Man vs Mac Mini G4

Soooooooo..... I made a Mac Mini G4 video and didn't do a good job.
I recently bought a Mac mini G4 off ebay. It’s a computer that I’ve wanted for a very long time.
That is you don’t consider the innards I’m sure my audience is super familiar with this computer. It received a lukewarm reception as the G4 was very long in tooth. This was not the computer you bought because of its exciting performance in a cool form factor, it was Apple’s cheapest entry into the Macintosh Ecosystem.
Personal pick for SATA SSDs:
amzn.to/40Bo6FO

[@Halon1234]

I love these battles against old tech!

[@dmug]

Thanks, this one I lost

[@tomluptowski]

I bought my mini g4 off of Apple refurb about a year after it came out for $400. Was my first real Mac. Was my wife and I's main home computer for about 4 years. I now have it sitting on top of my M1 mini using a KVM toggle between the two. The G4 is set up to triple boot between Sorbet Leopard, Tiger(Shuriken), and OS9(thanks to OS9 lives). Still fun to play with.

[@yayaship]

Then : mac mini g4 Now : mac mini m4 Edited: can you make video talk about power mac g5 forgotten mac

[@dmug]

M4 Mac Mini is just something else.

[@pdahandyman]

Quite a ways down the alphabet :)

[@maladjustedtv]

6:37 - MY GOD that amazing b-roll footage!! 😲

[@dmug]

Thanks, not far from where I grew up on the Oregon coast. I try to get interesting b roll. I’ve used that shot a few times as it’s one of the best ones.

[@songsan807]

I got 3 of these Mac Minis including power supplies each about 3 years ago. Each of them works and boots up to OSX 7 Lion super quick. Got them for super cheap so would love to put Tiger or OS9 to play around with it.

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

It’s really cool how they took the G4 chip and integrated it into a convenient case. Being able to copy/use one Mac OS install with another Mac is super convenient, I’ve used that feature a lot with PowerPC and FireWire. I don’t have any of the older style Mac Minis, not sure exactly what could be going on with yours. Considering it’s all connected together, it would be worth it to disassemble and clean everything in case something isn’t making a good connection.

[@dmug]

I might douse my G4 in alcohol but I'm not confident it'll change much

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

Could always get another one, then you’d have 2 G4 Minis!

[@yannisgk]

200th like from me....great video my friend!!!

[@emmabentley7945]

Was the first Mac i ever owned, 1.25ghz , was such a nice machine

[@juanKme]

pretty amazing piece of history! ... I have both a Mac Mini 3,1 and a 4,1 but definitely the 3,1's design is my favorite!

[@deangray4502]

I had surprisingly good success with an IDE to SATA m2 adapter when I did this for myself. It's currently running headless in my homelab, VNC in is plenty fast over ethernet.

[@megeal3053]

Cold solder on the daughter board socket?

[@stephfredhall6032]

I'd love to see a video of the new M4 Mac Mini innards stuffed into that old case!

[@TheGameboyGTS]

WITH a CD drive

[@vampirealius]

You can remove the casing on the sata ssd (usually about 4 clips to remove) so it will fit better with adapters or if you want to add a thermal disipator..

[@DontGetHit648]

Awesome video! Do you know what the wallpaper was at 5:01 ?

[@dmug]

Default background from 10.4

[@yjchoi17]

My two cents on using ssd’s on retro macs…Use mSATA ssd’s on an mSATA to 2.5 IDE adapter. It’s the best way to physically fit a modern SSD without breaking stuff. And formatting disks for retro macs seem to get easily messed up. Format to FAT with MBR partition map to really clean everything up, then back to Apple partition map with HFS+

[@applegamingse]

I just got my Mac mini G4 working, planning to do a little gameplay of OG Halo from that era. I can't get it to output past 1080p but I was able to get it to get the video to output to an Elgato via a DVI-to-HDMI (male-to-female) and then running an HDMI to the Elgato. My DVI to HDMI cable isn't working, not sure why. Anyway, this is pretty cool that I was working on a similar restoration project with my mini G4 at the same time as you!

[@dmug]

Seems like it’s the pixel clock. My BrnQ was able to do 1090p but nothing else

[@aaron.sorenson]

Also if you want better monitor support I would imagine 10.5 would be better than 10.4, but it could be what you were saying about the gpu’s output signals

[@jamesoleruster]

Maybe try an IDE to mSATA adapter?

[@zaxchannel2834]

Ugh, I messed up when I had mine. First I upgraded the RAM as high as it could go even putting a little heat spreader on the stick since I figured it would get really toasty in there. Then I got an IDE solid state drive. I finally bought a license for Morph OS, which worked really well for what it was. But then I got stupid and tried screwing in a DVI to HDMI adapter in the back and I screwed it too tight and broke the DVI connector completely... yeah that ended that unless I developed the skills to soldier on a new DVI connector

[@dmug]

Oy, thanks for this. Affirms my suspicion.

[@Xe4ro]

I bought two of these last year for 40€, came with 2 keyboards. Both the 1,25Ghz G4 with maxed out 1GB RAM, sadly no Airport card etc. I put Sorbet Leopard and OS 9.2.2 on one and the other just chills on my kallax shelf :D I do love them but damn, they get warm doing almost nothing. Sadly both of them have yellowed quite a bit. I also had problems with the video output. Using just a DVI cable didn't work but using a DVI to VGA adapter worked perfectly. Funny enough a DVI to HDMI adapter also worked but Sorbet Leopard had problems with 1440p while OS 9 had not. Very confusing :D I guess I got really lucky eh? Both of the Minis worked even with dead batteries, I did replace it on the one I planned to use.

