Macintosh Server G3

[wottle]

I listed a ton of my extras and unused items on FB Marketplace and have been having a hectic time trying to manage the responses you get when you list 70 Vintage Apple devices all at once! Lesson learned.

However, I ended up talking with a local woman who really loves CRTs and she really liked the look of the Apple Monitor IIc. She asked if I was willing to trade, but I am really trying to pare down my collection, so I initially declined. However, she said she did have one beige Apple computer, a Tower that was a G3. I've always wanted a PowerMac G3 minitower, so asked if she could send some pictures. What she sent was a computer I had never heard of, the Macintosh Server G3. I ended up throwing in my 21" Graphite Studio CRT because she really loved it (and it's so big I never use it).

The machine initially hung on boot up, but I figured I could swap in the logic board from my G3 Desktop. However, it seems to just be a problem with one of the cards. It actually has an Apple Fast Ethernet 10/100BASE-T Card and a ATTO ExpressPCI PSC card. It always hangs with the ATTO card, so I pulled it for now. There was nothing connected to it.

Here's some photos. It seems to be basically the same the minitower version with a different siikscreened label.



Now I need to look into upgrading it. I do have the G4 upgraded board in my PowerMac G3 All-in-One, but I think I will keep that one in there.

 

[V.Yakob]

I've encountered problems on G3 MiniTower, not Server, but I think it doesn't matter.

I had a lot of problems with switching on, on motherboards with different revisions. Symptom: turn on, no bong, no image, only the sound of the cooler. Turn it off, turn it on, normal booting. The solution required replacing the capacitors.

Once I got a motherboard (without a processor), installed it -- it doesn't turn on. The problem was in the power jumper, which had to be installed in another position.

When I got another motherboard, like the latest revision, with a processor. The machine always hung at the stage of loading the OS, but sometimes the desktop appeared. In any case, it was freezing. It turned out that the processor frequency jumpers were installed incorrectly.

I also noticed that the simultaneous use of ATi Radeon 7000 (flashed) and Sil3112 (flashed) cards always leads to OS booting errors.

These machines are also picky about running OS X -- it should only be installed in the first 8 GB, otherwise there is an error. Moreover, if sil3112 is installed, it is impossible to install Rhapsody, OS X 10.0 and 10.1 on the connected disks, and any 10.2 boot leads to kernel panic.

On my current machine, for example, I can't install/boot OS X Server 10.2. It feels like it's not supported. Moreover, even 8.0 cannot be boot on this revision of the motherboard.

Rhapsody can behave strangely if a USB card is installed.

After all the experiments, I equipped it with BlueSCSI v2, and just 2 weeks ago I installed CF to IDE adapter. Because as it turned out, Rhapsody 1.0 cannot format the virtual HDD.

In this Mac I have the same network card as yours in the photo, and it works great. Recently I studied NetBoot on this machine from Rhapsody 1.0 to OS X 10.1, this network card is about 2.5 better than the built-in one. Everything rests on the speed of the PCI bus here.
I also have a multimedia card installed, quite an interesting solution, I connected an old VHS player here and watched some movies on old video cassettes, which I recorded from TV back in the 90s. It was funny to remember.

In general, I will never forget this computer!

 

[ClassicHasClass]

I'm assuming this is the last gasp of the Workgroup Server line.

 

[wottle]

I'm assuming this is the last gasp of the Workgroup Server line.

Im guessing. Basically between the Workgroup Server line and the Xserve that would come out in the G4 era.

 

[NJRoadfan]

Both cards were BTO options on the beige G3, so no surprises there. The server configurations generally came with AppleShare IP installed along with other "serious bizness" packages. Otherwise they are the same as the plain G3s.

 

[Mk.558]

ya.

The one I fooled around with would refuse to boot OS X 10.0.3. Boot loops, broken folder icon and other weird things. Somehow I managed to get Rhapsody 5.6 installed on it though.

It's not the type of System I would keep very long. Build quality is unimpressive and the whole package is not that interesting.

 

[Arbystpossum]

Both cards were BTO options on the beige G3, so no surprises there. The server configurations generally came with AppleShare IP installed along with other "serious bizness" packages. Otherwise they are the same as the plain G3s.

Does the logic board even have a different identifier of some kind, or is it really just the silkscreened badge? Also, Beige G3s are awesome, hands down my favorite machine.

 

[wottle]

Does the logic board even have a different identifier of some kind, or is it really just the silkscreened badge? Also, Beige G3s are awesome, hands down my favorite machine.

I don’t believe there were any differences at all on the logic board. I haven’t spotted any so far.

In my limited time with it so far, I actually find the build quality and case didn’t much improved over the incredibly fragile plastics of the beige g3 desktop. No as easy to work with as the blue and white g3 tower, but a step in the right direction over the Quadra 8xx and 8100 machines. And it is a great bridge machine. Still a floppy drive if you need it. SCSI and IDE. Good MacOS 9 performance.

And you can throw a g4 from a Yike’s machine in it!

 

[V.Yakob]

I have ZIF G4 350, I tried to install it on my Mac, but I didn't like how the system works. For normal operation, you need to install the driver (XLR8), otherwise the L2 cache does not connect and the machine runs slowly. This is especially noticeable in Mac OS launched in BluBox in Rhapsody. The system works as if by frames.
I would prefer to put G3 from BW here, for example, 400 Mhz, or Interware or Sonnet custom processors. At one time I was thinking of buying one on eBay, but the price made me ask the question "Do you really need it?". So far, it's on the list of what I could do in the future, but not now.