How to clean up an old iMac...

[sikkinixx]

My grandma just gave me her old iMac 400mhz G3 as a reward/payment for helping her set up her new macbook and wireless router.

It has 384mb of ram (blazing speed....) and it has Panther installed on it.

The problem is, she doesn't know where the Panther CD is so I don't think I can reinstall the OS on it , which is what I wanna do since it has her name and password and everything on it, plus it probably needs the refresh.

So my question is, what can I do without reinstalling the OS to help get it to run a little smoother? I know it is old and won't run as fast as my Macbook but hey, its a neat little desktop!

 

[Eidorian]

Panther hovers around $15-30. I bought Tiger last year for $35!

 

[Aperture]

Yep, pickup some Panther Disks off eBay/etc. Panther is probably the best OS to run on that machine considering it was 9x stabler than Jaguar.

Kevin

 

[Eidorian]

If you can get her password you can make a new admin account. Then store or delete her old one. The new account should be much more perky. I've found OS X rarely has issues with performance decreases over time.

 

[sikkinixx]

thanks guys. Im deleting her old profile now and using mine instead.

This thing isnèt so bad for a 6 year old machine. Its slow as dirt for some stuff but for web browsing and sutff it works surprisingly well.

I gotta head on over to Apple's site and try to find the manual for this thing. I wanna see if I can put some more ram into it, maybe get a wireless card they are only 50$ from Apple refurbished so it would be kinda groovy to be able to put this thing where ever I want.

I'm also gonna look into finding a cheap copy of Panther/Tiger for this thing. Would Tiger run worse or better ya think? I'm worried about the Dashboard destroying this things performance...

 

[Eidorian]

thanks guys. Im deleting her old profile now and using mine instead.

This thing isnèt so bad for a 6 year old machine. Its slow as dirt for some stuff but for web browsing and sutff it works surprisingly well.

I gotta head on over to Apple's site and try to find the manual for this thing. I wanna see if I can put some more ram into it, maybe get a wireless card they are only 50$ from Apple refurbished so it would be kinda groovy to be able to put this thing where ever I want.

I'm also gonna look into finding a cheap copy of Panther/Tiger for this thing. Would Tiger run worse or better ya think? I'm worried about the Dashboard destroying this things performance...

PC100/133 RAM should be dirt cheap for it. Remember it takes the original Airport and not the Extreme. See if you can get 1 GB in it.

 

[sikkinixx]

yeah I was just trying to find the users guide but it doesn't have the one for mine. I have the 400mhz Graphite Slot-loading DVD one with a 13GB Hard drive. Its a DV special edition whatever that means. But I can't find a manual that says the max amount of ram and what type I need for it. Also, I wanna find out if I can put a bigger hard drive in....

 

[aquajet]

Max RAM: 1gb
RAM type: PC100

Don't worry about reinstalling OS X to make it run smoother, because it won't and it's just a waste of time. If anything, you can create a new account and delete the old.

 

[sikkinixx]

Max RAM: 1gb
RAM type: PC100

Don't worry about reinstalling OS X to make it run smoother, because it won't and it's just a waste of time. If anything, you can create a new account and delete the old.

thanks. I did create a new user and deleted the old one. It has helped a bit actually.

I'm gonna try to find some ram (damn it is really expensive... I thought it would be really cheap) and a new Hard drive (they are user replacable no?) The biggest bummer about this system is the power button on the front doesnt work for some reason. It lights up green but when you push it nothing happens so I am forced to use the original keyboard since it has the power button on it. But the keys are really worn out and the keyboard itself feels a little too small but ah well! It was free so I shouldn't complain.



Oh and how can you rename the computer? it says "Maureens Computer" on the "about this mac" but I deleted her profile...

 

[QCassidy352]

yeah I was just trying to find the users guide but it doesn't have the one for mine. I have the 400mhz Graphite Slot-loading DVD one with a 13GB Hard drive. Its a DV special edition whatever that means. But I can't find a manual that says the max amount of ram and what type I need for it. Also, I wanna find out if I can put a bigger hard drive in....

