Huey: Introduction and Exploration
Date posted: 23 April 2024
Introduction
Meet Huey: a Power Mac G4 introduced in 1999. Not much can be said about it, it's your average low-spec Graphite G4. Let's go over the specs listed on the sticker on the back:
- 400 MHz PowerPC G4 (7400)
- 1 MB Cache
- DVD-ROM
- 64 MB SDRAM
- 10GB HD
- 56k modem
The graphics card isn't listed on the backside, but a quick Internet search tells me it should be an ATI Rage 128 (Pro) with 16 MB VRAM. Huey also comes with a SCSI port and two extra USB ports, which might be aftermarket. Let's plug in some cables and turn it on.
Tiger
Huey boots right into the desktop of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and tells me there's a problem with the clock, the PRAM battery is probably empty. Let's dive right into the specs, perhaps it has been upgraded.
The RAM has been upgraded to 256 MB, and the 3 paritions seen on the desktop make me think the hard disk drive has been upgraded as well, let's take a closer look.
A 64 MB and a 128 MB DIMM have been added, perhaps also in that order. As for the hard drives, there's the original 10 GB Maxtor for Mac OS 9 and an 80 GB Western Digital for Tiger, split into two paritions. That's quite the storage upgrade. The observant reader probably noticed the "DVDR" in the photo, the DVD-ROM has also been replaced at some point, however the operating system's report on disc burning seems a bit strange, I'll write down the few that matter.
- Burn Support: Yes (Unsupported)
- Reads DVD: Yes
- CD-Write: -R, -RW
I am unsure what "Yes (Unsupported)" means in this case, you either support it, or you don't. It also doesn't mention writing DVDs, only reading... I'll probably look into this in the future, for now I'll move on.
The next thing that isn't stock is the graphics card. It's an ATI card with twice as much as VRAM as it's supposed to have, another mystery. But with the power of the Internet this mystery was quickly solved, by simply searching the Device ID (0x5144) I found the model of this card: ATI Radeon 7200. Finding anything on the USB and SCSI expansion proved more difficult, searching the Device ID of the USB card didn't prove useful, and I couldn't find anything on the SCSI card in System Profiler.
And that's it. The rather loud fans act as crickets as I browse the empty operating system, there's absolutely nothing else to look at. It's a very clean Tiger install without any extra software or traces from the previous user. Let's hope Classic has more to explore.
Mac OS 9
Mac OS 9 is surprisingly slow, perhaps not surprisingly, but rather worryingly. It hangs at every click, even the clock stops for a bit. There seems to be be Microsoft Office and an ATI control panel of some sorts, and Classila on the desktop. At this point I decided to give it a rest and I turned off the system. I'll just continue the exploration on another day, is what I thought.
A few days had passed and I turned the computer back on, the happy mac icon showed and stayed on the screen. But was it really happy? I did a PRAM reset and booted into Tiger. Was the slowness caused by a failing hard disk? Did it fail overnight? The "Mac OS 9 Classic" volume no longer shows on the desktop and First Aid failed whenever I tried it. It seems that this is the end of the exploration here.
Disassembly
Time to look inside, time to see what makes Huey tick. Opening a Power Mac G4 is simple, you just open the door and it reveals...
...about what you would expect at this point. Let's look at the more unexpected aspects instead.
The RAM slots, from top to bottom.
- empty
- 64 MB 133 MHz Infineon
- 64 MB 100 MHz Super PC
- 128 MB 133 MHz Infineon
I don't think the order matters here and I assume the 100 MHz "Super PC" module is the one that came preinstalled. On to the more interesting bits, the expansion cards.
The graphics card doesn't seem to sport the 7200 model number, just "Rage 6" and "R6" on stickers on the front and back of the card. The heatsink appears to be glued to the chip so I wont be able to see what's printed on there.
The Orange Micro Grappler SCSI 930U is up next. Something something apples and oranges... I once had a SCSI scanner but I never figured out where to buy a SCSI cable, that's where my single experience with SCSI ends. That's right, I never even got to plugging in the cable. From the information I gathered online I've concluded that this Grappler was a popular aftermarket expansion card for the G3 and G4, and 300% faster than Apple's original SCSI card. However, Tiger doesn't appear to have drivers for this card, perhaps that's why it doesn't show up. Maybe I'll come across more SCSI in the future and perhaps I get the chance to play with it.
Last but not least is the ADS Technologies USBX-500, quite a mouth full. This bad boy boasts an OPTi FireLink 82C861 chip for a whopping 12Mbps data rate. Jokes aside, it gives the system two more USB 1.1 ports, a welcome addition.
With all the cards out of the way, we get a clear view of the PRAM battery, the one resposible for tasks like timekeeping. And nearly empty it is, measuring only 0.60 V. That's not even close to the 3.60 V it's supposed to be. I replace it with a new one before putting everything back and closing the door.
That's all for now, I was hoping for a little more exploration of Mac OS 9, but disaster struck. I will probably be servicing this machine in the future, cleaning it up nicely and properly diagnosing that hard disk drive.