Blue & White motherboard replacement

Hi,
I own a Blue & White G3 350 with an original motherboard (not the Rev2). I'd like to buy a Rev2 motherboard and do a swap. The Rev2 motherboard that I am looking to buy has a G3 450 processor on it. One look at my list of Macs at the bottom of this post (I still own them all) will tell you that I'm no stranger to the Mac platform. I have upgraded hard drives/optical drives, RAM, video and audio cards, but have never attempted anything like a complete motherboard replacement. How easy is it and is there anything special I need to do? Also, would there be any compatibility issues regarding the systems from one revision to the next?
Thanks in advance...
Mac +, Mac SE30, Mac II, Powerbook 140, Performa 6400/180, G3 233MT, G3 350 B&W, Mac OS X (10.4.5) G4 500 DP, G5 2.0 DP.

You will need a grounding wrist strap and a #2 Phillips screwdriver. When you get all the screws out, the board slides about 1/4 inch away from the backpanel and then you lift it gentely up and out.
When you are done, you may need to do a firmware update, which requires some version of Mac OS 9 on a Hard drive (not just a CD).
A PRAM backup battery anywhere near 3.2 Volts in your hand will be dead soon.
Superstition says that if it will not start after the swap, even with a good battery and a CUDA Reset, holding down command Option P R while you press the start button on the keyboard may give better results.

Similar Messages

Replacement drive for Blue/White G3

Found a good price on a WD Caviar 160gb. But it says it is ATA II. Will it work inside this computer. I want to swap it out with the original drive and use it as the boot up drive.

The Blue & White G3 does not have native SCSI support, so you must be using a PCI card SCSI controller. If your Blue & White G3 shipped in the "Server" configuration, that card could be an Adaptec with 5 digit number, or Apple/ATTO such as the UL2D with second internal connector de-populated. The pale yellow to white "teflon" cable is folded in a convoluted way to allow each of the the three drive connectors to reach a drive right-side up. The black gizmo at the end is a terminator. Only 68-pin SCSI drives will fit on that cable without adapters.
Macs like yours can use drives on any or all of their busses.
If your Mac shipped with the "stacking bracket" shown in this article, it is almost certain to be a rev 2, whose very short IDE/ATA cable can accept up to two IDE/ATA drives, one set to Master and one set to Slave.
58193 -- Power Macintosh G3 (Blue and White): Additional Hard Drive Installation Options

Blue & White will not Boot into OS 9

My son has a 400Mhz Rev. 2 Blue & White. Recently the Power Supply died, which I replaced, but when it died it also took one of the hard drives with it, before that it was working flawlessly. He had two ATA drives, both Maxtor, one the original 6 gig, with OS 9.2.2, and a 40 gig with OS X 10.4.11 on it. It was the 40 gig that died. Like I said I replaced the the dead power supply, pulled the faulty hard drive and replaced it with another one with 10.4.11 on it. The computer would start up, sometimes it would chime, sometimes not, but it would always go to a white screen, with the mouse courser in the top left hand corner and just sit there. I tried zapping the PRAM, resetting the logic board, pressing the CUDA Switch, starting up from original 8.6 CD, a retail OS 9.1 CD, a retail Tiger CD, and even a SCSI hard drive with OS 9.2.2 it. The only thing that worked was the Tiger CD, which would allow me to boot to the OS X drive. But for some reason I cannot boot to any device with OS 9.2.2 or lower. I can boot into classic from OS X, but I cannot boot directly to any drive with OS 9.
So my question is, how can this machine recognize and boot to OS X, but not to OS 9? I can take all the disks and boot to their respective OS's on my Daughter's Blue & White with no problems, but my son's will only boot to OS X, and it just hangs if I try to boot to OS 9.
Any help will be much appreciated.
By the way, I googled this problem, and it seems awhile back someone had the same problem with a G4 Cube, but was unable to get any help. So while it may be rare, it has happened before.
Ken

