This is really baffling me...

S

Stormrider

Guest
I acquired a PowerMac today (No idea what model, or specs, and the like), and when I power it up, it sits on a grey screen. Could this perhaps mean it doesn't have an OS installed?

I was also told it wouldn't run OS X, and the person I got it from had already tried to install it, so he may have uninstalled the previous OS in the process.

Excuse my n00bitude, I've never owned a Mac before and don't know how they operate in such circumstances.
 
Joined
Sep 30, 2004
Messages
3,378
Reaction score
61
Points
48
Checkout everymac.com, it has a section that shows pictures and specs of all the powermacs, try to figure out what you have.
 
OP
S

Stormrider

Guest
Ah, here we go... It's a 400 MHz G3, 64 MB SDRAM, with a 10 gig hard drive and a DVD-ROM drive.

As far as the grey screen goes, would this mean there's no OS installed on it? It'd be nice if I could get to some sort of BIOS setup, so I can at least install Linux on it for the time being, but I don't see how that can be done..
 
OP
D

Desolate One

Guest
Download the Yellow Dog iso. As far as Linux distros Yellow Dog is the one for the Apple architecture.
 
OP
S

Stormrider

Guest
I'll probably put Debian PPC on it (one of my preferred distributions), but I still don't know if there's no OS on it, or if it's just got some problems booting up...
 
Joined
Jan 12, 2005
Messages
670
Reaction score
23
Points
18
Location
Ceres, Ca
Your Mac's Specs
iPad 32 GB 3G
You could install OS X with more memory. I have panther running on a iMac G3 400 and it works OK (128 megs and it was a bit of a dog, 256 somewhat better, 512 would be ideal). I think even the lowliest of g3 400s will take up to 256 MB +-- check out crucial if you can dig up which model it is.
 
OP
S

Stormrider

Guest
I was mistaken, this thing's a G4.

Indeed, it will run OS X, and the machine will take up to about 1.5 gigs of RAM. Thanks a lot for that link!

Edit: Oh, and I'm downloading the Debian PPC netinstaller. I'll use this just to breathe some life into the system, and when I can get my hands on some more RAM and a copy of OS X, perhaps I'll take it off (I've got enough Linux boxes, time for a change of pace) :)
 
Joined
Jul 21, 2003
Messages
1,185
Reaction score
16
Points
38
Location
Coruscant, Galactic Republic
Your Mac's Specs
14" iBook G3 900/640/40 _ _ Power Macintosh G3 All-In-One 315/768/20 _ _ 20 GB iPod
dan828 said:
You could install OS X with more memory. I have panther running on a iMac G3 400 and it works OK (128 megs and it was a bit of a dog, 256 somewhat better, 512 would be ideal). I think even the lowliest of g3 400s will take up to 256 MB +-- check out crucial if you can dig up which model it is.

Even Beige G3's will accept up to 768 MB of RAM, and the Blue & White (which includes the 400 MHz variety) will accept up to 1 GB.

As you mentioned, OS X will run just fine on the older G3's. Mine is a 300 MHz G3 with 768 MB of RAM, and it has no problem running Panther at all.
 
OP
M

myjay610

Guest
1.5 GB of RAM? I dont know about that.

Also did you ever find out about an OS/X on it? Try using knoppix and boot from the cd, and check out what's on on the HDD.
 
OP
S

Stormrider

Guest
According to everymac.com, it's expandable to 1.5 gigs.

And I believe the person I got it from uninstalled the previous OS to try to install OS X. If there is an OS on it, it's probably OS 9, which I don't even want.
 
Joined
Jul 21, 2003
Messages
1,185
Reaction score
16
Points
38
Location
Coruscant, Galactic Republic
Your Mac's Specs
14" iBook G3 900/640/40 _ _ Power Macintosh G3 All-In-One 315/768/20 _ _ 20 GB iPod
myjay610 said:
1.5 GB of RAM? I dont know about that.

The PCI graphics version will support 1 GB, and the AGP graphics version will support up to 2 GB (running OS X).
 
Joined
Jan 12, 2005
Messages
670
Reaction score
23
Points
18
Location
Ceres, Ca
Your Mac's Specs
iPad 32 GB 3G
Buy some memory then-- I think the problem was just not enough RAM to install the OS. Then get a (legal of course) OS X install disk and see if you can get it going. As I said, my G3 400 was running it OK with only 128, but multi-tasking was rediculously slow.
 
Joined
Nov 24, 2004
Messages
726
Reaction score
11
Points
18
Your Mac's Specs
Black Colorware PowerBook 1.67 GHz G4, 2 GB DDR2, 100GB 7200 RPM
Yeah. If it's a G4 at all you will have ZERO problem running OS X with the right amount of RAM. What you could do if you end up really enjoying the system and don't want to cough up too much cash on a faster one is buy an aftermarket G4. They get up to 1.5 GHz nowadays from what I hear.
 
OP
S

Stormrider

Guest
Okay, I booted it up, and it went to the grey screen, so I decided to wait and see what it does. It goes to the OS 9 start-up screen, and then the monitor goes black, and I hear a high-pitched buzzing from it, and it stays that way.

I'd like to get the thing to boot to the Debian CD. How do I change the boot sequence?
 
Joined
Sep 30, 2004
Messages
3,378
Reaction score
61
Points
48
I believe you just hold down C when booting to boot from CD, I could be wrong on the key though.
 
Joined
Jun 25, 2004
Messages
1,779
Reaction score
65
Points
48
Location
Luxemburg, Europe
Your Mac's Specs
PowerMac G5 Dual 2GHz (June 2004), 2.5GB, Airport, black 5G iPod 30GB, white MacBook 2.0 2GB
mynameis said:
I believe you just hold down C when booting to boot from CD, I could be wrong on the key though.

you're right, it is the C key
 
Joined
Mar 9, 2004
Messages
9,065
Reaction score
331
Points
83
Location
Munich
Your Mac's Specs
Aluminium Macbook 2.4 Ghz 4GB RAM, SSD 24" Samsung Display, iPhone 4, iPad 2
Hold down the c key (or apple + c?) at the grey screen to boot from cd.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top