Hi all,
First post from from a new Mac user.
My dear uncle gave me a G4 Powermac Sawtooth 400Mhz 768MB RAM, 20 GB hard drive. I've never owned a "real" computer before, so it's been a bit of a learning curve.
Considering I installed some RAM, OS X, an external DVD drive (including all successful CD burns and fair quality DVD burns), I'm feeling real good about the whole Mac experience! Just got a DSL modem today, so that's going to be another interesting challenge, when SBC hooks it up at the CO.
With just a bit of help, from a few Mac user friends, in the last few weeks, I've managed to get through, but it has taken some hours off my life for sure.
The funny thing, my uncle had to take the Mac to the shop, because of some kind of freezing problem, when I've done the equivalent of what a teenager does with his first old, free car... lots of things that I probably should not have done, and it still seems to keep working...eventually.
The point was not to abuse the equipment, I just wanted to write CDs and really don't have any training to what the terms and procedures are, so it's a bit of an exploratory learning technique.
Anyway, here's some burning questions, which I can't seem to find answers for in a way that I can fully comprehend, after doing many searches of this great forum.
1) I accidently installed OS 10 10.3 Panther over the classic 9.1.
I somehow missed an intermediate update. Thought I had the latest version.
Then I tried to download and then install the intermediate update 9.2.1 (using a dialup connection
and got this message...
"Problems were encountered reading the source file, Big System Morsels. Installation cannot continue."
Do I need to remove OS X, or can I try to update in classic mode, when I get the DSL line hooked up next week?
2) I need more hard drive space for my CD collection. I'm a minor audiophile and lossy compression just seems like quantity over quality choice.
Can I just purchase a nice 120/250 GB hard drive and stick it in the tower and plug it in or is there some kind of controller upgrade required?
I've combed the update sites but, they assume you actually know what your doing to start with...
I'd read a any kind of tutorial.
3) I have a stereo and nice bookshelf speakers plugged into that little 2.5 mm jack and that's and accident waiting to happen. Is there a card and connection part that's not a big bucks pro type board, which would provide solid RCA stereo connectors and perhaps digital INPUT? Is there a Toslink (for old Laser disc movie input) or a coaxial digital connection? I'm use to hooking up home theater type AV equipment and using those type of connectors.
It just seems so strange, that computers have the capacity for 1000's of high quality recorded music files and it seems all the computer users I've ever met are using these piece of junk 2"-3" plastic speaker systems, or worse yet the supplied 1" tower speaker. Seems like such a missed opportunity, like a volkswagon motor in a Jag.
At least, a quality set of headphones would make a huge listening improvement.
iTunes is such a revelation, after spinning a couple of 200 disk changers and trying to keep track of the disk notes and track titles! It's like heaven!
But I diverge...
4) Is a Dell 19' flat panel a good choice for $425 delivered?
5) What is the main bottle neck for video information processing and what is the solution? The new Pioneer external DV-109 burner is working at about 2x all the time, no matter what the setting. I'm getting some spurts of pixelization too, which showed up for no apparent reason, as well as data intensive fast moving scenes.
So, any advice or links would be appreciated. I'm not averse to bringing the machine into a shop either for a "tune up".
I've been warned about spending too much money to upgrade an old machine, and it's easy to see how this can occur, but it sure is rewarding challenge!
-
Greenjeens
First post from from a new Mac user.
My dear uncle gave me a G4 Powermac Sawtooth 400Mhz 768MB RAM, 20 GB hard drive. I've never owned a "real" computer before, so it's been a bit of a learning curve.
Considering I installed some RAM, OS X, an external DVD drive (including all successful CD burns and fair quality DVD burns), I'm feeling real good about the whole Mac experience! Just got a DSL modem today, so that's going to be another interesting challenge, when SBC hooks it up at the CO.
With just a bit of help, from a few Mac user friends, in the last few weeks, I've managed to get through, but it has taken some hours off my life for sure.
The funny thing, my uncle had to take the Mac to the shop, because of some kind of freezing problem, when I've done the equivalent of what a teenager does with his first old, free car... lots of things that I probably should not have done, and it still seems to keep working...eventually.
The point was not to abuse the equipment, I just wanted to write CDs and really don't have any training to what the terms and procedures are, so it's a bit of an exploratory learning technique.
Anyway, here's some burning questions, which I can't seem to find answers for in a way that I can fully comprehend, after doing many searches of this great forum.
1) I accidently installed OS 10 10.3 Panther over the classic 9.1.
I somehow missed an intermediate update. Thought I had the latest version.
Then I tried to download and then install the intermediate update 9.2.1 (using a dialup connection
and got this message..."Problems were encountered reading the source file, Big System Morsels. Installation cannot continue."
Do I need to remove OS X, or can I try to update in classic mode, when I get the DSL line hooked up next week?
2) I need more hard drive space for my CD collection. I'm a minor audiophile and lossy compression just seems like quantity over quality choice.
Can I just purchase a nice 120/250 GB hard drive and stick it in the tower and plug it in or is there some kind of controller upgrade required?
I've combed the update sites but, they assume you actually know what your doing to start with...
I'd read a any kind of tutorial.
3) I have a stereo and nice bookshelf speakers plugged into that little 2.5 mm jack and that's and accident waiting to happen. Is there a card and connection part that's not a big bucks pro type board, which would provide solid RCA stereo connectors and perhaps digital INPUT? Is there a Toslink (for old Laser disc movie input) or a coaxial digital connection? I'm use to hooking up home theater type AV equipment and using those type of connectors.
It just seems so strange, that computers have the capacity for 1000's of high quality recorded music files and it seems all the computer users I've ever met are using these piece of junk 2"-3" plastic speaker systems, or worse yet the supplied 1" tower speaker. Seems like such a missed opportunity, like a volkswagon motor in a Jag.
At least, a quality set of headphones would make a huge listening improvement.
iTunes is such a revelation, after spinning a couple of 200 disk changers and trying to keep track of the disk notes and track titles! It's like heaven!
But I diverge...
4) Is a Dell 19' flat panel a good choice for $425 delivered?
5) What is the main bottle neck for video information processing and what is the solution? The new Pioneer external DV-109 burner is working at about 2x all the time, no matter what the setting. I'm getting some spurts of pixelization too, which showed up for no apparent reason, as well as data intensive fast moving scenes.
So, any advice or links would be appreciated. I'm not averse to bringing the machine into a shop either for a "tune up".
I've been warned about spending too much money to upgrade an old machine, and it's easy to see how this can occur, but it sure is rewarding challenge!
-
Greenjeens