Ken,
A couple more things you should try: First I would try removing the PRAM battery from the computer with it powered off and unplugged for at least 10 minutes. This will completely kill the clock and the PRAM, but the PRAM settings may still hold. Then put the battery in and power it back on. I just replaced RAM in a G4Cube and that was the only way to get the system to accept the new RAM. Of course this resets your system clock to January 1st 1907, which will cause all sorts of complaints until you reset the clock, but it could fix the disparate drive problem.
Another thing to know is that certain PATA drives do not play well together Western Digital and Maxtor for instance. WD Masters expect WD slaves on their chain, so if you are mixing brands, you should try placing both drives in Cable Select Mode. Place the blue end of the ribbon cable on the motherboard, the master drive on the black cable end and the slave on the gray connector in the middle and give that a whirl.
Then you should hold down CommandOption+OF for Open Firmware when you press the power button, that will bring up your Open Firmware interface and enable you to view the startup settings. From there you can specify which hard drive you want it to boot from. If you know the drive and slice you can specify it in the boot-device entry. To view all the entries type "printenv" and press enter it should show a full page of options and then give you the option to press space for the last 7 or so entries. See what boot-device has next to it. It should read something like hd:0:2,\\:tbxi If you don't know what your boot slice is you can wipe out the entry one of two ways: You can edit the entry directly, in which case you would type "setenv boot-device hd:\\:tbxi" Return Then do a "printenv" again. That should show the blank entry--what you're doing is removing the specific boot drive assignment. You might also wish to change the boot mode so that you can see the device messages instead of the gray screen as the system boots. You can do that temporarily by pressing Command+V on boot. To store your new settings and start the Mac type "mac-boot" and Return. To choose which drive you want to boot from hold Option down as it powers up and you should be shown a list of the volumes with a bootable MacOS on them, as the OS Finds the bootable folders. Then you should be able to get Mac OS 9 or X to boot.
Let us know how you make out...
Tom

PowerMac G3 Blue & White Hard Drive Trouble/Help Requested

Hey all,
I work for a small IT/computer repair company. We recently got in a PowerMac G3 Blue & White (300 MHz; 512K cache; 64 MB SDRAM) which has what appears to be a bad hard drive.
(Upon boot, it comes up with a flashing disk/question mark and you can hear the drive making noises it shouldn't be/spinning up and down/etc.). I've tried booting with the OS CD (8.5.1) in the drive and get a bit further, but it complains of an unimplemented trap, and if I try holding down C to boot up, it starts to load, but then the screen flashes and it eventually locks up (but without the hard drive connected at all doesn't even get that far; just a gray screen).
I've done some research and think my first step should be to replace the hard drive (though if that's not the case, I'd appreciate some insight). I haven't fixed many Macs before, though, so I still have several questions:
1.) The drive that came with the machine is a 6 GB IBM connected to the mainboard IDE interface. It lists it as having Apple HDD Firmware. Is this firmware required on any drive I'd have to get to work with this machine, or can I go with any IDE drive and not worry about it like with PC's (I'm going to stay as small as I can, but with newer drives, that's probably still a lot of gigs)?
2.) Similarly, when I do get a new drive, assuming that's the problem, will OS 8.5.1 be able to format and use it, as I've never done an install of this particular OS before. I'm assuming I just boot from CD and go through the process?
3.) Unfortunately, I've discovered this unit is using the Revision 1 chipset. So I may need to go for some sort of PCI IDE interface option. Any recommendations for a cheap solution here, and is this a definite must to get this working reliably?
4.) The owner of this machine also inquired about a DVD/CD burner (would have to be external as there's no room inside). Any recommendations that would work well with this machine, or is this machine not suited to using these types of drives well?
5.) Can this Apple G3 run Mac OSX well enough, as the client has also expressed interest in upgrading OSes, or is it too slow for this?
Thanks much for any help - this is fairly new territory for me!
Shaun

