Trying to Get Some Use Out of an Old 10.2.8 iMac

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iMac Power PC G4 384 MB RAM Mac OS 10.2.8
I am trying to get some use out of an old iMac (that one of my children outgrew). It has Mac OS 10.2.8. So far, surprisingly, it is working out well. I am not familiar with the mac world.

1. I would like to install Skype but this requires Mac OS 10.3.4 (I think) at least. How much would it cost to upgrade my OS? Can the hardware even support this? Is this a reasonable thing to do?

2. Am I better of buying a newer Mac desktop or laptop or for that matter a Wintel desktop or laptop?

3. What are the equivalents of Ctrl/C and Ctrl/V on the Mac? How do I display a list of processes running?

Thanks.
 
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iMac 17" 1Ghz G4  iPhone 3G  10.5.5
A lot depends on which iMac you have.
Click on the Apple icon in the Menu bar and select "About this Mac".
If you can post the specs, we can help better.

For Ctrl/C & V ,use the Apple key and C or V
 
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Mac Mini Core i7 2012 | White 2009 MacBook 2 Ghz | 733 Mhz G4 Quicksilver
You don't tell us the model of Mac and its specs

1. You should be able to run Tiger 10.4 on that mac, I would recommend a minimum 512 meg RAM with that. Retail copies of Tiger (make sure they say they are retail copies or the disks may not work with your mac) can be found inexpensively on eBay

2. That's up to you and comes down to available funds

1. You have a command key right next to the space bar, that functions in the same way as the windows CTRL (so command C and Command V will copy and paste.

IN Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor - that is an app that can display running processes and memory and processor usage
 
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Thanks for the helpful replies. (I will vote in a couple of minutes on the Helpful member of the month poll.)

1. Here are the hardware specs:

Memory 384 MB
Processor 700 MHz Power PC G4

Should I try to upgrade from Mac OS 10.2.8?

2. How to I get the Home and End keys to do their jobs?

3. In Applications->Utilities, I didn't find a Activity Monitor but found a Process Viewer which does what I want.

4. Is there a way to bookmark Process Viewer instead of going to Finder->Applications->Utilities->Process Viewer every time?

Thanks again.
 
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I saw some Mac OS 10.4 software advertized on eBay but am not sure what I saw will work for me. If some kind soul won't mind posting a link to something that will work for me, I will be grateful.

I have a drive that pops open when I press the right most key on the top row of the keyboard but don't know whether it is CD or DVD. I put a movie DVD in it and tried but it didn't display anything. Does this limit what kind of software that I can buy? Also, how painful is the upgrade process?

Thanks.
 
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For installing, I would recommend the Erase and Install option.

This is an example of what your looking for.
You don't want to get anything that says "restore" or is gray in color. They won't work.

Also, check to see if you iMac is capable of reading DVD's. Tiger CD's are hard to find.
(For information about your computer, operating system, disks, and applications, open Apple System Profiler (in the Utilities folder, Applications/Utilities)

Picture 7.png
 
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Thanks for another very useful reply.

It looks like my iMac only has a CD drive. I saw on the link that Soulwar provided that I can get Mac OS 10.4 on CDs for $99.00. Is this a good price? Is this worth sinking this money into an old iMac?

How much does memory cost? How easy is it to add memory into an iMac?

Also, my System profiler output looks nothing like the above. I will post a screenshot but don't know how.

Thanks.
 
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PowerMac G4 MDD Dual 1.25 GHz, 1GB Ram, 80 Gig Hd, 200 Gig Hd; iMacDV 400Mhz 40GB 512Ram
To take a screenshot its Command(apple)+shift+3 for a full screen and Cmd+Shift+4 to select the area you want snapped. Not sure if your version of OS X has this though...

As for memory, it's fairly inexpensive and worth the upgrade. And it is fairly easy to add memory to an iMac, not sure the G4's but the G3 iMacs were fairly simple to upgrade.
 
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I have attached a screenshot of my System Profiler output.
Click on the Devices and Volumes tab. See if the optical drive is listed.

