New to Mac. Turn on, Folder with ?

[Kaichibi]

Alright, so I got a mac from a friend the other day. I've never used Mac before so i'm not sure about anything going on.

I was not given any boot disc or anything. Just the monitor/cpu a keyboard and a mouse.

Is there any way to bring it back to life without really putting money into it?

If it helps,
Model Number: M5521 DHHS Code: GX
EMC No: 1857

If you need anymore information on it that could be obtained easily by looking at it just ask.

Please help if you can!

 

[r.j.s]

Sounds like there is nothing on the HDD, and without a disc to boot from, it is pretty much a paperweight.

 

[Kaichibi]

Figured that would be the problem.

Now it's just turning on and staying a white screen.
Probably even less usable than not being able to use it now! =(

 

[spinnerlys]

It's an iMac G3, meaning it is around ten years old.

If you have an Apple Store or an Apple Certified Reseller near you, they may have some old version of Mac OS still around which you can purchase for a small amount of money. Or try Ebay.

I would recommend OS 9, as the processor may be a little bit to slow for Mac OS 10.3, the first usable Mac OS X version in my opinion. (At work we have an editing machine with 10.2.8 and it's sometimes a pain in the arse with mounting drives and no Expose and so on.)

You can have a look here at the specs of your machine: http://mactracker.dreamhosters.com/iphone/#_modelList

 

[Kaichibi]

So if I would find a purchasable version of MAC OS 9 would that solve my not having a boot disc problem?

 

[spinnerlys]

It should, except the iMac is broken.

I once got a Mac OS 9 copy for 5€ at an Apple repair shop, so it shouldn't be such a big loss if it doesn't work out.

 

[Poncho]

I had a G4 tower that did just that.

Tried everything:

Booting in safe mode, booting in verbose mode, booting in single-user mode, booting in target mode, booting it with my boot, and just before I was going to take it down the dump I thought – 'Hang on, if thes was a hi-fi or electrical system I would trace back the wiring.'

Opened it up and all along it was because a white plastic plug mating the wires from the hard drive to somewhere else just needed pushing together more tightly..

Just a thought.......