grimdeath9740 Posted March 28, 2009 Share Posted March 28, 2009 I have just gotten a PowerPC G4 350 with 512 mb of ram and AGP graphics (doesnt specify the exact card in System Profiler). I received this from a computer auction at work. I am curious what is the newest version of OSX I will be able to run on this system without issue. It came pre-installed with a fresh copy of 10.2 that I have updated to 10.2.8 currently. How would I upgrade, is it free or does it require buying an install disc? Would retail version of these disk work or are there going to need to be some adjustments to make it work? Any help would be much appreciated! *edit* removed my extra question, solved it on my own! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lebidou Posted March 28, 2009 Share Posted March 28, 2009 According to Wikipedia, you can go up to 10.4.11 with a PowerPC G4 AGP. However I'd stay with a 10.3.x I remember it was fater than 10.2 on my 1GHz eMac but I think 10.4 is too much for a 350MHz G4. EDIT Otherwise, you can use the case to build a brand new powerful hackintosh. These G4 were the beautifulest after the Quicksilver in my opinion, I'd really love to such a thing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grimdeath9740 Posted March 28, 2009 Author Share Posted March 28, 2009 thanks for the quick reply, i already have a nice MSI Wind hackbook I bought this with the hopes of trying the "real thing" even if im not running the latest and greatest, its not a workstation but rather just for fun. Would 10.4 require (or is it preferred) to reformat and reinstall? Also if I was to upgrade what would be recommended, the CPU? Cheapest ive seen one on ebay so far is over $100...any idea where a cheaper one might be? Also whats type of difficulty is it to replace a mac cpu? Ive built many PC's but mac hardware is pretty much all new to me...I DO love the case though, its soo cool how it folds out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pcharles25 Posted March 28, 2009 Share Posted March 28, 2009 your best option is to make it a hack, i would not spend a dime trying to upgrade a crappy power ppc apple system. unless you are a cooky enthusiast. i am always one for actual usability! nothing beats a hack in a apple case... i did all these my self Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grimdeath9740 Posted March 28, 2009 Author Share Posted March 28, 2009 your best option is to make it a hack, i would not spend a dime trying to upgrade a crappy power ppc apple system.unless you are a cooky enthusiast. i am always one for actual usability! nothing beats a hack in a apple case... i did all these my self cool, thanks again for that suggestion but it misses the point I doubt I will ever upgrade it but I just thought I would ask what it would take to get it capable of running 10.4 better. I guess I have my answer and will see what I can do. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lebidou Posted March 28, 2009 Share Posted March 28, 2009 I don't think you need to reformat, I never had to do so with my eMac, the file system never changed. It will reinstall the system completely but keep your user folder and all your files. However, backing up your files, format, install and copy back your files would be 'healthier', particularly if it hasn't been made before. Plus, as your CPU isn't powerfull, it will optimize performances. I'm not aware of the available upgrades, I didn't even know it was possible. Hope it's helpful. I don't know what you're going to do with that hardware… (I have a performa 6300 @100MHz… I wonder what I could do with that…) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grimdeath9740 Posted March 29, 2009 Author Share Posted March 29, 2009 thanks for the help! I do have one other question, this has been driving me up a wall! This mac I just got came with an apple pro keyboard but unfortunately it was completely FUBAR when I started trying to use it (half the keys would not work and it kept typing by itself). I know its the keyboard because it did the same when I hooked it up to my Win 7 machine. I am curious if there is an actual onscreen keyboard built into 10.2...because the typical location an EVERY darn guide on the internet says to go to system prefs > international > input...but when I go there the option is not there and the screen looks quite different (only has other language options). I have several extra keyboards sitting around but the problem is they are all ps2! Not having a keyboard for a computer is mighty frustrating but if I could get a darned onscreen keyboard I could probably get problems like Synergy setup to share between my main computer that is sitting next to the mac. Thanks for any help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grimdeath9740 Posted March 30, 2009 Author Share Posted March 30, 2009 Nevermind about the on screen keyboard, I was able to tough it out until today (Monday) and was able to exchange my broken apple brand keyboard for a generic Dell usb keyboard...obviously doesn't match but hey at least it works! It does feel funny hitting the Windows key though Now that I have a working keyboard I plan to upgrade tonight to Tiger, I only had a quick amount of time to check it over lunch but I had one issue already creeping up... When I put in the DVD it did not seem to want to show up, so I rebooted and then finally it came on and auto-launched. I then launched the Install option and it said it would reboot...it rebooted and there was one (VERY!) quick screen that flashed with a tiny computer icon in the middle of the screen and then it just booted back into the existing 10.2.8 install...it never came up with the option to upgrade/install. I have read today that holding the C button to boot from disk or option key to give me a selection prompt might work so I will try that when I get home. This makes me wonder if, like the read me states, would it be possible this computer needs a firmware upgrade to install properly? Perhaps it was just being a bit screwy...ill post back if I have further issues this evening when I really to get to try it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
