Blank eMac; No OS

Hey everyone,

So I just recently bought an eMac at a school surplus sale and it does not have anything on it at all. I want to know what operating systems I could put on it and how I would go about doing this.

Thanks.

Welcome both to Mac-Forums - and the eMac club!

Best OS? Depends on which model of eMac it is. Pull down the optical drive flap and provide us with the information beneath the lower bar code strip. Either that, or the Serial #.

Thanks for the welcome! Actually this is my second eMac, my first being the one I'm using right now, which I've had for maybe 6 or 7 years. But I've never modified a computer before.

Serial: G842835BQQH

Info:
1.25 GHZ / 1 GB / 160 GB HD/DVD-RW/CD-RW/56K MDM/KYBD/OS
100-120 VAC, 3.5A, 50-60HZ

That eMac will run Leopard OS X.5 and Tiger OS X.4 very nicely with 1GB memory however the discs are not real cheap if you are on a budget. Take note what hughvane suggests as he is a bit of an eMac enthusiast whereas I think they make first class kellicks, or anchors to the non-seaman folk!

If you do have to purchase an operating system, make sure you do not buy the silver grey system install discs which are extremely model specific, but a black full retail install version.

Someone's been into that eMac and upgraded the hard drive.

Harry's right about which OS it'll run, but I'd recommend Tiger, mainly because the 1.25 processor might struggle a little with the increased demands of Leopard. To alleviate that, you could increase the RAM to 2 Gb, which will mean the OS doesn't have to use as much Virtual RAM on the HD.

Here's all the detail: eMac (USB 2.0) - Technical Specifications.

You can purchase either Tiger or Leopard from Apple, I've discovered. US$65 was the price for Tiger, and I think Leopard may be the same. Check with an online Apple store.

Have fun!

Thank you for the help! But I would also like to know what other OSes that I could run. Could I run Ubuntu or XP or anything like that?

Also, how do I go about increasing the RAM?

You could run Ubuntu but not XP. Check with the Ubuntu forums to learn how to install Ubuntu on a PPC machine. XP needs an Intel box.

Regards.

Derp said:

Also, how do I go about increasing the RAM?

Click to expand...

Two ways:
1. Tip the eMac on to its screen face on a towel, undo the latch door, and see what RAM modules are in there already, ie. 2 x 512 Mb or 1 x 1 Gb?
2. Go to Performance Upgrades; FireWire USB SATA Storage; Memory, more at OWC to see what RAM is available for your eMac. For example, I use 2 x 1 Gb modules (which I bought from OWC incidentally). You can buy elsewhere for less, but OWC tests and guarantees the RAM it sells for Mac.

Your eMac will run more smoothly with 2 Gb, but not a whole lot faster. That depends on how much other stuff you have on the HD.

I will definitely get more RAM and will probably purchase Tiger.

hughvane said:

Your eMac will run more smoothly with 2 Gb, but not a whole lot faster.

Click to expand...

How can I get it to run faster?

"Faster" is a much over-used term. Your eMac will run @ 1.25 GHz - and that's it!

You can however help it to run more smoothly (fewer hesitations) with maximum RAM (as explained earlier), and by 'keeping it slim'. By that I mean don't load more software than you're going to use regularly (fight the download temptation!), use browsers that don't hog 80+% of you processor capacity (eg. FFox), and carry out regular OS maintenance with OnyX Titanium's Software • Download.

Because that eMac is one of the series that had capacitor problems, I'd also recommend carrying out regular (every 3 months or so) hardware checks, using Disk Utility from your about-to-be purchased OS disks (don't rely on DU from the internal OS).

If you require further info or hints about making the most of your eMac, post back in this thread, or use the PM facility.

A week and a half later and I've received my Tiger OS. So I installed this morning and I was very excited to start using my now-working eMac. Yet when I try to do anything, my computer will freeze after only a couple minutes of use. Any idea what could be going on and how I could fix this very annoying situation?

Derp said:

A week and a half later and I've received my Tiger OS. So I installed this morning and I was very excited to start using my now-working eMac. Yet when I try to do anything, my computer will freeze after only a couple minutes of use. Any idea what could be going on and how I could fix this very annoying situation?

Click to expand...

What sort of ram are you using in this eMac? If it was not confirmed "Macintosh compatible ram"...the ram could be the problem.

- Nick

I haven't changed the RAM at all. I have 2 x 512 GB RAM. It's the same RAM that I had when I bought it a couple weeks ago.

Derp said:

I haven't changed the RAM at all. I have 2 x 512 GB RAM. It's the same RAM that I had when I bought it a couple weeks ago.

Click to expand...

How much have you used this computer in the last 2 weeks?...and when you did use it...how stable was it? In other words, how long could you use it before it would freeze?

- Nick

I haven't been using it all. I started using it this morning and after a couple minutes it would freeze. When it froze I restarted the computer and after another couple minutes it would freeze again.

Derp said:

I haven't been using it all. I started using it this morning and after a couple minutes it would freeze. When it froze I restarted the computer and after another couple minutes it would freeze again.

Click to expand...

Are you getting this "dialog window" that looks like this when it freezes?:



If so this is called a "kernel panic". These happen many times due to bad/incompatible ram. So what I'm saying is...one or both sticks of ram in your eMac may not be "Mac compatible".

- Nick

No, I've seen that before, but it hasn't happened on this computer. It's just a freeze. Everything will stop working and I can't move the cursor. Also there are a lot of displaced pixels on my screen. Random white or black streaks, often also around buttons.

Derp said:

No, I've seen that before, but it hasn't happened on this computer. It's just a freeze. Everything will stop working and I can't move the cursor. Also there are a lot of displaced pixels on my screen. Random white or black streaks, often also around buttons.

Click to expand...

I'm still sort of leaning towards the ram being the problem with the "freezes". Can you explain any further what you're doing when it freezes?

For example...how long can you use the computer before it freezes (approximately)...I understand that it could be a range?

- Nick

Now for the reason why these eMacs make good kellecks, or anchors.

Be aware the 1.25GHz model had extremely bad capacitor problems which causes constant system freezes. Start with this link and see if this matches your problem, and do a Google for "eMac Capacitor Problems" for more information>-

Apple - Support - Discussions - eMac constant freezing - no bad cap ...

Alright, so it seems that it would be the capacitors... There is definitely some oozing going on them. So, what's the cheapest way to get this fixed? Or what's my most viable option? Or what would you all recommend?