[The Placid Casual]

I recently bought a used dual 450 Powermac.

All is well, except for the fact that it had a clattery Hard Drive, which has now been replaced, but more alarmingly seems to have a dodgy PSU.

There is a 'clicking' when it is operation, that gets worse should you move the case or tilt it.

I suspect that it is a fan bearing that it going, as it makes the noise when you blow on the PSU fan...

Before I take the thing apart and change the fan, I was wondering if the machine takes a standard PC PSU?

I had a look at some Mac part places here in the UK, and they want £75 for an 'exchange' reconditioned item! I could pick up a good truepower PSU for about £30... but would it fit?

Anyone got any advice?

Cheers,

Marc

[Lateralus]

If you've got a Dual, then your machine is a Gigabit. So, no you cannot use a standard PSU. The Gigabit and later G4s have a second power connection to the motherboard, a 4-pin 28v connector that is near the main connection. It supplies power to the video card for the hookup of an ADC display. If you don't have that plug hooked into the board, the machine wont even turn on, even if you don't have an ADC display. And I have yet to see a PC PSU that has a 28v connection. So, I think you might want to head to eBay to look for an Apple OEM PSU.

[The Placid Casual]

Originally posted by PowerMacMan:
If you've got a Dual, then your machine is a Gigabit. So, no you cannot use a standard PSU. The Gigabit and later G4s have a second power connection to the motherboard, a 4-pin 28v connector that is near the main connection. It supplies power to the video card for the hookup of an ADC display. If you don't have that plug hooked into the board, the machine wont even turn on, even if you don't have an ADC display. And I have yet to see a PC PSU that has a 28v connection. So, I think you might want to head to eBay to look for an Apple OEM PSU.

Thanks for the info.

Just looked on eBay and there are none about in the UK... For a recon one from the stores, they want £75!

I really do think it is the fan failing, and looking at the dust in the case, I'm not surprised! The previous owner must have had this thing running 24/7 on a building site or something!

Looks like I may just open the PSU, give it a clean with some compressed air, and replace the fan only...

[Macola]

I don't know if these guys will ship to the UK, but it's worth a shot:

http://www.galaxyhp.com/pwr_pmg3_4.html

[-Q-]

Originally posted by Macola:
I don't know if these guys will ship to the UK, but it's worth a shot:

http://www.galaxyhp.com/pwr_pmg3_4.html

I think the prices they listed are pretty much the same as what can be found in the UK. The only difference I can see is that they don't mention if the PSUs are refurbs or not.

And these guys are outrageous in their prices:

http://store.yahoo.com/lovemacs/g4powersupplys.html

[The Placid Casual]

Originally posted by -Q-:
I think the prices they listed are pretty much the same as what can be found in the UK. The only difference I can see is that they don't mention if the PSUs are refurbs or not.

And these guys are outrageous in their prices:

http://store.yahoo.com/lovemacs/g4powersupplys.html

Wow, I never realised that PSUs were going for so much!

I have bought a few PC PSUs and can't see why there is the huge price difference for pretty much exactly the same item when it comes to the Mac ones!

Thankfully, my search has been scaled down somewhat...

I removed and opened the PSU... found that some wiring had got in the way of the fan blades and was causing an obstruction. And the fan bearing was not perfect, but there was plenty of life in it yet...

A few cable ties, some rerouting, and things seem to be working OK... *fingers crosses*

[Macola]

The outrageous prices are like most other components with an Apple label on them, except in the case of the power supplies, you don't have much alternative. The GigE models, as are some others, are customized due to the 22-pin connector and ADC power. You can buy some cheap, hacked up PC power supplies on eBay, but they will require case mods to fit.

It's the old supply and demand thing...you can buy ATX power supplies just about anywhere, but a GigE power supply is much more difficult to find.