Power Mac G4 MDD 1GHz

Were there any obvious problems with the stock G4 MDD that would be
worth knowing about? I found a very cheap one which seems in good
condition (no after market mods) and was thinking about picking it up.

Todd


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There was a particular run of these that had bad power supplies. The
PSUs worked fine in terms of making power, but they would cause the
system controller to run the fans at full blast – leading to the
“hair dryer Mac” meme of the day. Apple had an extended repair
program for them, and would send out a free replacement PSU to anyone
who qualified.

Here’s the thing, though, I qualified, and the replacement PSU is
still sitting in a box in my basement – I haven’t needed it yet. And
this is on a machine that has been sitting in a server rack, running
24/7 since it was new.

Walter

On Oct 13, 2008, at 1:59 PM, Todd wrote:

Were there any obvious problems with the stock G4 MDD that would be
worth knowing about? I found a very cheap one which seems in good
condition (no after market mods) and was thinking about picking it up.

Todd


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Hey Walt. If you’re looking for a home for that PSU, I could be very interested. If you remember from these boards a while back, my PSU died on my G4 and although I bought an old replacement, it’s much noisier than my original.

Kryten


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Are you in the USA? Shipping and customs would overwhelm any savings if not. I’m in Philadelphia.

Walter


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No, I’m in the UK. But after a bit of research on replacement PSU’s they are pretty expensive anyway. even in the States, even when old. I found a new one for example at $499 + shipping within the USA. I paid the equivalent of $130 for this old one. What do you reckon?

Kryten


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I found a new one for example at $499 + shipping within the USA. I paid the equivalent of $130 for this old one. What do you reckon?

You can probably buy an entire computer for less than that full price. I have not investigated shipping and customs and such. This is a large, heavy box. Full of metal. I may need it some day (this computer just keeps on chugging), so I don’t want to give it away, but I would make a fair deal. I still think though that once you get past paying off the Royal Post and the customs folk, you will be money ahead to find a gently used machine on your fair isle.

Walter


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Fair enough Walt. It was just a thought. I don’t mind paying of course, that was my original idea. Perhaps I’ll wait till this one fails first, then panic. Stay tuned.

K.


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I was just down to the basement on an unrelated matter. The box
weighs about 10lb, and is ~24 x 8 x 4 inches. When it first arrived
(years ago) I opened it and looked at the instructions (which run to
several pages) and decided as you did to wait and see if it needed
replacing. So far, so good.

Walter

On Oct 14, 2008, at 8:54 AM, Kryten wrote:

Fair enough Walt. It was just a thought. I don’t mind paying of
course, that was my original idea. Perhaps I’ll wait till this one
fails first, then panic. Stay tuned.

K.


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On Tue, Oct 14, 2008 at 2:19 PM, Walter Lee Davis email@hidden wrote:

I was just down to the basement on an unrelated matter. The box weighs about
10lb, and is ~24 x 8 x 4 inches. When it first arrived (years ago) I opened
it and looked at the instructions (which run to several pages) and decided
as you did to wait and see if it needed replacing. So far, so good.

I can assure you that if you had had it underneath your desk as your
primary workhorse, you would have felt differently :o)

– Finlay


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No, I have heard those Macs that had the problem, and this does not
sound like it at all. The bad ones sound like an Xserve that’s in
Target Disk Mode (something I am keenly aware of, sonically, since my
eBay-special Xserve Cluster Node has to be booted that way to install
anything). I have a dual-1.25 G4 MDD under my desk, and the dual-867
(from the serial number range that are prone to this failure) sounds
exactly the same as the newer machine.

Walter

On Oct 23, 2008, at 6:31 PM, Finlay Dobbie wrote:

On Tue, Oct 14, 2008 at 2:19 PM, Walter Lee Davis
email@hidden wrote:

I was just down to the basement on an unrelated matter. The box
weighs about
10lb, and is ~24 x 8 x 4 inches. When it first arrived (years ago)
I opened
it and looked at the instructions (which run to several pages) and
decided
as you did to wait and see if it needed replacing. So far, so good.

I can assure you that if you had had it underneath your desk as your
primary workhorse, you would have felt differently :o)

– Finlay


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