real_sinjon Posted March 30, 2009 Share Posted March 30, 2009 I have just gotten a PowerPC G4 350 with 512 mb of ram and AGP graphics (doesnt specify the exact card in System Profiler). I received this from a computer auction at work. I am curious what is the newest version of OSX I will be able to run on this system without issue. It came pre-installed with a fresh copy of 10.2 that I have updated to 10.2.8 currently. How would I upgrade, is it free or does it require buying an install disc? Would retail version of these disk work or are there going to need to be some adjustments to make it work? Any help would be much appreciated! *edit* removed my extra question, solved it on my own! Try Leopard Assist if you want to give 10.5 a go. http://mac.profusehost.net/leopardassist/index.html You need 10.3 or higher to use it and of course you will need a retail copy of 10.5 for your installation. I used it on my Dual 500 Mystic as a headless server to give me full system compatibility. In my experience it runs really well for what I need but obviously there is a difference between a single 350 and a dual 500. Your graphics card will be a limiter especially if it's the old Rage 16mb, but you can pick up something that supports QE & CI quite cheap on ebay. The site says it works on the AGP PowerMacs, only the PCI Graphics (Yikes) doesn't work. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grimdeath9740 Posted March 30, 2009 Author Share Posted March 30, 2009 Try Leopard Assist if you want to give 10.5 a go.http://mac.profusehost.net/leopardassist/index.html You need 10.3 or higher to use it and of course you will need a retail copy of 10.5 for your installation. I used it on my Dual 500 Mystic as a headless server to give me full system compatibility. In my experience it runs really well for what I need but obviously there is a difference between a single 350 and a dual 500. Your graphics card will be a limiter especially if it's the old Rage 16mb, but you can pick up something that supports QE & CI quite cheap on ebay. The site says it works on the AGP PowerMacs, only the PCI Graphics (Yikes) doesn't work. Good luck. I may do that down the road but I think I would like to put more ram in at a minimum before I try it. Depending on how easy a CPU upgrade was I would consider it because I dont want my system running like molasses obviously. It seems Tiger is the way to go and many comments (on various sites) have said that I may even notice a performance increase. Mainly I just want to bring the computer as far up to date as possible so I can run apps like Synergy since my mac and pc sit right next to each other and some other things like that. I do web development for a living so it shall be fun to try out some Mac specific apps and do some testing on a Mac. Like I said this is mostly for play and not my primary computer so I can stand to not have the latest and greatest on it. I do run a MSI Wind hackbook with Leopard so I can play with the latest and greatest on there I also wanted to say I got my install disc working properly! I am at the "check installation dvd" stage right now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grimdeath9740 Posted March 31, 2009 Author Share Posted March 31, 2009 I also wanted to say I got my install disc working properly! I am at the "check installation dvd" stage right now! Well I let it do this and it came up with an "error on disc" and I accidently hit ignore and continue rather then stopping it like I wanted...well it was going ok an then it said "there was an error installing" and gave me an option to reboot. It said to check the disc for fingerprints etc. so I let it reboot but it came to a the white loading screen and then the apple changed into a circle with a cross thru it, like this: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1892 I tried putting the disc in and rebooting while holding C like before but it came do a screen with a flashing icon between a computer with a question mark and a file icon (I guess this means it couldnt find the DVD drive?) I went ahead and rebooted holding option and it boots to a purple screen with a hardrive icon, a refresh button and a arrow (continue I guess). It is like it doesnt even see my DVD drive! Any idea what I can do, perhaps I need to reset something? My system will not boot into the existing version of 10.2.8 (probably due to the partial install?) and I cannot get the disc to boot again...what do I do? I am soooo mad at myself for hitting that wrong button :/ grr! Since this was bought second hand I obvious cannot put in the disc used to install originally. I dont mind a full reformat and reinstall, this was a clean install of 10.2 *edit* following the instructions from that link above I reset the pram, this actually caused it to boot into the disc. I started the install process again but it gave the error again during the disk check section. Any idea what to do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DukeRaoul Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 Well I let it do this and it came up with an "error on disc" and I accidently hit ignore and continue rather then stopping it like I wanted...well it was going ok an then it said "there