What can I do with a couple of iMac G3s with OS 9.0 and 9.2?

[fury]

So there was this thing on Craigslist with someone in my area needing to get rid of a ton of iMac G3s. I went over there with $25 intending to buy one iMac, came home with 3. One as far as I can tell cannot turn on at all, but the other two have both powered on and booted. Both are iMac G3s, one 333mhz and one 350mhz, one with OS 9.0.4 and the other with 9.2.2. Both appear to have 6 gig hard drives. One has 32mb of RAM and I can't figure out where to install more. The other has an accessible RAM slot cover which I have 256mb of memory to put in it, I think...

So, what can I do with these old beasts? Can I install OS X on them? How much is that, and is it worth trying?

[psylichon]

no. sorry... the only purposes those machines could serve right now are perhaps as conversation pieces.

[acosmichippo]

you can always make them Macquariums.

[fury]

Got the other one to power on & boot up (G3 400 and a DVD drive) - it's got an iBook OS 9.2.1 setup CD in it, though, and I can't figure out how to get the CD out and boot to the hard drive. The eject key on the 2007 Apple USB keyboard doesn't work, and I can't see any buttons for ejecting on the iMac itself.

I figured I might set them up as Internet browsers for my brothers to play around with whenever they're over here visiting, but the only browser I can find is IE 5.1, and that's old as hell. Is there anything that will run on OS 9 that I can make work?

Also, the guy who sold them to me told me they all had OS 10.4.8. Was he pulling my leg, or is there a special key command I have to do to get to a dual boot menu?

[psylichon]

Those machines can't run 10.4.8

I think if you press and hold F11 or F12 long enough, the CD/DVD drive should eject.

[fury]

Figured out the Startup Disk control panel. I managed to boot into that one's OS, it has 9.2 on it as well.

What's the latest version of OS X they could run?

[fury]

Hm, I'm getting a weird problem out of the 400mhz. I went to do the firmware update, and when it reset, it just does 4 beeps, the power light turns orange, flashes 4 times, then back to green. Then nothing.

[fury]

Bah, means it's toast apparently. The firmware update must have botched, and now Apple's site says it needs to be serviced.

That's what I get for trying to fix it. :D

[Hondamaker]

Bah, means it's toast apparently. The firmware update must have botched, and now Apple's site says it needs to be serviced.

That's what I get for trying to fix it. :D

Hey, at least you tried, and you had some good ideas as to what to do with them.

[acosmichippo]

sounds like a trip to the Pet store is in your future...

[chcorey52]

You could give one to me?

[geordisjd]

My old iMac G3/DV/400 runs great, as long as you don't expect to play WOW on it. I upgraded its RAM to 1 GB. I have Mac OS 10.4.8 on it. It's great for browsing, running Word or Photoshop and it still can work in the classic mode.
What firmware upgrade did you try to use?

http://gallery.mac.com/jacdem/100066/IMG_0093/web.jpg

I'd love to get my hands on yours! There isn't an older mac that I haven't been able to fix. I'd start by using another Mac and connect them by their firewire ports, start the iMac in target mode and see about reformatting the HD from the other one. Then try to install the appropriate firmware update (I'm not at home, so I'd have to wait to check which update is appropriate).

[psylichon]

Those machines can't run 10.4.8

My old iMac G3/DV/400 runs great, as long as you don't expect to play WOW on it. I upgraded its RAM to 1 GB. I have Mac OS 10.4.8 on it.

See I'm gonna stop responding to Mac threads 'cause I'm obviously talking out my rear end. Sorry.

[fury]

See I'm gonna stop responding to Mac threads 'cause I'm obviously talking out my rear end. Sorry.
No worries, buddy, if everybody stopped responding to Mac threads cause they were afraid of saying something wrong, then nobody would respond to Mac threads. I welcome any and all input ;)

I only have one working iMac at the moment. The other slot loading iMac lost its hard drive. It started making strange grinding noises, so I'm going to try to pull the hard drive out of the one with the fried firmware, and put it into this one.

The firmware update was 4.1.9, I believe; whichever one Apple's site tells you to apply before installing Mac OS X. Not that I have Mac OS X... Just figured having it as up to date as possible was a good thing anyway

[geordisjd]

http://gallery.mac.com/jacdem/100125/iMac-20G3/web.jpg

I just figured out my processor was 500MHz (not sure how important that might be) and I just upgraded to 10.4.11. I will NOT attempt to put Leopard on this. It's running too nicely to do that.

Its firmware version is 4.1.9, so it must be the most recent.
http://gallery.mac.com/jacdem/100125/Hardware-20G3/web.jpg


And just to show you that even Lola approves of it:

http://gallery.mac.com/jacdem/100125/IMG_0763/web.jpg

Anyway, don't give up on an iMac G3. They're still good little computers.

[Eragon]

geordisjd,

That was very well put. Thank you. I've heard a lot from the Mac forums, especially as it regards Leopard, that the working shelf life of Macs is being limited. Apparently, Apple has decided to slowly kill off Power PC machines by establishing lower processing speed thresholds.

