01-19-2008, 04:28 PM

I bought my kids a older Imac for christmas. It really sucks on the internet, it's super slow and choppy. I'm wondering if it's just a case of too little memory?? Or is there something else i should be looking to do. Also it doesn't have classic 9 so i have a few games that they can't play either which is kind of annoying. I have a ibook g4 that rules, and i was hoping to switch everybody over to mac.

Specs: Imac slot loading 400/10/128...It's running Panther.

Thanks for any help.
Steve

01-19-2008, 04:41 PM

Don't expect a 400Mhz G3 to be dead smooth but I think a lot of your problem is your RAM. If that 128 is for 128Megs RAM, that is way too little for even Panther to run smoothly. Upgrade the RAM as far as you can afford.

01-19-2008, 05:19 PM

I had one these great machines. You have two things that are killing your fun. Lack of RAM and a teeny 10gb HD.

As was mentioned, max the Ram and swap the HD to a 120gb and you are good to go. I stretched my DV400 to 7 years of very good usage before the power board gave up. It was then I decided enough and move to the 24".

01-24-2008, 12:18 AM

Thanks, I thought that would be a problem when i bought it. Also on some simple non internet kids games it stutters and sputters a bit.
Is this also from the lack of memory?

Can i get classic to run some programs?

Thanks
Steve

01-24-2008, 08:10 AM

Absolutely, Classic or even Tiger ran fine with enough memory. RAM is very cheap but the 10gb is certainly a choke as it is almost full with a OS X install and classic.

01-24-2008, 09:03 AM

I would think there would be atleast 6GB free after Panther and classic were installed.
A lack of RAM might be the reason it is choppy online and during gameplay. It could easily be the fact that it's eight years old or the fact that it only has 8MB of video RAM. Even maxed out with 1GB of RAM, the performance will still be choppy with the 8MB of vRAM.

01-24-2008, 09:10 AM

As was pointed out, the lack of RAM is the biggest culprit here. The second biggest bottleneck is the 100 MHz FSB. Even with more RAM, it will run smoother... but it will never be a speed demon with that FSB. I suspect that is going to be your biggest hang up.

HD size is fine, video RAM is fine, OS is fine... but the lack of RAM and the slower FSB is what is dragging the machine down.

02-04-2008, 11:45 PM

Ok here's a little update, i got a 256 strip, so know it has 320 for memory.
It runs a bit better, but still choppy on a race game on Lego .com which is the most important thing in the world to one of my kids.

Now it has Panther, had it when i got it so no disk. I tried to run the firmware update too, but it won't run as i don't have Classic 9 or newer??

So i will be getting more memory for sure but i would like to figure out why it doesn't have classic or newer i thought panther was newer..?

And i would like to get the Panther disk, and classic too if that is what it takes.
Cuz this is driving me a little crazy. As i stated before i have a ibook g4 that i love and it works super good. And was also my first and only Mac till now.
So any advice would be great..

Thanks Again
Steve

02-05-2008, 08:05 AM

First I would seek out a retail version of Tiger. It has OS 9 and X on the install disks and you will need more storage space. Now I would install that 120 GB drive, installing OS 9 first. Update to 9.2.2 and then Tiger.

Get more ram as you will need it. You will be good to go for a while unless one of the boards lets you down. The early iMacs had a history of this. I was very lucky I feel to get 7 years out of mine.

Easiest solution is to add more ram and leave the machine alone - it will never be great but what do kids know? A little TLC and you can get another year out of it then the kids will complain about something else and then it is time to move.