[G4] Old mini or other machine for cheap/free?

Amir 'CG' Caspi cepheid at ssl.berkeley.edu
Thu Feb 23 10:55:34 PST 2012


Hey all,

 	My old G4 tower finally died... not sure why, but it won't boot 
even from a CD/DVD any more.  The firmware portion of booting works (I can 
select the boot drive using the Option key, or boot into Open Firmware, 
and I get the initial gray apple), but it looks like the "main" boot 
sequence just never starts (I never see the progress circle on the gray 
apple).  I tried disconnecting any and all hard drives, swapping RAM, 
etc... seems to me something on the mobo has died.  (The machine had a 
NewerTech CPU upgrade so maybe that's what finally went kaput.)

 	In any case, this machine was being used as a media server, so I 
need something to replace it (assuming my hard drives still work).  Does 
anyone happen to have an old mini (G4, intel, whatever) that they no 
longer want and are willing to let go for cheap/free?  Another tower (G5 
or better) would also be fine but the mini's small footprint and low noise 
is far more desirable.
 	I've looked on Craigslist and saw some old Minis for about $300, 
but that's not a great price for a more-than-3-year-old machine when I can 
get a brand new one for about $500.  So, I thought I'd ask here, in case 
someone might have one collecting dust in a closet and wants it to go to a 
good home for cheap or free. =)

 	Let me know...

(Also if you have any idea on resurrecting the old tower, let me know... 
but I'm pretty knowledgeable about computer innards and no combination of 
things got the machine to boot, whether from internal drive, firewire 
drive, CD/DVD, or anything else.  The battery and firmware are fine since 
the initial sequence works, but the post-firmware boot, when the CPU needs 
to run, doesn't work, which is why I suspect the mobo.)

Thanks!

-- 
 						--- Amir


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