Re: advice sought: old G3 iMac and OS X
- From: dempson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (David Empson)
- Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2006 21:12:17 +1300
Donald Hall <spamback@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
My aunt and uncle, in their late 70s and early 80s, have been happily
using an iMac G3 mostly for email and web surfing for the past five
years. Web surfing has become increasingly problematic and they are now
wondering if they can upgrade their machine to run to OS X. Does anyone
here have any experience that I can pass along?
Current machine specs are:
2001 "Flavor" iMac
350 MHz G3
64 MB RAM
7 GB HD
OS 9.04
That's actually a "Summer 2000" model. If it was bought in 2001, it must
have been bad timing as there were new models in February that year.
Quick summary: yes it can be upgraded to run Mac OS X, but there are few
problems which will add to the cost and complexity.
Officially, you can't run 10.4 (Tiger) on this model, because it doesn't
have the required Firewire port (let alone a DVD-ROM drive). There might
be workarounds but they will be difficult. It would be better to locate
a second-hand copy of 10.3 (Panther). I wouldn't recommend trying to go
with earlier versions of Mac OS X due to dwindling application support,
though 10.2 (Jaguar) was quite usable. Avoid 10.0 and 10.1.
I've had 10.3 running on a 400 MHz iMac of about that generation, and it
works quite well. 10.1 was way too slow for my liking, but 10.2 was
bearable.
If you are buying a second-hand copy of Mac OS X, make sure you get a
"full install" retail box, not a machine-specific CD, as it is generally
not legal to sell these separately from the computer they came with, and
they also usually don't work on other models. Also avoid "upgrade"
versions, as they can't be used to install a fresh copy of Mac OS X,
only upgrade an earlier installation of Mac OS X.
Obviously a major increase in RAM is needed
RAM must be upgraded to at least 128 MB, and I'd recommend more than
that. This model has an easily accessed door on the underside of the
computer, with two RAM slots that take PC-100 (or PC-133) SDRAM. One
slot will be empty, and the best option would be to buy a 256 MB memory
module to put in this slot, which will give 320 MB in total. (If more
memory was needed later, you could replace the 64 MB module with a
larger one.) Check the price of a 512 MB module, as that would be even
better, but would be overkill given their likely usage. A 128 MB module
won't save much and is likely to result in a performance hit.
and I expect a firmware upgrade.
Quite likely. Check the firmware version in Apple System Profiler (under
the Apple menu). If it is not running firmware 4.1.9 (probably with "f"
and a number after it) then you must install this before installing Mac
OS X. The firmware updater is available from Apple here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75130
(It may also be on the Mac OS X install CD, but you have to go looking
for it.)
In order to run this firmware updater, the computer must first be
running Mac OS 9.1 through 9.2.2. You will have to upgrade to at least
9.1 anyway in order to keep using Classic applications under Mac OS X,
and 9.2.2 is preferable. The updaters for these are available for free
from Apple, and must be run in ascending order of version:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75130 (9.1)
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=120030 (9.2.1)
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75186 (9.2.2)
The HD is small, but I think adequate for email and web
surfing, especially if unneeded languages and fonts are not installed.
This depends on how much space is currently available. Check the
installation requirements of the version you are planning to use: it
might need something in the order of 4 GB free to do the installation.
Avoiding unnecessary printer drivers at installation time is also a good
way to save space. Another trick (after installation) is to run a tool
like Monolingual and remove foreign language support from the system and
applications.
Ideally, the computer should have at least 2 GB of free disk space after
Mac OS X is installed, though you could squeeze by with at least 1 GB
free. Less than that is getting risky due to potentially running out of
virtual memory.
If necessary, the hard drive can be replaced with a larger one. A 7200
RPM drive should work OK in this model (I had one in my iMac DV SE from
the previous generation), and it will support anything up to 128 GB
(using a 3.5" UATA mechanism, not SATA or 2.5"). The main complexity is
the machine needs to be partly disassembled to access the hard drive,
and this should be done by someone experienced. Transferring the
existing data to the new drive is best done with another computer that
can have both drives connected, otherwise you will have to use a USB
drive enclosure (slow) or a network connection to another computer
(complicated).
Another argument in favour of replacing the drive is that it is a few
years old and has a greater risk of failing due to age.
Of course, a new machine would be best, but that is not really an
option.
How about a somewhat newer second-hand machine which comes with a
suitable version of Mac OS X? Might work out better overall.
--
David Empson
dempson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
.
- Follow-Ups:
- Re: advice sought: old G3 iMac and OS X
- From: Tim McNamara
- Re: advice sought: old G3 iMac and OS X
- References:
- advice sought: old G3 iMac and OS X
- From: Donald Hall
- advice sought: old G3 iMac and OS X
- Prev by Date: Re: clock battery in G4 Mac Mini?
- Next by Date: Re: Win XP on Intel Mac
- Previous by thread: Re: advice sought: old G3 iMac and OS X
- Next by thread: Re: advice sought: old G3 iMac and OS X
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
Loading