Shaun,
After the iMac killed the used Mac market and the G4 killed the value of the B&W G3, I closed up shop and moved on to better ways of making money. lol
One client wanted a newer mac cheap so I bought her a used B&W G3. One month later they came out with the Mac Mini for $125.00 more than a fully configured B&W. With in the year, that client moved up to a Mini. The B&W has plummeted in value since that day. Current market is G4 or better now.
For a hobby machine, it is still a great computer. To pay for service time at shop rate, that model can quickly become a money pit. You may have already checked out some sites like this:
http://www.macgurus.com/products/motherboards/mbppcg3bw.php
so I apologize in advance if you already know the history of issues with that machine.
Yes we can walk you through the resurrection of a Blue and ***** ( honest typo) Mac, but religious preferences aside, if you value the client, tell them about the value of a mini. It was built to run OS X. It has behaved flawlessly ( except with MS Office ) for us here.
The model of B&W Mac that you mentioned has many service land mines. Those traps for the unwary can be easily avoided with SCSI interface cards and a SCSI drive. Your fees and the cost of the upgrades might add up to close to the cost of a bare bones Mini. Just something to consider.
First thing to do is to "zap the PRAM" and Texas mac man gives a good tutorial here:
http://www.geocities.com/texas_macman/pram.html
The Apple OEM HDD firmware is not required but it does make life much easier on your client.
If you have a spare Western Digital IDE drive kicking around, see if you can format it to Mac with Drive Setup in the Utilities folder of any drive you can get to boot that Mac after zapping the PRAM.
The Mini can be ordered with a DVD burner.
Good luck.
Jim

Unexpected Error installing OS 10.2 on G3 (blue & white)

I was given a G3 tower (blue & white, 350mhz, 1Gig memory & 100 Gig HD). The tower came with 9.2 installed and works.
I have not been able to install OSX 10.2. I have the full retail version from Apple (2 cds). I boot from the CD to install. I select the partition I want to use for the OS, and everything goes nicely until, according to the progress bar, the process is almost complete when the screen goes black and reads, "The installer has quit due to an unexpected error. (exit code 0). Please Restart your computer." I should mention that I never am prompted to insert the second installation disc.
Before I had partitioned the drive, the aforementioned error made the entire drive unusuable: When booting, the osX apple would appear with the spinning cog ad infinitum. Booting back into os9 was impossible.
I had to initialize the drive and reinstall os9.2. I created the partition to avoid having to do that again... but on my subsequent attmepts to install 10.2, the target partition becomes damaged. When this happens, can I just initialize the partition, or do I need to "repair" it before I erase it?
Here are the various solutions I've tried over the past weekend: I have checked the disc for bad sectors. When attempting to install, I always select "Erase and Install." I checked every firmware update that seems to be available for this machine; the only update needed was the ATI Video Softare: I installed it. All this to no avail; the same result each time.
I am an avid Mac user, mostly on a powerbook G4 at my job, and it has been so long since I've used os9... not to whine, but I can do so much more with osX, but free IS free... Am I looking a gift horse in the mouth? Should I just keep the machine in os9 until I can afford a new mac?
Also, I am assuming the description of this machine is Blue & White, even though the "white" is really frosted transparent. My machine looks like the following image:
http://images.apple.com/support/powermac/elements/title-powermacg3-us.gif
Am I correct that this is considered "b&w"? Thanks!
Powermac G3 Mac OS 9.2.x
Powermac G3 Mac OS 9.2.x

First, have you installed the firmware update that's required? It must be installed while booted directly into OS 9.1 or higher.
Try the following:
1. Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select Disk Utility from the installer's Installer menu.
2. After DU loads select the OS X partition you created from the left side list, then click on the Erase tab in the DU main window. Select Mac OS Extended from the Format drop down menu, then click on the Erase button.
3. After the erase has completed click on the First Aid tab in the DU main window, select the OS X volume you just erased from the left side list, then click on the Repair Disk button. Be sure no errors are reported. If any errors are reported re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported.
4. Check the SMART status in the DU status area. If the SMART status does not say "Verified" then your hard drive is failing or has failed. The hard drive should then be replaced.
These older B&W G3s can be difficult when trying to install OS X, so you may need to be patient and keep trying. You should also check the internal PRAM battery located on the motherboard. It could be dead or dying. If so this could cause problems trying to install OS X. You also might try removing some of the added RAM during installation. You may have bad RAM. Also be sure to remove all third-party peripherals except keyboard and mouse.