What is really nice is that the Mac is a truly durable machine, and that owners can expect to get many good years out of them. :smile:

[geordisjd]

Well, thank you.
I think Tiger is going to be with us for a while longer. There are still more people out there using Tiger than those using Leopard, and Apple is still upgrading it, so it's a good sign.

[fury]

So you can repair a Mac's firmware by connecting it to another working Mac via firewire and doing something?

Do tell...

I don't have a firewire cable, and as I said, these are the only Macs I have, if that makes a difference.

[geordisjd]

So you can repair a Mac's firmware by connecting it to another working Mac via firewire and doing something?

Do tell...

I don't have a firewire cable, and as I said, these are the only Macs I have, if that makes a difference.

You need a functional Mac first! (didn't you say that the other one's HD is dead?). You may want to borrow a laptop from a friend, and using a 6-pin firewire cable (borrowed or bought), after you put the G3 in target mode, you can initialize and reformat the G3's HD by using the disk utility from the other computer(use the journaled HFS+ option to initialize). Then you can install a fresh 9.1 or 9.2 OS on your HD and have a functional computer. It's now ready for you to apply the firmware update.

Now remember that you do not need firmware 4.1.9 unless you want to install Mac OS 10.2 or later! If you want to stick with OS 9, you don't need it.

[fury]

I have one working Revision A iMac, running 9.something

[geordisjd]

I have one working Revision A iMac, running 9.something

Well, after all this talk, if it's working, what do you really want out of if? (I gather you probably don't have a OS 9 install CD?

[Eragon]

I bought my iMac last July. The first Apple I've owned since the days of my Apple II+. One of the things I was hoping to do with the iMac was use it to play children's software. Unfortunately, a lot of the software was made for Mac Classic and not for the Intel processors. Some of the programs I was able to run via Parallels. Some, I wasn't.

Bottom line: there still is a market for older macs, especially ones with PPC processors.

[geordisjd]

I bought my iMac last July. The first Apple I've owned since the days of my Apple II+. One of the things I was hoping to do with the iMac was use it to play children's software. Unfortunately, a lot of the software was made for Mac Classic and not for the Intel processors. Some of the programs I was able to run via Parallels. Some, I wasn't.

Bottom line: there still is a market for older macs, especially ones with PPC processors.

And u can still do that. For $100, u can get a DV iMac G3 on eBay. Make sure you get a 4-500mhz processor and at least 256 mb of ram. You can upgrade rather cheaply to up to 576 mb. My 1 gb was a fairly expensive custom upgrade. Make sure it was fitted with a bigger Hd. Mine has 80GB. It cost me $125 before my crazy memory upgrade. You just keep OS 9.2 on it and run all your kids' games natively.

[jakebrake3202]

I have one set up in my living room. I have it plugged into my audio system and use it as a jukebox with different playlists for parties and such. Everyone is always intrigued by the visuals in itunes when I have them on.

I have turned several others into iMacquariums. (http://web.mac.com/capturephotoandvideo/iWeb/iMacquarium/iMacquarium.html)


.

[geordisjd]

I have one set up in my living room. I have it plugged into my audio system and use it as a jukebox with different playlists for parties and such. Everyone is always intrigued by the visuals in itunes when I have them on.

I have turned several others into iMacquariums. (http://web.mac.com/capturephotoandvideo/iWeb/iMacquarium/iMacquarium.html)


.

I love them! However, I'm not ready to sacrify any of my working Macs to turn them into a fish tank. I don't own any non-working Mac. Actually, I've never even met one!

[billnye97]

I have one set up in my living room. I have it plugged into my audio system and use it as a jukebox with different playlists for parties and such. Everyone is always intrigued by the visuals in itunes when I have them on.

I have turned several others into iMacquariums. (http://web.mac.com/capturephotoandvideo/iWeb/iMacquarium/iMacquarium.html)


.

Very cool and trendy. After I buy my Macbook I'm gonna look into getting one. My cats would go crazy.

[jakebrake3202]

Very cool and trendy. After I buy my Macbook I'm gonna look into getting one. My cats would go crazy.

They are cat proof. My cat sits on top of my iMacquarium and stares through the case at the fish swimming inside. The only thing she can do is paw at plastic. She walked around it for hours when I got it set up, just trying to figure out how to get at the fish inside.

[iHero]

You should give one of those G3's to me. I've upgraded my iMac G3 350MHz from OS 9 to OS X. You need to upgrade the firmware, and upgrade to at least OS 9.1. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me and I'll give you my GTalk or MSN address.

http://imgpop.net/uploads/1934iMacABOUT.png I'd upgrade to 10.4 but I need more RAM.

[geordisjd]

I'm running 10.4.11 on my G3 iMac:

http://gallery.mac.com/jacdem/100125/Picture-208_2/web.jpg

It's also still able to run classic. I'm maxed out on the RAM, which makes a big difference. It's a very nice and smooth little machine.

[iHero]

Isn't 1GB the max, or do you have the model with only that much as the max amount of ram?