Buying Power Macintosh G4 Quicksilver advice please

Hi you all:

This is my first tread so please go easy with me. I'm going to buy an used Power Macintosh G4 Quicksilver with this specifications:

G4 PowerPc 867 Mhz
1.5 GB RAM
80 GB in Hard Drive (I assume is the 7200Rpm one)
SuperDrive

That's the only info I know until now. The guy is coming tomorrow to close the deal and I told him I want to test it. So, the question is:

¿How do I now the machine is in good shape?
¿There's any kind of test I can do in a couple of minutes to have an idea?
¿Should I open it and check something inside?

He told me is running OSX 10.4.2. I know that I can go to About this Mac and find out all the specifications. What else do you guys think I should check before giving the money to this guy. Is the first time I buy a Mac tower.

Thanks.
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MacBook Pro Intel Core Duo 2.16MHz

G'day and welcome to the Forums. Hope all goes well, but for starters:-

Plug in the machine and boot up and see if it starts okay. Ask him if he has the original system discs, and if so this will include Apple Hardware Test. Run this, about twenty minutes and will check logic board, memory, modem, graphics etc.

Open up and make sure there are three memory modules installed, and about this Mac should show 3 x 512MB modules and status as OK hopefully. Do you have monitor to connect? If so use it when you boot up.

Make sure you get a receipt and any documentation he has if he was the original purchaser. See if the machine will connect to the net via ethernet or broadband depending what you have and later when you own it update the software.

If he does not have the original discs, at least get the Tiger disc as you will need this to trouble shoot and change passwords.

It is great he is bringing it to your place ~ shows a fair amount of honesty on his part as he knows you will want to try it out.

*Moved thread - Hardware question -> Apple desktops*

Thank you harryb2448, That's a good advice. I just asked him and he doesn't have the original system disc. I have the Tiger disk and the Leopard disk but i couldn't find any application that do Hardware test on them. Is there any way I can download it and burn it or something like that?? I really want to test it, I know It looks really honest of his part coming to my place, but this is a hand to hand sale, that means that if the computer is broke and I notice later on, I'll be ruin and he won't give me back my money. Tight situation here hahahaha. More advice perhaps?

Thank you

One hardware test app is TechTool which is a commercial app but has a lot of features.

You can download Apple's Hardware Test off of their website. Just make sure you download the right version.

Thank you so much you all!! I have a last question. I just found my AppleCare CD. It comes with the TechTool Deluxe Version 3.1.1. Can I run this version on the Quicksilver?. I did some research but I couldn't find a straight answer.

Thanks

Here is a link to the Tech Tool specs and it will work fine on Tiger. You do have to update for Leopard however:-

http://www.welovemacs.com/oz6915891a.html

You will need Apple Hardware Test version 1.2.6. As MHC suggests go to her link, download, drag image to Disk utility and burn on to a CD. To start up test pop the CD into the Superdrive, and reboot holding down 'C'. Run the full test first up.