Need to ID G4 part:socket came off logic board (blue & white power cable

In the course of disassembling a G4 iBook the socket for the blue & white power cable wiring harness broke off the logic board.
I am trying to learn the correct desciption of this part so I can find a replacement. The wires on the bottom which were soldered to the board broke off.
Even after it was broken off, and I had leverage, I had to use two pairs of pliers to get the plug out of this socket. It should never have been assembled so tightly.

Spud-- I'm going to use conductive epoxy; I don't have access to anyone with micro soldering skills.
re previous posts -- unfortunately the Search logic is not precise enough to ask about this particular connector. Any search containing "logic board" gets swamped with the famous failure issue.
I went to an electronics specialty store and they didn't have any connectors of that style, let alone size. I'd like to replace the socket so I can use the existing plug on the blue & white wire.
Last night I spend some hours surfing "connector" etc and didn't see any photos that matched it on any distributor/manufacturer sites. So I'm still wondering what the correct descriptive word is, as used in the trade.
My "backup" iBook G3/Panther is taking about 30 seconds to load an average web page though. Spinner locks it up while loading one at a time. Wonder if installing Tiger and a newer Safari would help? I just got a chip to max out the memory, still have to install it.
For those who haven't seen it, the plug is a solid rectangle with two holes; the socket has a rectangular single cavity with two prongs sticking up from the bottom. TINY, THIN prongs.
The socket bottom has no leads on it (anymore). They are broken off flush with the plastic on the bottom. I was thinking of using a dental burr to grind into them, creating a small cavity, and then using conductive epoxy. I don't know if the bottom plastic is thick enough; if I go too far then it would ruin the prongs sticking up in the cavity.
But I could epoxy a wire stub, as long as possible to still fit into the space above the board & below the top of the shield/case. Then epoxy each wire to the pad on the board. The pads are about 1 mm x 2 mm or less, and worse, the gap between them is under 1mm wide. I'll have to goop some insulating silicone putty in that gap before putting tiny dabs of epoxy on the pads.
I bought some larger socket/plugs at the store, the socket part has no leads in it though. These sockets are they type that use the wire lead of the style shown in your photo of the repaired plug. I also got some different ones with flat prongs.
I'd like to move the connection point from the board to under the case top -- the blue & white wire runs all the way from the other side of the case. I just need a thin enough connector. Worst case -- leave as much slack wire length as possible and solder a Western Union splice.
If I can epoxy leads to the board without shorting between the pads I can figure something out. Need to carefully estimate the space available. Or as you say, just make some prongs.
You say #26 is the right wire gauge -- that's vital data. I don't want to undersize the power leads !
I'm also going to paint non-conductive coating on the board around the pad area, so I can slop the epoxy without worrying about shorting a trace. I've had to do some scraping to remove the gummy gluey stuff -- I presume its silicone adhesive of some kind.
There is some sort of test connection right above this area, with two little prongs sticking up. Marked "J1." The traces look like they go to the socket. I wonder if they use that to use alligator clips to power up the board during assembly testing? That location is much, much larger than the pads for the socket.

Power Mac Desktop G3 Blue & White - Bad Battery?

Hello all - I just found you G3 guys here
I have this older G3 Blue & White 350 mhz loaded with OS 9.1, and I haven't powered it up for a number of years. When I went to power it up, the network clock was naturally out of wack. Got an error which said:
Network Time in error set for 1956. I reset the time and date several times, and although it works briefly, it won't keep accurate time. Is this indicative of a battery replacement? The battery is small and cylindrical - shaped like a camera battery - Not Flat.
Yes? And if so, is it any big deal to replace? Do I need to reset anything?
And another problem is that the power button periodically gets stuck. Sometimes it retracts, and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes the machine is starting to boot, when it just cuts off. If I wait a while, it can eventually start and boot up completely but usually gives the bad time error message again. Is this a separate issue? Or could it be related to a bad battery, and bad time and date?
Thank you
Mike

