Restoring & Using a 2003 Apple Power Mac G4 Mirror Drive Doors in 2018
Some context…
Before coming to coming to college, I never really used Mac’s and macOS in general. In elementary school and at home, we primarily had Dells and IBM PC’s, and naturally, I became biased towards the more prevalent Windows OS. Despite being a “PC Guy”, I knew a lot about Mac’s and had messed around with a few (I liked them, especially due to their unique design and superior build quality), but they were way out of my price range especially with comparable Windows PC’s available at a fraction of the price. As a result, I kept building and buying PCs.
But like many modern Mac users, I got hooked in college. When I was a freshman, I got an on-campus job as a Desktop Support Technician for the school's IT department. While working here, I got in-depth exposure to macOS and learned to love Mac’s for their ease of use and just how well thought out the design of both the Hardware and Software of the system was. So I caved in from my “Glorious PC Master Race” mentality and bought a used 2012 MacBook Pro 13" Retina for my own and I loved it. In fact, I recently just upgraded to a 2017 MacBook Pro 13" and I am slowly transitioning it to my daily driver. But after getting that first 2012 MBP, I was enamored with the lore of Apple and its distinctive design philosophy. This interest in the history of Apple and learning more about other historical computers is what led me to buy a 15-year-old computer.
So, where (or why for that matter) would someone buy a 15-year-old computer?
eBay of course! Ah yes, eBay! Home of many sweet deals! But eBay can be dangerous though, especially when the lure of cheap hardware can entice many ‘spur of the moment’ purchases by a weak-willed computer nerd like myself.
I like to casually look on eBay for some good deals from time-to-time (much to my bank account’s chagrin) and I stumbled upon a listing for an older Mac, but it looked completely different than anything I had ever seen before.
Now considering I am fairly new to Mac’s, I had no idea what this Mac was but its unique aesthetic design caught my attention and lead me to look further into the history of this machine. Reading through Wikipedia articles, forums, blog posts, old Apple Support Manuals, and watching some interesting ads and marketing materials (like the one below which made me chuckle) shed some light on what this machine was and why it was significant in the history of Apple and it’s eventual transition to OS X and Intel processors at the heart of every Mac.
At the turn of the century, this was one of the best machines that Apple (or any computer manufacturer in general for that matter) could offer to the public and it marked the beginning of the end of the PowerPC era for Apple. Just shy of being capable of 1 GHz speeds on a lone PowerPC chip, Apple decided to double up on the G4 chips to reach the 1 GHz mark as a stopgap solution.
Today, Apple’s lineup of MacBooks and Mac Desktops utilize Intel processors and the x86 architecture ever since Steve Jobs first announced the transition from PowerPC to Intel at WWDC in 2005. Interestingly, there are rumors in 2018 speculating that Apple might be ditching Intel CPU’s for good and begin developing their own in-house processors for Mac’s similar to how they develop the A-Series processors like the A12 Bionic for the iPhone and iPad using the ARMv8 Architecture. While others speculated that the acquisition of Palo Alto Semiconductor (aka P.A. Semi — A firm that developed the first 64-bit PowerPC Core since the demise of the Apple-IBM-Motorola Alliance) by Apple in 2008 indicated that the PowerPC Architecture would make a renaissance in the world of personal computing and reappear in the Apple’s lineup. Sadly, this doesn’t seem to be the case.
While I was aware of the PowerPC architecture (shout out to my Computer Architecture class for that!), I didn’t know much about it other than it was primarily pioneered by IBM in the 1990s and used in a few gaming consoles. Upon further research, I learned more about the architecture itself and the implementation of a Vector Multimedia Extension (VMX or AltiVec or Velocity Engine) which is comparable to Intel’s own MMX Technology which also utilizes a single instruction, multiple data instruction set.
I was curious about the intricacies of software development and the hardware implementation of the ISA in a PowerPC chip especially since really the only options for modern commercial computer processors are Intel’s x86 (including AMD’s variations like Zen and Bulldozer) and the less powerful ARMv8 Architectures in most mobile and IoT devices. PowerPC was something new (or should I say old…?) that would be fun to experiment with and an interesting addition to the steadily growing collection of computers in my dorm room (more to come in the future).
The Mirror Drive Door variant, or MDD for short, was one of the last iterations of the Power Mac G4 lineup in the early 2000s before the introduction of the Power Mac G5 in 2003. Additionally, this was the last Macintosh capable of running both Classic Mac OS (OS 9) and OS X natively.
This was definitely something special and the history of this machine in addition to its overall aesthetic really appealed to me. The seller had listed it as not working/for parts as it was missing an HDD and required a new PRAM Battery but said that other than the machine should boot up fine. So I figured if I could get for a good price I’d pick it up and hope that the machine would work fine after some TLC. Luckily, the seller was friendly and was able to give me a decent deal on the machine at around $70 after shipping. And just like that, I was the proud owner of this 2003 Power Mac G4 Mirrored Drive Door. It would be a unique little side-project to briefly distract me from the strain of school work and a cool throwback to what computers were like when I was only 5 years old.
Technical Specifications and Planned Upgrades
The Machine’s specs are as shown below (Note that this includes the upgrades that I planned on making):
2003 Power Mac G4 MDD (Mirrored Drive Doors)
- Model: M8787LL/A
- 2x 867Mhz G4 PowerPC Processor
- 256MB Ram (soon to be upgraded to 2GBs*)
- EIDE / PATA 160GB HDD*
- Non-FW800 Model
- Mac OSX 10.5.4 Leopard is installed
- Dual-Booting HDD with OS 9.2.2 & OS X 10.5.4
- MSRP — $1,699.99
*Purchased separately
Setting up and Upgrading the Power Mac G4 MDD
Two days after purchasing the machine, it arrived. It required some assembly as the sturdy plastic handles were removed to protect against the aggressive jostling of UPS Employees. But once it was assembled and after giving it a good wipe down, it looked like it was just pulled out of the box in 2003.