For upgrading the ram...
Memory Upgrades for your iMac G4 (Flat Panel) 700MHz - 800MHz at OtherWorldComputing.com $30

"The "Flat-Panel" iMac models can support up-to 1.0 GB of RAM total (or 768 MB of RAM without "intervention by an Authorized Apple Service Technician"), by using one 512 MB, non-interleaved 168-pin, 64-bit-wide 8ns PC133 SDRAM DIMM (one 512 MB 184-pin PC2700 333 MHz DDR SDRAM DIMM after September 8, 2003).

The "Flat-Panel" iMacs have two RAM slots, one that ships pre-installed with either 128 MB or 256 MB of RAM and is not intended to be user-upgraded, and one open SO-DIMM slot that can easily be upgraded by the user."

How to..
Add Memory to an iMac (Flat Panel)
 
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Silver M1 iMac 512/16/8/8 macOS 11.6
Soulwar the Tiger disk shown reads 'suitable for any eMac'. It may be system restore discs advertised that way as sometimes the eMac software will not install on an iMac.

$99.00 is pretty much top price so think with shopping around should get it for much less.
 
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It looks like I should be able to add memory if I solve the following problem:

I was able to loosen three of the screws but not the fourth, at the bottom of the iMac. The loosened screws wouldn't come off though.

I am thinking about adding memory whether I upgrade the OS or not.

btw, the attached file is how the Devices tab of my System profiler looks like. It also confirms that I do not have a DVD.

View attachment Picture 1.pdf
 
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It looks like I should be able to add memory if I solve the following problem:

I was able to loosen three of the screws but not the fourth, at the bottom of the iMac. The loosened screws wouldn't come off though.

I am thinking about adding memory whether I upgrade the OS or not.

btw, the attached file is how the Devices tab of my System profiler looks like. It also confirms that I do not have a DVD.

As far as the screws, they are "spring attached". They stay with the plate. If the fourth screw is stuck, try a little penetrating oil on it. (wd-40)

And definitely look around for Tiger. The link I posted was just an example. $50 is reasonable. The CD version may be a bit more. You can also use the DVD version if you have access to another Mac that is capable of playing DVD's.
 
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Thanks all for all the useful replies. I feel more comfortable in the Mac environment now. I will post again next weekend, when I will work some more with this iMac.

Some questions for the meantime.

1. I have been giving reputations to all the useful replies. I thought that there was a link to Member of the Month which I don't see anymore. I wonder what happened to it.

2. A few time, during poerup, the iMac never seems to complete the powerup. One time I had a HP Deskjet Printer CD in the drive. I wonder whether this caused the hangup. Another time, I disconnected the printer and the ethernet and was able to power up. This is the only serious problem that I have. This may well be operator error.

3. I still don't know how to get the home and end keys to work.

4. I would love to get Mac OS 10.4.11 CDs for $50.00 and 512 MB of memory for $30.00. I do have a link for the memory in this thread.

5. I also need to get Antivirus. I see a sticky thread in this group.

6. I travel during the workweek and thus will be away from the iMac. I wish everybody a great week.

Thanks again.
 
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I am back, playing with my iMac.

When I power down and power back up, it seems to hang. (It definitely hangs for a minute or two. Should I wait longer?) Is there a workaround for this? This is driving me nuts.

I had problems with Firefox 1.0 (which was what was on the machine). None of the menus worked except the Firefox menu (the leftmost menu). I downloaded 2.0.0.18. I hope that this will play nicely with my Mac OS 10.2.8.

Thanks.
 
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I definitely have a problem during power up after a power down.

After one power up, the mouse did not work. I had to do a hard shutdown. It took me about 10 tries to power back up. Once it powered back up, it is working fine. I am getting afraid to power down now.

Would appreciate useful tips. Thanks.
 
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This problem is annoying me greatly.

1. I can try booting up from Install disks. However, I don't know how to open the CD enclosure. The rightmost button on the top row does not work until the computer boots up.

2. I could not locate fsck on my computer. If my problem is a hard drive problem, there is no sense in me wasting time and money on this iMac.
 
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5. I also need to get Antivirus. I see a sticky thread in this group.

you should explain why you need antivirus software - it's pretty unnecessary with os x based on unix which is both incredibly stable and secure.

the big ones like norton and mcafee will protect you from transfering viruses from your mac to another pc if that's a concern. however there's no need for it if you're simply concerned with protecting your mac. AND antivirus software can be a huge memory hog (esp. if you're running an older machine)

i would seriously advise against it unless you share a lot of files with an unprotected pc
 

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