I was running off an old hard disk of my own which I had put in so that I could run Disk Repair. After a few minutes the keyboard response went wierd, then the whole thing died and wouldn't restart (grey screen) except from the install CD, and as if by magic the HD was back! I restarted from that, and it fell over again when I tried to open Disk Utility. The HD that gives the most trouble is a new 250 gig Magnetic Drive Techologies unit - are they any good?

BTW, the extra fan keeps the CPU temperature around 40 ish when just doing ordinary stuff. Thanks again, Marvin

Sorry never heard of them and prefer Western Digital, Fujitsu and Seagate drives. I think this machine having been hackintoshed is going to prove nothing but trouble. Sounds like the seller has tried to make a PC from it.

Update - I swapped the MDT drive into my old computer, and the problems moved too. Stuck my old drive into the new machine and it seems OK. I googled MDT drives - they are actually refurbished WD drives and according to most people who expressed a preference are as much use as the chocolate teapot, the cardboard canoe and the inflatable dartboard. That 250 gig drive can be had for £28.55 here in snowy GB. If I get a new drive and use the Time Machine backup from the external HD I used with my old machine, would it be safe to copy applications from the dodgy drive, or might I be importing trouble?

Applications per se should be okay, but your problem is going to be anything related to the OS, namely Library and Preference files. If you can locate installers for the apps you want off the dodgy drive, all the better.

This Hard Drives | Buy Hard Disk Drive - Kelkoo seems a useful resource.

Thanks very much. The OS should be OK, I have an install disk, and I will be very selsctive in what apps I move over - I would never have used most of them anyway. Best wishes to all in the antipodes, Marvin
PS - I am almost tempted by a G5 2.3 like Harryb's, Scrumpymacs have some at £450 complete with install disks, keyboard and mighty mouse and they are just down the road from me. Would one of those give me any more Apple happiness, last longer etc than what I have?

I think peace of mind might be one of the more attractive aspects of that deal. And a G5 is superior in many ways to a G4.

Last longer? Depends on present condition. If the machines you refer to are trade-ins, or 'refurbished', see what sort of warranty is provided. If there are going to be problems, they should show up inside the first month, so see if you can persuade a 3-month cover for your investment.

Incidentally, when I referred to installers, I meant for applications, not the OS (just thought I should make that clear). And for what it's worth, and I think you're already on this track, forget about loading applications simply for the sake of having them. I offer that advice because I rank amongst the world's worst for hoarding Mac apps that see the light of day perhaps once a year!

Words of Wisdom. They're offering 6 months warranty, 2 gig ram, 250 HD, new keyboard, mouse, disks for Leopard and iLife... many thanks again.

Make sure it be a Dual Core with DDR2 memory, PCIE slots and a PCIE graphics card, preferably a GeForce 6600 or better Marvin. There were that many versions of 2GHz and 2.3GHz Dual processors AND Dual Cores.