powermac

New Site Look

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You may have noticed a few things changed around here.

In addition to a flurry of updates, I gave G5Center a face lift. The previous WordPress theme was fine, but it didn’t give me an option to make individual pages sidebar-free. GeneratePress, my current theme, does.

I chose GeneratePress because it is based on bootstrap and is fairly light. I want this website to serve owners and users of older equipment, so less giant images and simpler code is always helpful. So far, my personal tests on a Mac mini G4 and PowerMac G5 seem to bear it out that the website is usable. The only issue I have is that WordPress fusses with me when I login with TenFourFox that my browser is outdated. No surprise there.

So, let me know your feedback. Is there something I can do to make the site more accessible?

— Nathan

Mission Accomplished: New Thermal Paste on G5

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Today, I launched the boring and meticulous process to put new thermal paste on my dual core G5.

I was going to take a step by step photo process, but it was enough for me just to focus on cataloguing each screw and keeping things tidy. I dusted out the machine while I was at it, although it wasn’t in a bad state after the most recent cleaning. The hardest part is that little rubber/plastic screw on the “G5” aluminum shield. Removing it is a pain and it will ruin your warranty.

Of course, if you still have a warranty on your machine, I’d love to hear that story.

Every time I tinker with my G5, I appreciate Apple’s design. It’s beautiful, expertly put together, built like a tank. Things are held together by more than just a couple of dinky screws or rubber grommets (from my Dell experiences). To get access to the CPU, you easily have to unscrew 25-ish screws, which is insane but also kind of awesome.

After the new thermal paste, I booted it up to make sure I didn’t screw in something wrong and weird.

All is well.

My next project will be to replace 2-3 fans that are particularly noisy with aftermarket quiet options. I saw this idea on Facebook and assumed that the G5 used proprietary fans. While aftermarket fans will blow at full RPM, they will run quieter, which would be… again… awesome.

Following that, I’m going to try two Samsung 840 EVOs in RAID0 just for giggles.

— Nathan

Those Finicky SSDs

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In more news along the solid state drive front, I got a fascinating conundrum from a loyal reader about issues with what we first wondered to be a failing motherboard or overheating.

After installing a new SSD and using it as the main drive, he reported beachballs and crashes after waking from sleep, forcing a shutdown. Sometimes, the G5 worked like a charm. Sometimes, everything ground to a halt. It didn’t seem to have any rhyme or reason, kind of a random thing, which makes it difficult to track down.

I typed out my standard line of troubleshooting, starting with what changed. Did you install RAM recently? Put in a new hard drive? Install a new video card? Fiddle with something that you shouldn’t have? Then, go down the checklist of cleaning out the case, testing temperatures, double checking cables, switching RAM in and out, and so on until you figure it out. And if all of that fails, then flailing your arms in frustration because it might or might not be your motherboard.

But good news – the reader reinstalled the system on to a main hybrid drive, and things seem to be back to normal. It might be a faulty SATA cable, but it could be the G5’s implementation of the SATA standard which causes weird things with solid state drives. I’ve had an experience or two with such weird behavior. I would love to get hold of an engineer who helped make these G5s and could tell us more about the quirks and challenges of their hardware and where limitations lie. Maybe someday?

The moral of the story is to be cautious and careful with those SSDs. Your best bet is to go the OWC route, since they care about vintage computing. Or use the small list of suggested compatible drives on this website under “Hardware”.

— Nathan