ENIGMACODE,
Yes, the minature - 1/2 AA height - battery is the one to replace. Radio Shack sells them for $15 or you can shop on line and find some for half that.
If you have a power strip and all components are plugged in, when you turn off the power strip, you turn off the only source of power to keep you clock going. You can shut down the computer but not turn off the power strip and the clock will continue to work fine. My B&W has gone more than a year on a dead battery.
If you startup, set the clock, then hit restart, the correct time should be retained in memory because the power is not interupted. If it loses the time during that reset or restart, you have other issues.
The sticking power button is most likely misaligned plastic. Double check to make sure that it is not sticking. Then use the keyboard to turn on and off the computer. That will isolate the switch to see if the problems are related or not.
Jim

Making a G3 Blue & White useful, possibly through hardware upgrades

Can anyone think of anything useful I can do with an old G3 Blue & White tower?
Its's the 300mhz model, 20GB HD (which I plan on upgrading immediately). I don't mind spending some money, I'm just not sure if it will be worth it or if there's really much I can do.
Are there any hardware upgrades I can do? I saw a site selling the processors and motherboards for a little more speed, but I'm not sure about compatibility....
Any suggestions?

The Mac:Upgrades website at http://www.macupgrades.co.uk/store/ links to what can be done with every Mac. The page you would want to look at is
http://www.macupgrades.co.uk/store/machine.php?name=powermac-g3-blue-white
It is a British site as you can see by the British prices of upgrading parts they suggest. But it gives the required information for any mac as to what can be done with it regarding expansion etc.

G3-Beige vs Blue & White

A simple question: can a beige G3 266 be upgraded with the processor from a Blue & White 300?
peace and carrots

Hello macarra,
A beige G3 266 MHz can be upgraded to 300, but it's hardly worth the effort. If you can find a B&W 450 - or even 500 - CPU for cheap, it might be worth the swap. XLR8yourmac.com used to be the bible for overclocking G3s and figuring out jumper info - see G3 Zone - but I just went to take a look and they've pared their offerings due to server problems, so I'm not sure what's left.
An ATA-133 controller card is fastest, but it's really faster than your Mac can run, so it's overkill, just as Grant says. An ATA-66 or ATA-100 card should be virtually as fast and cheaper. A faster HD will help when paired with the ATA card. Using SCSI set-ups can also be faster, with the Miles 2 the theoretical optimum. Besides, SCSI is just basically neat to work with.
As Grant says, the usual bottleneck is the ethernet card, so get a 10/100/1000 card before you do anything else. As I recall, the Apple card works without installing drivers; the Asante card needs drivers - though I suppose they're available if you search.
If you do much playing with the innards of your Mac, get a 'Hook and Pin' (tool)set from NAPA Auto Parts or Harbor Freight for $10 or so: makes removing and replacing small pieces - especially jumpers - much easier.
If you get hung up and need something, drop me an e-mail (see profile). I have about half a dozen souped up beige G3s stacked neatly in the closet gathering dust, and parts and stuff all over the place. I just stumbled over a bunch of Asante ethernet cards the other day; I'll never use them, but I hate to throw them away.
Regards .... Jon

Blue/White iMAc G3 233mhz/32mg 512cache

have a blue /white iMac G3 and when i turn it on a flashing and mac folder began flashing. i have tried everything in resetting nvram holding command option and p and r keys also of key . I remover the old battery it had no voltage rest cuda button same flashing Question mark and mac face. I do not have any of the original cds, if anyone has any would appricate a copy of these cds if all possible unless someone has any other sugguestions NEED HELP PLEASE. I have a ImacG5 and tried loading the operating disc to see if it would boot up no luck

