iMac lampshade - Jumping from 1.1.5 to 10.4 ...

[kemperg1]

Ok, I inherited this machine and it's in great condition but I have a few issues in getting this baby up to speed. (My dad owned it and never updated it at all.)

1. Right now it's running 10.1.5 and I want to install 10.4 - Do I need to install 10.3 before 10.4? (This is what I was told.) My question is, why?

2. (Related to the first question) - if I do upgrade to 10.4 is it gonna bog down the speed. It's got 256 Megs of RAM in it now and it's surprisingly fast as is. Is 256 Megs of RAM gonna be enough to run the new OS and how much can this model hold anyway?

3. I need to install an Airport card in it and I did some research and it turns out it only takes the original one. I've seen them on Ebay for pretty cheap but also saw a website that was charging $80 for them. Anyway, do I need software to install it or can i just put it in?

That's about what I need to do to get it where I need it. It's only going to be used to surf the net and stuff like that anyway.

Thanks!

 

[Sky Blue]

1. No, you do not need to install 10.3 to install 10.4

2. What's the processor speed?

3. You do not need any software just the card, originalAirport cards are costly nowadays.

 

[kemperg1]

1. Cool. I thought the guy on Ebay was full of it when he said that too but his other information seemed to be pretty true. Although he has OS 10.4 for a great deal, that makes me weary of buying it from him ...

2. I can't find it on that ancient 10.1.5 system. All it says is that it has a PowerPC G4. My Mirror G4 has the same one and it's listed as 400 MHz ... so is the iMac the same speed? (I do remember when I installed 10.3 on my Mirror G4, I had to get more RAM.)

3. Cool.

Thanks!

 

[tobefirst ⚽️]

2. I can't find it on that ancient 10.1.5 system. All it says is that it has a PowerPC G4. My Mirror G4 has the same one and it's listed as 400 MHz ... so is the iMac the same speed? (I do remember when I installed 10.3 on my Mirror G4, I had to get more RAM.)

The slowest iMac G4s were 700 MHz.

 

[Sky Blue]

1. Cool. I thought the guy on Ebay was full of it when he said that too but his other information seemed to be pretty true. Although he has OS 10.4 for a great deal, that makes me weary of buying it from him ...

2. I can't find it on that ancient 10.1.5 system. All it says is that it has a PowerPC G4. My Mirror G4 has the same one and it's listed as 400 MHz ... so is the iMac the same speed? (I do remember when I installed 10.3 on my Mirror G4, I had to get more RAM.)

3. Cool.

Thanks!

The problem with Tiger is it's quite hard to come by at a store, even if you can find it, you'll probably be paying full price. The G4 iMac ranges from 700 MHz–1.25 GHz. If yours is 1GHz or more, I say load up on RAM and get Leopard.

 

[christ3d]

the airport cards have gotten expensive since they stopped making them.

heres what you do, buy a linksys wrt54g off of ebay for 20 bucks, get the hacked firmware for it and turn it into a wireless bridge.

here are the benefits of the linksys over the airport:
cheaper.
longer range.
802.11g speeds instead of just b with the airport.

its not pretty, but neither is the G4 imac.

 

[bamaworks]

its not pretty, but neither is the G4 imac.

Wow, a lot of people would disagree with that comment.

 

[elfjuice]

its not pretty, but neither is the G4 imac.

I'm adding you to my disagreement list as we speak !

 

[MacHappytjg]

I'm adding you to my disagreement list as we speak !

mee two

 

[iPhil]

802.11b airport card -- $90 (US)


And


Mac OS 10.4 Tiger


or


Mac OS 10.5 Leopard -- $99 (US)

 

[MacHappytjg]

id just get leopard and i wireless usb or w.e and i dont see why people always say max out ur ram i run 512 on my emac macbook and my brothers imac and leopard just seem to run fine unless if u do many rigorus things or use adobe cs3 premium lke myself which runs a lil slow on the macbook

 

[alienx]

Take a look at this.. for 7.99 you can get wireless adapter for your imac, no need to spend lot of cash for a airport card.

h**p://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1452039&tstart=0


(adapter is still on sale!!)

 

[velocityg4]

2. I can't find it on that ancient 10.1.5 system. All it says is that it has a PowerPC G4. My Mirror G4 has the same one and it's listed as 400 MHz ... so is the iMac the same speed? (I do remember when I installed 10.3 on my Mirror G4, I had to get more RAM.)

You should be able to find out in System Profiler in /Applications/Utilities. Though it may be something like Apple profiler.

 

[kemperg1]

alienx - That is so cool. I'm gonna buy that now.

I have another question and it may be a dumb one ...

My friend (PC guy - seriously, he's like the commercial) insists to me that I need a wireless router to make my iMac online and connect with the DSL modem I got from Verizon.

I could be wrong but I told him that I didn't think so and if I just got this wireless card or adapter that I'd be fine. After talking to Verizon tech support, who was very helpful in setting up my Power Mac G4 for DSL - they told me to just get a wireless card for it and mentioned nothing about a router.

