Upgrade video card in a G4 Mini ... Doable?

Hi guys,
I noticed a little juddering and pixelation type of bad news when playing a video DVD on this G4 Mac Mini which has the following specs .....

1.25 GHz
1 GB of RAM
ATI Radeon 9200
Chipset Model: ATY,RV280
Type: Display
Bus: AGP
VRAM (Total): 32 MB

Is it possible to upgrade the video card on these brilliant little machines?
This Mini displays through a 52" Plasma TV but the picture shows the same issues when showing in a much smaller screen.
Any ideas or advice would be much appreciated (Unless the advice is to buy a new Intel Mac Mini. I would love to but the current cash situation says "NOT DA MAMMA" as it batters my head with a skillet)

5tevie said:

Is it possible to upgrade the video card on these brilliant little machines?

Click to expand...

There is no "video card" in a Mac-Mini...it's simply "video hardware" soldered onto the motherboard. So no...you cannot do any upgrading of the video.

Sorry,

- Nick

Hi pigoo. Thanks for that info.
It begs another question though.
Were these Mac Minis made to play only software DVDs with no thought for actual DVD films or is it just my Mac Mini that has this kind of problem?

5tevie said:

Hi pigoo. Thanks for that info.
It begs another question though.
Were these Mac Minis made to play only software DVDs with no thought for actual DVD films or is it just my Mac Mini that has this kind of problem?

Click to expand...

The G4 1.25ghz Mac-mini was the first Mac-mini ever. It is the least powerful & least capable Mac-Mini. It may simply be a matter of asking it to do too much...or (you didn't tell us what OS version you're running) maybe if you update the OS things may improve.

Also...what sort of video DVD are you trying to play. Is it an original disk...or a copy?

HTH,

- Nick

Hi again,
The DVD is a genuine one that was part of a newspaper give-away.
My Mac Mini specs are under my name and the OS is 10.5.8. I have been told that it may run Leopard but I won't be able to get that before Christmas.

Problem solved (I think)
When I tried to play this DVD before, I had a few other things going on.
I tried to play it again just now after closing down Firefox it the DVD now plays smoothly, including lip sync, even in full screen.

So, the moral of the story is, If you want to watch a DVD, turn all the other stuff off.

I can live with that.
Cheers,
Steve

5tevie said:

Hi again,
The DVD is a genuine one that was part of a newspaper give-away.

Click to expand...

Glad to hear things are working better. I would imagine that the free DVD that came with the newspaper is not of the best quality...compared to a genuine video DVD purchased at a store.

5tevie said:

My Mac Mini specs are under my name and the OS is 10.5.8.

Click to expand...

Sorry...I missed the OS version you're running listed under your username.

5tevie said:

I have been told that it may run Leopard but I won't be able to get that before Christmas.

Click to expand...

OS 10.5.8 is Leopard. If you meant OS 10.6 "Snow Leopard"...no your Mac-mini cannot run 10.6. You need an Intel cpu for that...your Mac-mini has a G4 cpu.

Again...good to hear that things are operating better...and good deal regarding your tip about running video DVD's on older G4 Mac-Minis.

- Nick

10.5.8 is Leopard. With Leopard they fixed an Interlace issue with the DVD player Application and that caused it to need a faster CPU. Like you found though, DVD's play fine as long as the player is the only thing running.

Back when it had Tiger 10.4 installed, it was smooth no matter what was going on, but the picture quality was not as good as with 10.5's improvements to the DVD player.

I own that same first generation 1.25Ghz Mini with 1GB RAM.

I suppose if you downgraded to Tiger, the DVD would play fine. (But that could cause a lot of compatibility issues.) Because my 700 MHz iMac G4 plays DVD's fine, even with a few things running in the Background! Sounds like Leopard is a processor hog.

Ahhhh, I have done a boo-boo in my explanation.
What I should have said is that this Mac Mini is running 10.5.8, installed by the previous owner, but that the software I have for it is Tiger. I don't really want to downgrade to Tiger but if anything goes double pear shaped before I can get hold of Leopard discs, (hence my mention of Christmas) I at least have that to fall back on.

5tevie said:

I don't really want to downgrade to Tiger but if anything goes double pear shaped before I can get hold of Leopard discs, (hence my mention of Christmas) I at least have that to fall back on.

Click to expand...

How were you planning on obtaining these Leopard discs for Christmas?

This is not something you can just walk into a store & buy...or ask "Santa Claus" for (unless he works at Apple or shops on e-Bay)!



- Nick

MacDude121 said:

I suppose if you downgraded to Tiger, the DVD would play fine. (But that could cause a lot of compatibility issues.) Because my 700 MHz iMac G4 plays DVD's fine, even with a few things running in the Background! Sounds like Leopard is a processor hog.

Click to expand...

Actually not at all. I have 10.5.8 on a G4 733 Quicksilver and it's QUITE fast and snappy. Read my post above Carefully. There was an Issue with DVD player pre Leopard that caused interlace issues. With Tiger I can easily see this issue. Anand of Anandtech also reported on it. It's just the DVD player App in 10.5 that (to get rid of the interlace issues) requires a fast system.

pigoo3 asked .... How were you planning on obtaining these Leopard discs for Christmas?

