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

fury · 04-02-2008, 02:27 PM

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 · 04-02-2008, 02:54 PM

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

acosmichippo · 04-02-2008, 03:03 PM

you can always make them Macquariums.

fury · 04-02-2008, 03:14 PM

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 · 04-02-2008, 03:19 PM

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 · 04-02-2008, 03:49 PM

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 · 04-02-2008, 04:09 PM

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 · 04-02-2008, 04:24 PM

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.

Hondamaker · 04-03-2008, 04:45 AM

Originally Posted by 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.

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

acosmichippo · 04-03-2008, 01:16 PM

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