G4 Quicksilver successful rescue

phunguss

Active Tinkerer
Dec 24, 2023
404
357
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Stillwater, MN
Stopped by Free Geek Minneapolis last week and found this Quicksilver $10 project. Labeled "Won't boot to any external media, For parts / project HDD, RAM removed $10"
QS733-tendollars.jpg

I can't say no, so I took it home. I threw in a single 256MB DIMM and a mechanical hard drive from another old G4 and powered it on. Data plate on back:
QS733-serial.jpg

It gave me a chime, then a warning that a CPU failed, and another warning about another failure... then it froze. I suspect it was an upgraded dual CPU from the single 733MHz listed on the label. Ok, I have never seen a cooler like this. Obviously home brew.
QS733-cooler-removal.jpg

And a dual 800Mhz was revealed.
QS733-dual800.jpg

Cooler comparison
QS733-cooler1.jpg

and another
QS733-cooler2.jpg

I have a spare 867MHz from my other QS when I upgraded it to dual 1GHz, so I installed that single CPU and the correct cooler.
QS733-boots.jpg

QS733-hardware.jpg

Then I wiggled a wire and it powered off. Oops. This one has a zip drive and I did not see a power cable going to the zip drive... but the plug was installed. Strange... so maybe the wires were yanked out and somehow shorted when I wiggled them.
QS733-pwryanked.jpg

I removed the PSU, and will find some spare wires and rebuild the 4 power cables for the drives and then reinstall everything.
QS733-teardown.jpg

Very dusty, so the tear down is useful.
 
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