Did I miss something? I have been watching eBay for Leopard discs (NOT Snow Leopard) and they seem to come up fairly often. I didn't think there was a problem with buying them that way.

5tevie said:

pigoo3 asked .... How were you planning on obtaining these Leopard discs for Christmas?

Did I miss something? I have been watching eBay for Leopard discs (NOT Snow Leopard) and they seem to come up fairly often. I didn't think there was a problem with buying them that way.

Click to expand...

E-bay is fine. It was just the way your previous postings made it sound (to me)...you kept mentioning that you were going to get Leopard for "Christmas" as if you were going to put it on your Christmas list for someone else to get for you...and they were just going to "pop" into a store and buy Leopard...when it is no longer available for sale.

You can also call Apple (with your computers serial number)...and they will send you model specific 10.5 disks for a very small fee ($15-$16 here in the US).

- Nick

pigoo wrote ....You can also call Apple (with your computers serial number)...and they will send you model specific 10.5 disks for a very small fee ($15-$16 here in the US).

Are you sure about that? Could you ring an Apple store and confirm it?
Reason that I asked is that I just contacted the Sales people at an Apple store here in the UK and, just to check, I also rang Apple (UK) Sales main office as well and in both cases I was quoted £85 + postage.
So if the $15 - $16 is correct, and I don't doubt it, I need some kind soul to buy me the disc or set of disks that would allow me to install OS X Leopard on my Mac Mini and then post them to me. Obviously all at my expense and paid in advance via Paypal or some other means.

Any takers?

5tevie said:

pigoo wrote ....You can also call Apple (with your computers serial number)...and they will send you model specific 10.5 disks for a very small fee ($15-$16 here in the US).

Are you sure about that? Could you ring an Apple store and confirm it?
Reason that I asked is that I just contacted the Sales people at an Apple store here in the UK and, just to check, I also rang Apple (UK) Sales main office as well and in both cases I was quoted £85 + postage.
So if the $15 - $16 is correct, and I don't doubt it, I need some kind soul to buy me the disc or set of disks that would allow me to install OS X Leopard on my Mac Mini and then post them to me. Obviously all at my expense and paid in advance via Paypal or some other means.

Any takers?

Click to expand...

Wow...you're not shy asking an awful lot man!!!

All I know is that here in the US...a number of Mac-Forums users have been able to call Apple Customer service via their "800" number...and were able to get a copy of 10.5 for their computer (having their computers serial number, and this copy is probably the gray "model specific" disks).

I was hoping the same service was available in the UK. Maybe you're not contacting the correct people (the nearest Apple Store would not be the correct place)...or this program is not available in the UK.

If this is the case...then e-Bay is your best option.

- Nick

My apologies but please explain, "Asking an awful lot"

Am I missing something?
What does it take other than a call to the local Apple store with the serial number from my Mac Mini? The discs arrive and the person posts them off to me.
Is it a real hassle making a phone call to Apple?
Is going to a post office when you next go to town after the discs arrive a big problem?
I mean, it's not like I asked to borrow your cat for a Turkey Shoot or anything like that.

5tevie said:

My apologies but please explain, "Asking an awful lot"

Am I missing something?
What does it take other than a call to the local Apple store with the serial number from my Mac Mini? The discs arrive and the person posts them off to me.
Is it a real hassle making a phone call to Apple?
Is going to a post office when you next go to town after the discs arrive a big problem?
I mean, it's not like I asked to borrow your cat for a Turkey Shoot or anything like that.

Click to expand...

Yes...you ARE missing something...that is an awful lot to ask a complete stranger in another country!!!:

- make a phone call on your behalf
- pay for the discs
- receive the discs
- pay to have the discs shipped to you in the UK
- trust that I will be reimbursed

Again...YES...I feel this is a lot to ask of a stranger in another country!!! In fact your being rude just asking!!! You've only been a member here on Mac-Forums for 12 days...why should I trust you???

I might do this for some folks/members...but not for someone I don't even know. Come on...get real!

- Nick

p.s. You need to find your own solution to this problem. I already told you two ways...contact the appropriate people in the UK...or buy the discs from e-Bay. Enough said!

p.p.s. You also may not realize it...but by making this request you're also asking me (or someone else) to fraudulently contact Apple with your computers serial number...to obtain OS 10.5 install discs...when this is only supposed to be done by the owner of the computer!!!

Ahhhh, I see the problem now.
You missed a bit in my earlier post where I first mentioned about somebody buying the discs and posting them on to me here in England.
The bit you missed was where I wrote ....

Obviously all at my expense and paid in advance via Paypal or some other means.

pigoo3 said:

p.p.s. You also may not realize it...but by making this request you're also asking me (or someone else) to fraudulently contact Apple with your computers serial number...to obtain OS 10.5 install discs...when this is only supposed to be done by the owner of the computer!!!

Click to expand...

You're also not considering this part I quoted above...^^^^^^

- Nick