Member Avatar for mrfixit

Help the other day i went to a superbowl party and my kid go into my apple computer He pulled out all the power and ribbon cables and i dont have a clue where they connect on the board??? its an apple powermac G3 tower 97 vintage ,it contains a floppy drive,cd rom drive and a hard drive. I have four ribbon cables, a 50 pin and two 40 pin cables and a small cable that i think is for the floppy drive Its an ide system not scsi.Motherboard doesnt have any markings on it .CAN YOU HELP PLEASE!!! WIFE IS MAD!!! thank god this thing wasnt plugged in when he touched it daddys little helper any help you can give me will greatly be appreciated. thanks very much pete :sad:

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Coconut Monkey

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Quick, practical checklist for (and useful background after 's note about cross‑posting).

Start by identifying each ribbon by counting pins and looking at the connector shape: narrow 34‑pin ribbons and tiny keyed plugs are floppy cables; flat 40‑pin ribbons are PATA/IDE data cables; a flat 50‑pin ribbon is a narrow SCSI data cable. The Beige Power Mac G3 was shipped in both IDE and SCSI configurations, so a 50‑pin cable usually means there was a SCSI device fitted in that particular machine. Low End Mac: Beige G3 · 50‑pin narrow SCSI examples.

Safe reconnection steps (do these before plugging the Mac back in):

  1. Unplug mains and discharge static (touch metal). Photograph each cable end and the drive backplanes.

  2. Floppy: the 34‑pin ribbon has a twist — the end past the twist normally goes to the motherboard and the twisted section selects drive A: on the drive; match the red stripe to the pin‑1 marking. floppy cable orientation guide · .

  3. IDE/PATA (40‑pin): match the red stripe to the motherboard pin‑1. If the cable is an 80‑conductor type it will usually be color coded: blue = host (board), black = master (end), gray = middle/slave; set drive jumpers to Master/Slave or Cable‑Select to match. Early Beige G3 revisions had limited slave support—check model/revision before expecting two devices on one channel. 80‑conductor color coding explanation · Beige G3 notes.

  4. SCSI (50‑pin): SCSI chains must be terminated at the physical ends of the cable and each device needs a unique SCSI ID. If the system originally used IDE only, the 50‑pin may not be required; if it is part of the original chain, confirm termination and device IDs before powering up. SCSI termination rules.

Photographs and careful jumper checks prevent most mistakes. If connectors are missing or heavily damaged, sourcing replacement ribbon cables or consulting a model service manual is safer than guessing.

Member Avatar for Coconut Monkey

No cross posting now. ;)

I'll leave your other thread which has already been replied to.

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