My first mac! It's a good little machine, enjoy!

 

[Eidorian]

How much are you looking to spend on RAM?

 

[sikkinixx]

Well I don't wanna spend a ton on it. I mean, I got a gig of decent ram for my PC for like $130 bucks so it seems a little odd that these weaker ram should be so expensive. Same with the original airport card! Damn, i can get an extreme one for 50$ while the original is $80+ and i would need a $40 adaptor for it.

I found a 512 stick of Samsung PC-133 168pin for $75 cdn at a computer shop I go to a lot which would bring it up to 768mb (I have a 256mb and a 128mb in there now) and I was reading that you should only put a 5400rpm hard drive in these things because the excess heat can't be cooled very well from the faster drives. And I can't find a 5400rpm drive for the life of me lol eBay probably has one but I hate dealing with eBay so I will have to search around for one.

 

[Macmadant]

Use mac janitor to clear out logs files ect. this is scheduled to do at night so unless you grandmother kept it on over night i doubt it would have done it

 

[RedTomato]

I have the same DV iMac sitting under my desk for my baby daughter to play with

Older RAM is expensive cos they don't make/stock it anymore. NASA wanted to buy RAM for some intel 286 chips on the space shuttle or something, and ended up paying $1000 per KB for some 30-year old RAM.

I think I have about a gig in mine, and it has Tiger, which works well. I've not really used it in about 2 years.

Be careful buying RAM, pc133 may not work in a mac that expects pc100.

Lowendmac.com is your friend, I refer to it all the time when looking at older macs.

http://www.lowendmac.com/imacs/index.shtml find your model, it has a complete list of possible upgrades.

 

[Macmadant]

I have the same DV iMac sitting under my desk for my baby daughter to play with

Older RAM is expensive cos they don't make/stock it anymore. NASA wanted to buy RAM for some intel 286 chips on the space shuttle or something, and ended up paying $1000 per KB for some 30-year old RAM.

I think I have about a gig in mine, and it has Tiger, which works well. I've not really used it in about 2 years.

Be careful buying RAM, pc133 may not work in a mac that expects pc100.

Lowendmac.com is your friend, I refer to it all the time when looking at older macs.

http://www.lowendmac.com/imacs/index.shtml find your model, it has a complete list of possible upgrades.

PC100 Slots will except 66, 100, 133 Ram Modules, and i know this from personal experience

 

[sikkinixx]

yeah I was looking on Lowendmac.com, it was pretty helpful.

It sucks that the Ram is so much for it because I don't really wanna spend almost 200 bucks for the 1GB so I might just put a 512 in and live with 768mb.

I don't really need Tiger all that bad, Panther works just fine so I am gonna try and find some Panther disks for mucho cheapo.

 

[RedTomato]

PC100 Slots will except 66, 100, 133 Ram Modules, and i know this from personal experience

Ding dong, you're wrong.

Firstly it's accept, not except.

Secondly, PC100 slots accpt other types of RAM in much the same way that a CD drive accepts a DVD disc.

Yes it's all the right shape and it'll go in the right holes. That still doesn't mean mutual satisfaction will result unless a deep, emotional, meaningful connection is made.

Some PC100 macs WILL NOT work with PC133 ram. Fact of life. Macs are more picky than PCs about their RAM. (or as someone said, they reject borderline ram, rather then saying 'oh ok' then crashing on you at random times)

I even had a PC, a nice little standard AMD box that ran on PC100. So I got some PC133. Wouldn't work. Only PC100.

Even if you have the right speed ram, some cheaper brands of RAM will still not work in Macs. So, be careful. Get a gaurantee or try before you buy or a money back promise.

 

[Eidorian]

yeah I was looking on Lowendmac.com, it was pretty helpful.

It sucks that the Ram is so much for it because I don't really wanna spend almost 200 bucks for the 1GB so I might just put a 512 in and live with 768mb.

I don't really need Tiger all that bad, Panther works just fine so I am gonna try and find some Panther disks for mucho cheapo.

Just get one 512 MB stick. 768 is fine for Panther.