[@danielktdoranie]

You seemed kind of rough with the IDE/PATA daughter board, I’d look for solder cracks

[@WingDings_666]

Hey I have the same sata adapter in my iBook G4 and it fails to boot sometimes. My solution has been to boot the Mac over and over again until the ide to sata adapter finally turns on properly and Mac OS X boots. After that everything is fine and working in OS X Tiger.

[@stephanemignot100]

My 1.25ghz eMac has the same specs, OS9 is pretty unstable on this unsupported machine, maybe I messed up too much with the roms, tibia files etc...

[@Sola_991]

I wished I knew what went wrong. Unfortunately I cannot help you. But I did enjoy the video and it did make me ponder purchasing a mac mini G4 to go alongside my IBM Thinkpad R60

[@yafflehk]

Maybe I'm overly cautious and light-fingered when I take computers apart but this was like watching a caveman install stuff, I'm surprised you didn't use stone tools.

[@dmug]

First time in 3 decades of doing stuff like this I broke something ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@TL_RC]

Did you try Target Disk Mode with your G4 tower, to connect to the Mac Mini and run Disk Utility to see what it can tell you? Love your videos!

[@dmug]

Doesn’t even fully boot for a target disk mode :/

[@AntoneJohnson]

For a minute I misread this and thought it was about the new Mac Mini M4. 😂

[@dmug]

M4, G4, same thing.... right?

[@MikesFutureRetro]

You should attempt a native install and of Mac OS ( don’t clone from the g4 ) as the installer will install certain segments unique to that machine. Make a tiger boot usb drive and install from there. Google “boot usb on Mac mini ppc” for directions. You have to drop into firmware and enter a command line type entry to boot off of usb on this machine. Option key will not boot usb directly

[@dmug]

I appreciate this but problem is it doesn’t even boot, it powers up and down and doesn’t init boot now :/

[@drzeissler]

G4 is a nice machine but OS9 drivers never supported vsync that's really bad, beside this the r9200 is really fast for OS9. G4 Mini can be used with Morphos and this is where the machine flys. So tripple boot is possible (OS9,OSX,MOS) if you do it right.

[@obibalmaceda3962]

Hello I think I might able have to help you in this monitor issue you could be having a hdcp and edid handshake your monitor might be looking for those data I have my ps3 hook up to hdmi to dvi cable but no video but when I did buy an hdmi to dvi converter bwala it has an image on my monitor

[@TheMetalMag]

First time they got the cube smaller

[@savagepro9060]

Not! It's not a 'cube' by geometric nature.

[@readtedium]

Try an mSATA to IDE adapter. A little easier to fit in and will get you the same result in the end

[@readtedium]

Also I definitely recommend taking kid gloves to this kind of older equipment in the future. I think trying to force the adapter in is ultimately where you went wrong.

[@MikesFutureRetro]

I bought the same unit during April earlier this year at the vintage computer fair (VCF East) you most likely damaged something with the card you plugged the SSD in. Using a standard SSD with a data adapter is too big to fit, causing stress on the drive dsughter card. You need an ide SSD drive that will fit the same form factor as the original 2.5 HD .. there are plenty of people willing to help you get solutions if you know where to look in the retro community

[@dmug]

Yeah this is what I suspected. It’s a ridiculous fit, and I wanted a unit completely operational so I could walk through Mac OS 9 lives

[@aaron.sorenson]

Try an SMC reset

[@arthurswart4436]

Try again with an IDE to CF adapter, in stead of the SATA drive. A CF card uses the same protocol as IDE, the Mini should just be happy from the get go. Use a 64GB CF card, to avoid the 128GB threshold issue. Replace the PRAM battery for a new one, the used one may been at its last legs. Install OS from a CD.

[@dmug]

This would have been the happy path had I not broke it prior :|

[@donatj]

You're kind of rough with such old hardware

[@dmug]

Not sure how I could be more gentle with wedging a SATA drive in :/

[@drzeissler]

These old Macs have issues with SSD.

[@dmug]

That they do but yanking it out didn’t seem to solve anything’s :|

[@drzeissler]

@@dmug perhaps a short somewhere... check the power-supply.

[@s1oplus_wt]

Power pc linux please!

[@dmug]

If I get it working....

[@LeonTichy]

got spare daughter board, lemme know ur address I might be able to ship it of to you after christmas...

[@eliteemerz]

I have a few of these that are incomplete I'd be happy to send them if you want parts machines. Both are missing the top covers. Just PM me an address and Ill UPS/Fedex them over

[@DancingDave1]

Back then they knew where to put the power button !

[@mcdjchandler]

They don’t want you to turn it off. AI is always listening

[@realz7629]

dude, so much dust in your room

[@dmug]

It’s a garage and yeah, I noticed that editing.

[@macguru9999]

shame the white plastic turns yellow .....

[@aticoco]

Never hurts to try retro brite

[@MikesFutureRetro]

I bought the same unit during April earlier this year at the vintage computer fair (VCF East) you most likely damaged something with the card you plugged the SSD in. Using a standard SSD with a data adapter is too big to fit, causing stress on the drive dsughter card. You need an ide SSD drive that will fit the same form factor as the original 2.5 HD .. there are plenty of people willing to help you get solutions if you know where to look in the retro community.

[@dmug]

I'd go this route if I could get a ? mark from it. I think I did damage.