Butchered Blue and White Mac... Newbie.

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Project Black

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So I got a blue and white Power Mac today... it was given to me by someone "who didn't want to fix it up". Unfortunately, it is JUST the tower: It didn't come with keyboard, mouse or monitor, though I figured maybe any ol' monitor would work with it.

So I hook up the power, the monitor, and my mouse (do Macs CARE if it's a two-button or single button mouse?)... and nothing comes on the screen. A very freaky choir sound really woke me up (haven't heard that sound since I booted on an iMac back in middle school) and everything, but I didn't hear anything else. No beeps, or anything indicating any error.

Anyway, I unplugged it and checked around for a few things. Here is an audit of "what could be wrong" with this Power Mac:

1) Bad Video Card?
In a separate box with "extra crap in it" was a Rage 128 Pro card. It was brand new, still in static bag with factory tape over it. Could it be the video card in the system was originally meant to be replaced? Will do that tomorrow.

2) No Disc Drive(s).
Inside, for whatever reason, there's no CD drive, there's no Zip drive, but the faceplates remain in tact. I wonder... would any CD drive work as a replacement? I believe I can do without the Zip drive...

3) Keyboard/Mouse
I've no idea what these cost, but I'm guessing I'll need an actual one-button mouse and a keyboard with the Apple Key, eh?

4) Monitor
Am I wrong to believe that any monitor would work? This Rage 128 Pro card seems to have an HDMI plugin, but my HDMI cable won't fit into it. A regular little blue plug WILL fit, but as mentioned before: No display comes up on the screen. Could be related to video card error.

Any thoughts you fellas might have will help! The MAC was free, and I intend to use it to make myself familiar with how MACs work. :)
 
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1) Bad Video Card?
In a separate box with "extra crap in it" was a Rage 128 Pro card. It was brand new, still in static bag with factory tape over it. Could it be the video card in the system was originally meant to be replaced? Will do that tomorrow.


It certainly is possible.

2) No Disc Drive(s).
Inside, for whatever reason, there's no CD drive, there's no Zip drive, but the faceplates remain in tact. I wonder... would any CD drive work as a replacement? I believe I can do without the Zip drive...


Theoretically, any IDE optical drive would work.

3) Keyboard/Mouse
I've no idea what these cost, but I'm guessing I'll need an actual one-button mouse and a keyboard with the Apple Key, eh?


Nope. ANY keyboard and mouse that is USB will work. You don't need something branded by Apple.


4) Monitor
Am I wrong to believe that any monitor would work? This Rage 128 Pro card seems to have an HDMI plugin, but my HDMI cable won't fit into it. A regular little blue plug WILL fit, but as mentioned before: No display comes up on the screen. Could be related to video card error.


Any monitor with the correct connector will work. It is probably the video card.



Basically, Macs aren't really much different on the inside. They are just computers and use the same hardware as a Windows machine would.
What is different is the OS. :black:
 
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Unless the previous owner put something strange in it, the B&W video is VGA. Any vga monitor should work.

As said above, almost any IDE cd/dvd drive should work. Even if the system wont support it for burning, Toast or Patchburn (for OS X) will.
 
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cradom said:
Unless the previous owner put something strange in it, the B&W video is VGA. Any vga monitor should work.

As said above, almost any IDE cd/dvd drive should work. Even if the system wont support it for burning, Toast or Patchburn (for OS X) will.

It was an ATI Rage 128 Pro card. I swapped em out, and still no good. I still cannot get any kind of display to come up.

Will the system boot without a CD-Rom drive? What if there was no OS present? I'm waiting for some kinda beep code to tell me what's wrong, but as far as I can tell the system's okay.
 
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2 things I can think of:

1: both video cards are bad
or
2: someone tried to install OS X without upgrading the firmware

Make sure the card is seated well and the connections are solid.
Also does the motherboard have ram installed?

Will a mac boot without a cd? yes
Without an operating system? no
 
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cradom said:
2 things I can think of:

1: both video cards are bad
or
2: someone tried to install OS X without upgrading the firmware

Make sure the card is seated well and the connections are solid.
Also does the motherboard have ram installed?

Will a mac boot without a cd? yes
Without an operating system? no

I actually found this page that pretty much states my problem: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300537

...problem is, without a USB Keyboard, (and at that, what am I supposed to use in place of the "Option" key on a PC Keyboard?) I can't do the command that it's asking me for.

Depressing. I also can't seem to mount this 8x8x32x CD-RW drive inside. There's this funny looking plate, that *might* double as a mounting bracket, but it kinda looks more like a hard drive mount than anything else.
 
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Project Black said:
I actually found this page that pretty much states my problem: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300537

...problem is, without a USB Keyboard, (and at that, what am I supposed to use in place of the "Option" key on a PC Keyboard?) I can't do the command that it's asking me for.

Depressing. I also can't seem to mount this 8x8x32x CD-RW drive inside. There's this funny looking plate, that *might* double as a mounting bracket, but it kinda looks more like a hard drive mount than anything else.

If you're using a windows keyboard, the alt key should work as the option key. The key with the windows logo (on the left side of the space bar) should be the command key.

Does it have a totally blank faceplate? Remove the front blue faceplate using the tabs. There will be a double bracket that's bigger on top than the bottom. The top part holds a cd drive, the smaller bottom part is for a zip.

As a side note: For people who just HAVE to cram one more hard drive in the case... a drive will fit nicely in the zip bracket. Set it as slave and hook it up to the cd cables second connection. YMMV
 

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