Picked up a G4 second hand

Bought it primarily for video editing and to mess about with garageband and stuff like that.

Didn't realise that there was such a wide range of specs on the G4 and i'm worried i've picked up something that's really underpowered.

Also i think i may have some software issues. Garageband won't load, it says that it needs an instrument library. Would i have that on my system already but but just doesn't know where to find it, or can i get it from anywhere?

If so what am i looking for and where does it tend to be held?

iMove requires a "Quartz extreme" graphics card to use some features. Will this impair the application at all - are they really neccessary or just useful features?

If i have bought something vastly underpowered, what should i be looking to pick up? what sort of specs should i need?

Also what possible upgrades can i make to this in the meantime?
It's currently got:
Mac OS v.10.4.7
Microsoft office 11 (2004) Includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint Graph and others
Garageband
iChat
iDVD
Image Capture
iMovie HD
iPhoto
iSynch
iTunes

is that the best stuff i can use or would i be best looking to get some new software?

I hope some of you can help

Mac G4

The G4 is fine for most applications including GarageBand. For GB to work properly you need to install the full iLife suite, you can install iLife from the Mac OS X Disc 1 disc, it should be in a seperate folder and run the package installer to install all the required files and libraries for it to work.

Sounds like you have aG4 that doesn't have an AGP slot, the slot that quartz Extreme cards use.

Do you have nay OS 10.4 discs, if so, as pjhutch says, you may be able to install ilife from that.

Otherwise you will need to find a copy of iLife 06, iLife 08 will exeed the specs on that G4 for most tasks

AS for video editing, while the G4 can handle it, it will be very slow, especially compared to modern macs.

That said, an old G4 running Tiger is a good way of getting your feet wet if you have not owned a mac before

which one do you have? there are a few

Apple Power Mac G4 Specs @ EveryMac.com

I don't know if you've done this already but try downloading some new software updates. You can do this by clicking on Apple > Software Update.

Might improve, or fix some of your problems.

macgig said:

which one do you have? there are a few

Apple Power Mac G4 Specs @ EveryMac.com

Click to expand...

It's a Apple Power Macintosh G4 400 (Gigabit) (M7891LL/A)

but the HD and the RAM have been upgraded

Thanks to you all that have responded, it's all very helpful to me