... ?

 

[velocityg4]

alienx - That is so cool. I'm gonna buy that now.

I have another question and it may be a dumb one ...

My friend (PC guy - seriously, he's like the commercial) insists to me that I need a wireless router to make my iMac online and connect with the DSL modem I got from Verizon.

I could be wrong but I told him that I didn't think so and if I just got this wireless card or adapter that I'd be fine. After talking to Verizon tech support, who was very helpful in setting up my Power Mac G4 for DSL - they told me to just get a wireless card for it and mentioned nothing about a router.

... ?

From this I would assume that the setup from Verizon has a wireless router built in. If not however you would have to get a wireless router. So I would not blame your friend since normally broadband equipment comes with at the most a wired router.

Frankly I do not like the routing equipment that comes with broadband modems. In my opinion an after market router would be far stabler and you would have more options and control over networks customization. But if you just want the cheapest and are fine with that then stick with what Verizon supplies.

 

[alienx]

alienx - That is so cool. I'm gonna buy that now.

I have another question and it may be a dumb one ...

My friend (PC guy - seriously, he's like the commercial) insists to me that I need a wireless router to make my iMac online and connect with the DSL modem I got from Verizon.

I could be wrong but I told him that I didn't think so and if I just got this wireless card or adapter that I'd be fine. After talking to Verizon tech support, who was very helpful in setting up my Power Mac G4 for DSL - they told me to just get a wireless card for it and mentioned nothing about a router.

... ?

Hi, it all depends on what kind of modem you got, is it a wireless modem/router? I have Verizon FIOS and they supplied a router that is wireless too (Actiontec router, model MI1424WR), if this is your case then you just need the adapter/card and setup you router with whatever encryption you prefer and that's it...

Now, if you have just a 'plain' router (or just a modem) with no wireless capability then yes, you need a wireless router to attach to the modem so you can have wireless connection, remember you need a 'transmitter' (wireless router) and a 'receiver' (wireless adapter/card) to work wirelessly...

If you need to buy a Wireless router, some are very inexpensive now in days, microcenter has a bunch, you just need to add it to the current setup on a bridge/client mode (make sure you ask the sore tech the router can do this before you buy - some cant) since you are just adding the wireless capability to your current setup.

So your setup would something like this if you need a wireless router:

Modem ---> wireless router ---> wired PC


and from the wireless router
\
----> wireless pc/laptop

cheers!, I hope this helps...


alien2x



Edit: if you iMac is a 700Mhz or 800Mhz processor speed you wont be able to install Leopard (unless you trick it) since the requirements are 865MHz (or something like that) as minimum for installation, if your speed is more than that then you can upgrade right straight from the box w/o problem... I would increase memory as much as possible if you can afford it, you wont regret it...


Everything you need to know about you iMac (since we dont know what model you got), how much memory, etc, etc, you can add to your system, just select the correct model...

h**p://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/index-imac.html

 

[Biblezombie]

Might need 10.3

There was a 10.4 UPGRADE which requires 10.3 be installed first. This only happens when they manufacture a Mac with one OS but the new OS comes out before it gets sold. Such was the case with the latest 10.5 "Upgrade" or "flatpack drop in" disks. The 10.5 flatpacks went one step further by linking to specific model only.

 

[spork183]

2. (Related to the first question) - if I do upgrade to 10.4 is it gonna bog down the speed. It's got 256 Megs of RAM in it now and it's surprisingly fast as is. Is 256 Megs of RAM gonna be enough to run the new OS and how much can this model hold anyway?

3. I need to install an Airport card in it and I did some research and it turns out it only takes the original one. I've seen them on Ebay for pretty cheap but also saw a website that was charging $80 for them. Anyway, do I need software to install it or can i just put it in?

Thanks!

If it takes the original airport card, it is the usb 1.1 version, either G4 700 or 800. Here's the deal on the ram: It has an easy slot and a hard slot. Each slot will take up to 512mb for a total of 1gb. The easy slot, you just remove the bottom. The hard slot, you remove the innards and it takes a much stronger stomach. In a nutshell, you will either have 256mb on the hard slot and an empty easy slot, or 128mb in each.

If you go in to the hard slot (tutorials abound, but read up first), you might as well upgrade the HD and Optical at the same time. Alternatively, I'd sell this one, pop the money you save on ram and airport, along with what you get for the puter, and buy a used USB 2 version of this mac. I did that for my 10 year old, and we went from a 15in, usb 1, G4 800 to a G4 1.25, with 20in, for a net outlay of $100. (Course by the time we upgraded the HD, Superdrive, Ram, and my heartattack when it wouldn't boot immediately, it cost a whole lot more...)

Anyway, enough, best of luck. And imho, this was an inspired design and one of the most stunning computers ever sold, visually speaking. The internals aren't a picnic.