OS for G4

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Magijian


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my friends...this is wassup. I acquired an old g4 from one of my homies, and he told me it needed a new hard drive and os. i changed some jumper settings and now it's loads to the flashing question mark and happy mac screen. which apparently means it can't find startup files. so...i just wanted to know which os i should try to install on the baby.

i'm not really sure which powermacg4 it is. so i probs need some help with that first, right? that's about it.
 
pigoo3

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I would install a version of Mac OS 10.4.x (Tiger).

- Nick
 
toMACsh

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Nick, why not 10.5? You didn't give any reasons for your preference. I'm amazed that the OP just took that and ran with it!
 
Kevriano

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I think 10.5 is fine if you have a fair bit of RAM and a fast processor, but as the OP doesn't know Tiger is a safe bet.
 
pigoo3

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Kevriano said:
I think 10.5 is fine if you have a fair bit of RAM and a fast processor, but as the OP doesn't know Tiger is a safe bet.
Click to expand...

"Kevriano" pretty much said it all.

The "OP" cannot properly boot the computer...so they were not able to tell us the specs of the computer (although there is usually a label somewhere that lists the specs when shipped).

The system requirements for 10.5 include a minimum CPU speed of 867mhz...so if the OP had a CPU speed of less than 867mhz...10.5 wouldn't work well or not at all.

So it wasn't so much a preference for 10.4 over 10.5...it was more about which would install...since we don't know the G4's CPU speed.

Hope this makes sense,

- Nick
 
toMACsh

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I see. That makes perfect sense. It also gives this thread some educational value.
 
Kevriano

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dtravis7

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Also unless it's at least a 867Mhz G4, 10.5 will not install on it's own anyway and really is draggy on slower G4's if you get around the 867Mhz restriction. 10.4 Tiger would be the best for a really old G4 Mac.
 

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