Free Apple Xserve Servers From A School Bin!

Recently I was given a pair of Apple Xserve servers that were being thrown out my a private school here in Adelaide. Do these ewaste trash macs work? Can they be saved? Let's find out :) #Apple #xserve #retro

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Nathan Sivewright
Parcel Collect 10045 46100
Shop 4 254 Curtis Road
Munno Para SA 5115

Apple Xserve Specifications:
G4 1.0GHz PowerPC 7455 (Single Processor)
1GB DDR 266MHz ECC Ram
4x Ultra ATA 7,200rpm Hard Disks
CD-ROM Drive

G5 2.0GHz PowerPC 970fx (Single Processor)
4GB DDR 400MHz ECC Ram
3x 80GB SATA 7,200rpm Hard Disks
CD-ROM Drive

Music by Nathan Sivewright

[CaelThunderwing]

Everytime i see that battery brand i cant NOT think of dankpods screamin out "ohh my PKCELL!"

[Odd-Bike]

6:27 what a little nugget of a battery. DankPods will be proud

[crazyfurnaceguy]

12:12 Maybe this COM port can connect to terminal (can use COM port to USB adapter with software terminal) to check the server states or control🤔

[adidusi]

Dude remembered he had a YouTube channel

[tommythetoe]

Well nothing will happen with your 12 volt rail down yes. Why not get a diagram that shows the
voltages coming out of that power supply. You can unsolder the plug and connect it to a regular
power supply. Can't hurt to try as long as you get the voltages hooked up right.

[thebastionsportGV]

I used to repair one of these and when my IT office closed, I took one of these with me and its in my room being a drive backup machine where I store all my importent data on it and move it to retro and old computers that can use a SSD. Aleast its not in a trash bin.

[johnDingoFoxVelocity]

Just a heads up the g4 xserve has a battery inside that controls the drive array when that battery dies the xserve no longer reads any disk ever again

[seafouronesea]

3:56 The identifier light serves both as an identifier *and* system warning light. You very likely have a damaged motherboard as in regular operation (such as when the MacRack1, 1 initially booted) the light will turn off on it's own if no faults are detected

4:07 The loud fans are expected for rackmac (ppc) and xserve (intel). The fans will run at full power if no boot device is found.

You should definitely look for the user manual for your ppc serves as that will give you a better indication of what the various debug lights inside the xserve are actually telling you.

If you'd want some help with getting these running I'd be happy to try giving you advice as I have my own xserves I play around with for fun.

[kylehazachode]

I wish Xserve would make a comeback. Silent, low power, Apple silicone, rackable macOS based NAS; that’d be nice.

[budgerigarer]

6:25 Obligatory "Oh my PKCELL!"

[HK_]

The bang sounded an x class rifa filter cap possibly. Ive dealt with them in plenty of vintage electronics

[poundlandspeedwagonrequiem]

It's a shame you couldn't get them to work, but damn it does make a good table paired with those cheese greater macs lol

[declanmcquay]

I remember admining Xserves from the G4 to Intel eras with a 2TB XRAID connected to it. Very reliable hardware, the only issue I had was the original G4 had an IBM Deathstar HDD in it.

[georgeh]

I've never used Apple servers but I did do development many years ago on a different company's Unix servers. The Xserve looks like it has a serial port on the back. Hook that up to a TTY dumb terminal or to an older PC (or Mac) with a serial port and a serial terminal emulator program. See whether that will display any text screens to administer the server. Also, try to find manuals for the Xserve. Those would tell you how to set up and troubleshoot them.

[SoundToxin]

If you think water damage may be the cause you could try soaking the boards in white vinegar for a bit, then re-cleaning with isopropyl alcohol afterward. You could also check the caps with an ESR meter. You can have a bad cap that looks totally normal at a glance. It sucks when you get some cool free/cheap stuff but can't manage to fix it. Happens to me now and then. I hope you can figure something out and revisit these someday.

[johnDingoFoxVelocity]

As for your g5 if the battery failed already it wipes the drive controller as well and prevents the machine from booting in some cases you need to try the on board video to see out of the xserve external cards only work on the core 2 duo models

[Lillia-nuxt]

Your content vibe is just right, keep it up

[frokfrdk]

Damn that battery is as old as I am. The front IO being bridged with a firewire cable was likely a cost saving trick by Apple considering the more niche nature of these products. They are cool relics of something Apple wouldn't make anymore (rack mounted Mac Pro doesn't count)

[brendanmatthys]

Gotta love schools never upgrading their tech. Only 22 years later they're thinking "hmmmm maybe these depricated apple servers that were useless 10 years ago might need to be upgraded"

[dezhocob]

I just watched every video you ever made after discovering you! Several afternoons well spent! Looking forward to new content! Cheers mate!