Hi, abelmichael -
The information Kappy gave you in your other thread is correct - the flashing icons when you try to boot indicate the machine can not find a valid OS from which to boot.
That can be caused by a weak or dead internal battery. You said you checked the battery, and it was dead - you did not mention whther you had replaced it. If you have not yet replaced it with a fresh one, do so before going any further with trouble-shooting. Reset the CUDA again when replacing the battery.
If that machine had had OSX on it previously, then its firmware has probably been updated, and you can install OSX on it again.
If it did not have OSX on it previously, and if you are not sure that the firmware on it has been updated, do not try to install OSX on it. IN the case of early iMacs, just booting the machine to OSX when the firmware has not been updated can result in loss of video.
You can get any firmware update needed for a CRT iMac from here -
Article #58174 - iMac: When to Install Available Updaters
The forum best suited for problems with your iMac 233MHz model would be the "Using your iMac (CRT)" forum, here -
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=888

Missing PCI slots in back of Blue & White

My Blue & White has about two or three PCI metal slot covers missing. I've read in the B & W manual (PDF document from Apple's website) that the unused slots should be covered to keep the interior of the computer cooler. If this is the case, could I cover the slot openings with cardboard? Or do I have to hunt for PCI metal slot covers instead?
Don't want to start using the computer with the open slots and have it not cooler the way it is supposed to be. Thanks.
silverado93

Your Mac will shut down before it does itself any permanent damage.
Those metal slot covers should be replaced some time. They are readily available from any dealer that does PCs or Macs -- they use the same part -- and are not expensive. Don't use cardboard.
Here is a set of 6 for US$2 + shipping:
http://www.cyberguys.com/templates/searchdetail.asp?productID=1284&sk=MC51419

My Ipod touch only has a blue/white screen.

My Ipod Touch 3rd Gen 64gb was working perfectly til yesterday when the screen is now just blue/white. It still will darken when i press the lock button. I've tried reseting and restoring and this does nothing, screen remains the same. It makes all the right noises, when I connect it to my Macbook it makes the normal noise and is connected no problem. But all I can see is Blue and white pixels. Does the LCD component need replacing?

If yo still have a problem after restoring the iPod to factory defaults/new iPod then you likely have a hardware problem. It could be the screen or it could be the electronics driving he screen. I would make an appointment at the Genius Bar of an Apple store.

Unable to delete photos from my desktop , I get a drop down box with continued blue/ white bars - now 6 hours

Having dragged 8 photos onto my desktop from iphoto for the purpose of easy addition to an email , I now find that when I dragged them to the Trash bin , they fail to delete.
I get a drop down box with continued blue/ white bars , stating "moving to trash " .
It's now 6 hours and I cannot stop either. Tried to shut down my computer and reboot but it won't let me . I tried turning the power off , but the problem remains .
Any help would be welcome.

Hey !
I have found the solution myself !!!
Go ..... Apple in the toolbar - Force quite - select finder - then relaunch .
Brilliant

Blue & White G3 won't boot from Tiger DVD

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the B & W G3's ARE supported under OS X 10.4 right? This computer came to me only a week ago with 10.3.9 installed (flaky, but working), 32x CD-ROM, 384 MB RAM, 25 GB HD. The PRAM battery is dead. I was also given an NEC 5x DVD-ROM to install. This works fine (when it wants to) when booting with an OS 9.2.2 CD-ROM, and it can see and open the Tiger install CD... but it will NOT boot from it for some reason, computer just sits and idles. Any ideas?

This article concerns a specific problem with the Blue & White G3 and the Matsushita CR-587 CD-ROM drive. However, it shows an Open Firmware workaround that you could try:
25793- Power Macintosh G3 (Blue and White): Unable to start from Mac OS X 10.3.2 Install CD by holding "C" key

In Mail, how do I get rid of the blue&white button that appears extreme right of Mail addressing pane (To)? What's its function?

In Mail, how do I get rid of the blue&white button that appears extreme right of the addressing pane (To)? What's its function?

malmaloney wrote:
Thanks Meg. Trouble is it disrupts emails addresses being keyed in - that is, not from the Contacts book...
How so? You trying to type over it? If you keep typing the addresses drop below to next line. I have tried and tried to make it disrupt anything without success.

Blue & White motherboard replacement

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