{"id":542,"date":"2023-09-08T14:32:23","date_gmt":"2023-09-08T14:32:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vintagepc.co.uk\/?p=542"},"modified":"2023-09-27T15:46:17","modified_gmt":"2023-09-27T15:46:17","slug":"updating-a-power-macintosh-g3-server","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vintagepc.co.uk\/?p=542","title":{"rendered":"Updating a Power Macintosh G3 Server"},"content":{"rendered":"

published on 08.09.23<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve recently been working on refurbishing and updating a Power Macintosh G3 Server \u2013 It\u2019s a beige mini tower, with a 333MHz Power PC 750 (G3) CPU and 640MB RAM. When I received it, it was running Mac OS 8.5, but I\u2019ve since updated it to 8.6, and I\u2019m intending to go to Mac OS 9.2.2 (which is the last classic Mac OS version prior to Mac OS X).<\/p>\n

Getting it updated to 8.6 was quite an interesting journey.<\/p>\n

VGA Video Connector<\/h4>\n

The G3 has a standard Mac video connector for that period, a 15-pin VGA D-SUB connector. What\u2019s less standard about it, is that the pins are set in two rows (in what\u2019s known as a low-density layout). For PCs, and most monitors, the pins are laid out in three rows (known as a high-density layout). So I needed to find a suitable lead to plug the G3 into my LCD monitor. The awesome people at York AV<\/a> put one together for me.<\/p>\n

PRAM Battery<\/h4>\n

The first time I powered the G3 up, Mac OS immediately complained about the date and time being wrong and then abruptly crashed after a few minutes. That\u2019s normally a warning sign for both PCs and Macs that the CMOS battery (for PCs; known as the PRAM battery for Macs) is either dead or on the way out. Opening up the case, it transpired the battery was missing altogether. A quick look on eBay found a SAFT LS 14250 alkaline battery that would be a good replacement. The battery is roughly the size of an AA battery cut in half, but is rated at 3.6v. Having installed that, the G3 happily booted, and has stayed stable since.<\/p>\n

Getting hold of the update to Mac OS 8.6<\/h4>\n

One of the very best places to find old Mac software (OS and applications) is www.macintoshrepository.org<\/a> They had the update from 8.5 to 8.6, a self-extracting update about 35mb in size. But how to get the update file onto the G3?<\/p>\n

The G3 has an ethernet connection, so connecting to my network \/ the internet would not be an issue. However, the default browser is Internet Explorer 5. That wasn\u2019t going to play well with the modern internet, so downloading it from the site likely wouldn\u2019t work: even if it did, IE5 wasn\u2019t going to be a great way of getting other files onto the G3 going forward.<\/p>\n

So a local FTP server on a Raspberry Pi seemed like a plan.<\/p>\n