I plugged it and set up the monitor and Viola! I was greeted by the folder icon from OS 9 indicating that there was no hard drive found.
Now it’s time to upgrade and spec out the machine. I had a few plans for this old beast, but it would require some research and some patience to get them to become a reality.
1) Hard Drive
First things first. The Mac needed a Hard Drive, but not just any old Hard Drive: it used an Enhanced IDE (EIDE) Drive in PATA. This is pretty uncommon in most modern Desktop and requires the use of a Jumper to configure the drive correctly, especially when using multiple drives.
Surprisingly, these drives are a lot more expensive than I was expecting (considering that a new 500GB SATA HDD goes for around only $25). A used 80GB EIDE HDD goes for about $30. I was able to find a 160GB EIDE drive with OS X 10.5 Leopard preinstalled and formatted for about $35. After getting the drive, it was easy as plugging it and pressing the power button. The machine booted into OS X Leopard flawlessly.
As I previously mentioned, my goal was to Dual Boot the device with OS X and Classic Mac OS 9. But I will get into a bit more detail about Operating Systems later on as there were some hiccups along the way.
2) RAM
This machine originally shipped with only 256MB’s of RAM. Yup! That’s right. Only 256 MEGABYTES of RAM. Roughly one-quarter of a gigabyte. It’s kinda crazy to think that this was considered above average in a premium high-end workstation back in the early 2000s.
Allow me to make an interesting comparison: The 2012 Dell Precision T3600 Desktop that I primarily use versus the 2002 Apple Power Mac G4. The Power Mac’s (presently the Mac Pro series) and Dell’s Precision lineup are widely considered to be two of the best professional workstation computers available to consumers. Despite being 10 years apart, both machines represent the highest-end models that you could buy with top-of-the-line specs. That being said, the Dell came with 125 times more Memory than what the Mac came standard with. It’s really quite incredible how technology can advance exponentially in only a decade.
Naturally, I wanted to upgrade the RAM substantially to meet more modern specifications. Unfortunately, the absolute max amount of RAM that the Power Mac G4 can be loaded with is 2.5GB’s and that number drops down to 1.5GB’s if you want to be able to run OS 9 or earlier (which we do). So, I bought a 1GB of PC2700 333MHz RAM for $6 on eBay and swapped it in with no noteworthy issues…for now.
3) Network Connectivity
In 2018, nobody ever has to ask the sales rep at Best Buy, “Does this computer come with WiFi capabilities?”. It’s an anomaly if a computer bought in this day and age doesn’t have a WiFi card built-in to the motherboard. But apparently back in the early 2000s, WiFi was still in its infancy and it was an added option for most computers of the day. Apple used the AirPort Card as a means of offering growingly popular WiFi capabilities to its consumers in the Internet age. The original AirPort Card used the WiFi 802.11b Standard (we are currently on WiFi 802.11ax standard) and had a paltry 11 Mbps data transfer rate.
But again this didn’t come standard on my Power Mac G4 MDD and the previous owner apparently always used ethernet and never needed one. So I bought one eBay for a surprisingly cheap $5. I should point out two things at this point:
- There is a newer and faster variant of the AirPort Card called the AirPort Extreme Card with speeds of about 450 Mbps using the newer 802.11g Standard
- The AirPort Card is incompatible with WPA2 Enterprise configured Networks (ones that require both username and password entry fields). Now, for most people this isn’t a problem since this computer would likely be either in an office and connected by Ethernet for higher speeds or in a home and using the regular WPA (password only) configured router in everybody’s home. Then there’s me…in a dorm…using a WPA2 network configuration. So sadly, even though it is installed, I will not be able to use it until I bring the Power Mac home.
Installing the AirPort Card is very straight-forward with a designated slot on the motherboard for it to slide in and then attach the antenna cables to the card itself. While I knew I wouldn’t be able to use the card on the relatively fast WiFi at my college campus, I figured I would try using my phone as a hotspot, but unfortunately, that did not work either. I guess it’s time to try wired Ethernet connections.
EDIT: Since writing this article, I have been able to successfully connect to the IoT WiFi Subnet that allows lower-level IoT and less secure (older) devices like this Power Mac connect to the campus network.
4) Operating System
Now comes the “fun” part. Luckily, the HDD that I had bought came with OS X 10.5 preinstalled. But as I previously mentioned, I was hoping to dual-boot this machine with OS 9 to get a taste of that old-time UI. But, like life in general…it did not go as planned.
I tried using a DMG file from various forums to no avail (the Power Mac wouldn’t recognize the several USB’s after I formatted them correctly and attached the ISO installer). I tried various suggestions generously given to me by fellow mac lovers on forums, but alas still no OS 9. I even got some of the older Power Mac System Restore Disc Sets from a colleague and this still didn’t work. Sadly, due to my limited free time as the semester progressed, I would end up putting this task on hold. But rest assured, I will resolve this issue! For now, I will have to use Sheep Shaver.
Closing Remarks
This Mac experiment is really just the tip of the iceberg. I was inspired to dive deeper into the history of Apple Macintosh’s after listing for more exciting and innovative designs from modern-day Apple hardware. It’s incredible to see just how far we have come in just a few years. I plan to continue tinkering with the PowerMac G4 and will continue to update this publication in the coming weeks/months.
Additionally, I have some other publications in the works as I experiment more with some of my newest acquisitions, so stay tuned for my take on some of those.
