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Hello apple people,
I have a powermac g4 that I am trying to get up and running.
I am not an experienced computer guy, so please bear with me.
To my knowledge, the former owner tried to use an install/upgrade disk as a restore disk and ended up erasing or misplacing the former OS. This WAS NOT the original disk that came with it.
What I get on startup is the flashing ? / ppc symbol folder icon.
I have tried a drive that has a g4 powerbooks 10.4. OS cloned on it, via firewire, to try and boot up w/, but no go. I've thought of buying a 10.1 OS full install disk(earlier version to what was previously installed), but don't want to waste the money on a dead end.
I don't really know where to start, nor wheather this machine is even fixable.. Any opinions and or advice appreciated.
 
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Just install a full version of whichever OS? Well that was easy. Thanks much cwa107!
 

cwa107


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14" MacBook Pro M1 Pro, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD
Just install a full version of whichever OS? Well that was easy. Thanks much cwa107!

Yep, you just need a valid OS disc and to get it installed properly. Leopard is the latest version and I believe it works fine on most G4 machines, provided that you have at least 512MB of RAM (OS X loves memory, so feed it well - 1GB would be better).
 

dtravis7


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What are the specs on that Power Mac G4? Leopard needs a 867Mhz G4 or faster or it will not install.
 
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400 Mhz. What would be the best older version? Would Tiger run on this?
 
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256 Ram. This info comes from the label on the back of the machine. Past owner frankensteined it so not sure. The only thing I'm sure of is that he has two hard drives in it.
 

dtravis7


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400 Mhz. What would be the best older version? Would Tiger run on this?

Tiger would run fine on that 400Mhz G4. Be sure though to upgrade the RAM as 256 is way too low for decent performance.
 
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What about Jaguar? I've heard that some don't like it. I assume that 256 of ram would work with Jaguar. This is a Graphite agp by the way. dvd player(original?) and zip drive.
 
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Compared to the pc, what is the equivalent with Jaguar or Tiger? 2000 Professional or xp?
 

dtravis7


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What about Jaguar? I've heard that some don't like it. I assume that 256 of ram would work with Jaguar. This is a Graphite agp by the way. dvd player(original?) and zip drive.

Jaguar is way old. Safari on Jaguar is very behind the times and there are no more updates for it. I would never run Jaguar today. Too old. Panther would be better but on my 1.25Ghz Mini that came with 256 Megs RAM if I had iTunes and Mail and Safari running and changing pages, songs were skipping in iTunes due to swapping to the drive.

The AGP takes PC100 SDRAM. It will take up to 4x512Meg modules.

You really can not compare Jaguar, Panther, Tiger with XP, 2k. Very different systems.
 
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I meant comparing the mac and pc as far as regular net surfing. Just ball park figures.
 
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I get what you're saying travis. I guess I was beating a dead horse on that one.
 
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No Go. I tried to install Tiger and the same thing as before. Says I need and earlier OS installed before attempting...
Found out that this G4 has 768mb of ram. Not 256 like I thought.
Any Ideas?
 

dtravis7


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What Tiger DVD are you trying to install? Is it a Black DVD or a machine specific DVD that came with another Mac?
 
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Silver M1 iMac 512/16/8/8 macOS 11.6
Can you go to 'About this Mac' and check the firmware update, listed as 'Boot Rom Version'. To install OS X needs to be 4.2.8 and possibly with f1 after that.

To update firmware must be booted from OS 9, go to Apple web site and go to downloads, download the update, install, reboot holding the programmer's button.

Then you can OS X.4 Tiger. Make sure you have the black retail install DVD disc and NOT a gray colored restore disc.
 
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I don't think I can harry. I'll check it out tomorrow and post something then. Need sleep.
 

dtravis7


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It was silver. Came with a G4 laptop.

The DVD's that come with a Mac are Model Specific and will not work on a completely different Mac. That is why you are getting that message.

You will need a Black install DVD. You can find Tiger Boxed for all machines on Ebay.
 

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