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Power Mac 9600/350 base - needs RAM, CPU, graphics card

M

MrImprovement

Experienced Member
Joined
Jan 7, 2023
Messages
136
It is very clean, but there is no RAM, no CPU, no graphics card! The motherboard is very clean, the plastics are good with no yellowing.

What should I do with it?
 
Do you know if it was working before it was stripped? The 350 model was the fastest made and uses the 604EV CPU (cache on the CPU) so you would need to find the correct 300 or 350 CPU which are rare (or use a G3/G4 upgrade).
 
Unknown_K said:
Do you know if it was working before it was stripped? The 350 model was the fastest made and uses the 604EV CPU (cache on the CPU) so you would need to find the correct 300 or 350 CPU which are rare (or use a G3/G4 upgrade).
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I believe that it was, but have no way to test it. I got it in a lot from a Mac consultant who was clearing out all his old "stuff".
 
I don't see the point of taking the CPU out since nothing else can use it anyway unless he was cannibalizing it for another 9600. The 8600 had models that used the EV CPU up to 300Mhz.

Anyway a working 9600 is very desirable in decent condition.

Where are you located?
 
Unknown_K said:
I don't see the point of taking the CPU out since nothing else can use it anyway unless he was cannibalizing it for another 9600. The 8600 had models that used the EV CPU up to 300Mhz.

Anyway a working 9600 is very desirable in decent condition.

Where are you located?
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I am in the Daphne, AL area but I do get up to OH/PA area sometimes.
 
A system stripped down to the motherboard was most likely no longer working. If only the motherboard was left in, that it probably the faulty part.

You can sell it as is, find someone who can lend you the parts needed to get the system complete enough for a test, or spend LOTS of money to rebuild the system. It's your choice. :)
 
Timo W. said:
A system stripped down to the motherboard was most likely no longer working. If only the motherboard was left in, that it probably the faulty part.

You can sell it as is, find someone who can lend you the parts needed to get the system complete enough for a test, or spend LOTS of money to rebuild the system. It's your choice. :)
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He may have been keeping a spare, in that he no doubt supported a fair number of pre-MAC OSX clients while the transition was going on. However the RAM should be easy to get (at least enough for testing purposes) and the original CPU cards should be cheap since a lot of people upgraded....
 
I tend to lump the PowerPC Macs of that period under the heading of "Performa"'. I know it's not strictly correct, but it's convenient.

In general, I look at Apple Macs as being of only four persuasions: the Moto 68K variety, the PowerPC variety, the Intel variety, and the M-series. Painting with broad strokes undoubtedly offends the purists, but I'm not a fanboi, so it doesn't bother me. :)
 
Chuck(G) said:
I tend to lump the PowerPC Macs of that period under the heading of "Performa"'. I know it's not strictly correct, but it's convenient.

In general, I look at Apple Macs as being of only four persuasions: the Moto 68K variety, the PowerPC variety, the Intel variety, and the M-series. Painting with broad strokes undoubtedly offends the purists, but I'm not a fanboi, so it doesn't bother me. :)
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I did realize last night that the silvery-grey PC-case-ish looking Mac in the corner of the room was an 867Mhz G4 QuickSilver, which would be perhaps 2x or 3x faster and easier to expand and actually use; so the priority in figuring this out is now lower... not a fanboi but I do like the idea of a nice older system that runs something Unix-based.
 
GiGaBiTe said:
Every Mac that used SMD capacitors is going to have have a high chance of leaking.
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How would I identify that? Would I be able to determine it visually? The 9600/350, like the Quicksilver G4's , opens up to completely expose the motherboard, so I can easily inspect 100% of the surface if needed.
 
The bad SMT caps don't necessarily leak, but they do go bad in the 90s G3/G4 systems quite often. My guess is this is why you have the 9600 that was "stripped down". The cost/value of repairing the motherboard didn't work out favorably.
 
MrImprovement said:
How would I identify that? Would I be able to determine it visually? The 9600/350, like the Quicksilver G4's , opens up to completely expose the motherboard, so I can easily inspect 100% of the surface if needed.
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The only visible signs I've observed is the electrolyte being present in the area of the capacitors. The most telling is on the leads of surrounding components, especially ICs. The capacitors themselves show no visible signs (as can radial lead electrolytics where the can might be distorted).
 
MrImprovement said:
How would I identify that? Would I be able to determine it visually? The 9600/350, like the Quicksilver G4's , opens up to completely expose the motherboard, so I can easily inspect 100% of the surface if needed.
Click to expand...

The problem with SMD caps is that the aluminum capacitor body sits on a plastic pad that sits on the board. When the capacitor starts to leak, the electrolyte is wicked under the capacitor via capillary action and can't be seen unless the leak is significant. Sometimes one or both of the legs will start to corrode and change to a dull grey/green/blue, but it's far less common for the electrolyte to leak away from the capacitor. When electrolyte does leak, it tends to be a light brown/yellow color and will smell like rotting fish if heated with a soldering iron.

Since getting the capacitors off the board is almost always destructive for the capacitor, it's easier to just recap the whole board. You'll spend far less time doing that than checking every single one of dozens and dozens of capacitors.

1980s through early 2000s SMD electrolytic capacitors have mostly all failed by now. The rubber plugs in the bottom rot away from oxidation and the corrosive electrolyte.
 
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