noob help........i have tryed everything..i think

[liamhere]

just got a g3 imac...just want to use it as a jukebox in my living room

turn on....and just a grey screen

i have os disks but they are scrached so maybe no good

and i have tryed to burn a linux disk...but mac won't read or boot from it

the imac has been sitting unused for 6 months before i got it

help anyone?? :-/

 

[LCGuy]

Have you tried zapping the PRAM? Also, do you get a cursor or anything? Also, what model is it? Is it one with a tray-loading CD-ROM drive (like a laptop drive) or a slot-loading CD-ROM drive (like the CD player in a car)?

 

[liamhere]

Have you tried zapping the PRAM? Also, do you get a cursor or anything? Also, what model is it? Is it one with a tray-loading CD-ROM drive (like a laptop drive) or a slot-loading CD-ROM drive (like the CD player in a car)?

PRAM zapped

new battery ordered...should be here tomorrow

its a slot cd

it says on the bottom

400mhz 512k (is that the ram?) l2/64mb 10gb dvd

when it does boot...get a file with flashing ?

then a file with smiling face

Liam

 

[LCGuy]

Ok, if you get a disk with a flashing question mark, then i'm assuming that on the hardware side of things, everything should be ok. What you need to do is to get a known-good Mac OS startup CD and try that. Because you only have 64MB of RAM that limits your choices to 8.6, 9.0, 9.04, 9.1, 9.2.1, 9.2.1, OS X 10.0, 10.1 or 10.2, or maybe 10.3 as far as boot CDs go. OS X will be very slow with 64MB, but at least it'll allow you to see if the machine boots and if the hard drive is good.

Btw, that 512k is the backside cache, not the RAM.

 

[liamhere]

64 ram...o bugger...thats not alot

my dell had 3gb ram

ill let you know how i get on

thanks

Liam

 

[LCGuy]

Well judging by that sticker it came stock with 64MB of RAM...since then it could've been upgraded. They can support up to a gig, and they take standard-issue desktop PC100 RAM.

 

[liamhere]

ok...if the battery works...fingers crossed

ill get some mem to top it up a bit

 

[QuadSix50]

Remember if you're going to install Linux on it, it has to be the PowerPC port of whatever distribution you're using. Here's a link to the Alternate Installation disc image of the Ubuntu 7.04 PowerPC port.

For something with a little less overhead but still a good desktop environment, here's the link for the Xubuntu Alternate Install disc for PowerPC.

 

[liamhere]

thank you for the help.....post men on strike here

have to wait abit longer for my new OS and battery

 

[liamhere]

does imac mem have to be paired like pc.....

i.e 256x256 or can you have 256x128

or do both strips have to be the same?

 

[~tl]

They don't have to be the same in the G3 iMac...

 

[liamhere]

DOES IT HAVE TO BE PC100?

i heard you can use pc133....is that true?

as i have 2x256 pc133 just sitting here doing nothing

 

[MacJunky]

PC133 168pin 3.3v SDRAM will work fine. Does not matter if it is CL2 or CL3 either.

But, you won't get any extra speed as the iMac slots are PC100.

 

[QuadSix50]

I have also heard that lately there are some PC-133 RAM modules that are not backwards compatible anymore. Since systems that require either PC-100 or PC-133 aren't made anymore, there is no need for them to make them backwards compatible to PC-100 and are able to sell it cheaper. Don't know if it's true or not, but you might want to make sure that it is. Better safe than sorry.