was an error installing" and gave me an option to reboot. It said to check the disc for fingerprints etc. so I let it reboot but it came to a the white loading screen and then the apple changed into a circle with a cross thru it, like this:http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1892 I tried putting the disc in and rebooting while holding C like before but it came do a screen with a flashing icon between a computer with a question mark and a file icon (I guess this means it couldnt find the DVD drive?) I went ahead and rebooted holding option and it boots to a purple screen with a hardrive icon, a refresh button and a arrow (continue I guess). It is like it doesnt even see my DVD drive! Any idea what I can do, perhaps I need to reset something? My system will not boot into the existing version of 10.2.8 (probably due to the partial install?) and I cannot get the disc to boot again...what do I do? I am soooo mad at myself for hitting that wrong button :/ grr! Since this was bought second hand I obvious cannot put in the disc used to install originally. I dont mind a full reformat and reinstall, this was a clean install of 10.2 *edit* following the instructions from that link above I reset the pram, this actually caused it to boot into the disc. I started the install process again but it gave the error again during the disk check section. Any idea what to do? Check your DVD or CD for scratches, etc... If it looks fine, then there could be a problem with the DVD drive itself. Luckily, these G4 Macs use regular IDE drives, so you could just swap in a generic IDE DVD drive for testing. But it's pretty involved to take that drive out, so you might just want to unhook the cables and connect them temporarily to a new DVD drive sitting outside the case for testing. For a 350MHz G4 Mac, I would recommend to try Panther (10.3.9) as the OS. It takes less RAM and processing power to run than Tiger, I believe. I have been running Panther on my 800MHz iBook for years now because of the extra stuff in Tiger. Of course, there are CPU upgrades and RAM upgrades out there - check eBay for a good used one maybe. I have the next model up G4, with the 133MHz bus instead of yours with the 100MHz bus, and I was able to install a 1.4GHz G4 upgrade from GigaDesigns. But it cost too much (way before the hackintosh days...) You may be able to put a 1.0GHz cpu in there, if I remember correctly, but the web holds all the answers anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grimdeath9740 Posted March 31, 2009 Author Share Posted March 31, 2009 Check your DVD or CD for scratches, etc... If it looks fine, then there could be a problem with the DVD drive itself. Luckily, these G4 Macs use regular IDE drives, so you could just swap in a generic IDE DVD drive for testing. But it's pretty involved to take that drive out, so you might just want to unhook the cables and connect them temporarily to a new DVD drive sitting outside the case for testing. For a 350MHz G4 Mac, I would recommend to try Panther (10.3.9) as the OS. It takes less RAM and processing power to run than Tiger, I believe. I have been running Panther on my 800MHz iBook for years now because of the extra stuff in Tiger. Of course, there are CPU upgrades and RAM upgrades out there - check eBay for a good used one maybe. I have the next model up G4, with the 133MHz bus instead of yours with the 100MHz bus, and I was able to install a 1.4GHz G4 upgrade from GigaDesigns. But it cost too much (way before the hackintosh days...) You may be able to put a 1.0GHz cpu in there, if I remember correctly, but the web holds all the answers anyway. hmm I was kinda worried it might be the drive because the disc is fine. I dont really have an extra optical drive so I may have to pull mine out of my main system temporarily (hopefully not because its a pain!) because right now I have a system that doesnt boot into my existing OS and I cannot get to upgrade. I guess if I do get really desperate ill see if I cant get my hands on a panther disc and try that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verdant Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 hmm I was kinda worried it might be the drive because the disc is fine. I dont really have an extra optical drive so I may have to pull mine out of my main system temporarily (hopefully not because its a pain!) because right now I have a system that doesnt boot into my existing OS and I cannot get to upgrade. I guess if I do get really desperate ill see if I cant get my hands on a panther disc and try that. Panther 10.3.9 is the way to go......it is so much better than Jaguar 10.2.8.......see here..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grimdeath9740 Posted April 1, 2009 Author Share Posted April 1, 2009 I have noticed the disc check fails EVERY TIME at 86-87% so its at least a consistent error. also does it do a disc check when you install fresh instead of upgrade? I was considering trying to partition the drive but from what I read it looks like it would delete my existing install which is not what I want to do yet. I should be able to try panther later tomorrow but I may still try and pull my drive out of my main system to see if it will help with the installation of tiger. *edit FINALLY! SUCCESS! After much headache I finally pulled out my dual dvd-rw drive out of my main pc and put it in the apple case (not a easy case to figure out ) and the installation worked flawlessly the first time! I need to look into updates but it seems to be working great. Thanks again for all the help. I am still not sure what the issue was before but glad to have it working! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts