Mac G4 CUBE DVD drive fix

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The G4 Cube is one of Apple's Most beautiful creations. It also suffers from DVD issues. Over time the DVD drive belt stretches, the rubber rollers fill with dust and eventually, you have a stuck DVD in the drive you can't get out. Today I'm going to fix my G4 cube drive, and hopefully, we'll have a success once we're done.
So I ordered a 49mm x 1.2mm square drive belt. Do a search on eBay to find these. I'm hoping in the future to be able to find a supplier myself and possibly sell a few kits via the Tech Dept itself. Future plans Woo Hoo.
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[@DavidStahlOLDHAPPyMACs]

Great video Jess I done many mods on my G4 Cube the cube has room for a 50mm base fan so when you take the logic board and CPU out perfect time to install a base fan your cube will be cool and happy I have many videos on the cube and how to do this and a link on the fan. this is my favorite Mac. enjoy it

[@techdept]

I watched a few Dave. Brilliant work to bring the cube up a few notches.

[@DavidStahlOLDHAPPyMACs]

Thanks Jess@@techdept

[@Natures_Intentions]

awesome! nice sega saturn in the back ground too

[@techdept]

It’s a Japanese model and it works! I have a European version that needs work though.

[@junket]

Sweet Cube! I've got one maxed to 1.5 GB RAM & 120GB spinning disk. Haven't booted it in 10+ years - you've inspired me to do so! Awesome work!

[@techdept]

Nice. I hope it works. :)

[@alancurtis1388]

great video id love one of them Macs . love the spider ring

[@techdept]

Cheers Alan. It took awhile to track this one down. It’s my favourite. (Don’t let the G5s hear me say that!)

[@Olinca]

I think it says something that I, as a person who knows nothing about tech, looked at the cube and went "but how does it breathe" just before you mentioned the problems it has with the nonexistent cooling fan...

[@techdept]

Yeah. It works by convection. Heat is deposited into massive Heatsinks, then rises upward through a vent. The rising heat then draws in cooler air from below. It works…..but not very well. Steve jobs hated fans.

[@WinrichNaujoks]

But what did you do to make the disk drive work in the end?

[@techdept]

That’s the problem. I must have dismantled that drive three or four times off camera, and each time I tested it, it would either kinda work or not. Then on the last reassembly, it finally sorted itself out. So I don’t know what made the difference. The new belt and cleaned rollers probably made the difference in the end, but yeah it’s one of those “it works, why?” Problems.

[@joshj88]

My power Mac g4 cube runs a 7447 at 1.58ghz slot load super drive. Of course my “cube” is a Mac mini 😂

[@techdept]

They just go so well together. The m1 Mac mini board is just awesome for squeezing into small cased retro Apple machines. I’d love to do a G4 iMac conversion like a few I’ve seen online using a new Mac mini.

[@joshj88]

While the M1 is nice I kept it a G4 lol. It would be funny though to be running sheepshaver or peacock on a m1 mini just to keep old Mac OS going on the fastest PowerPC ever not made!