Belldandy Posted March 21, 2010 Share Posted March 21, 2010 Hi! I have a laptop im wondering if anyone can help me with. my story is, i bought it at a yard sale intending to give it to a friend's granddaughter. I thought it would be a nice little starter computer (she probably would never be able to afford one … well not for a long time) and i thought since today in this day an age if you dont have computer skills youre practically disabled in the job market, ya know? Anyways, long story short, this thing is a G3 10.2.8 (yeah practically a dinosaur). I have a universal 10.4 install disk but my problem is is that the dvd drive on the laptop is dead. I tried getting a external hard drive for it and it works on my G4 but the laptop wont recognize it. Some nice person on here suggested this... You might have USB 1.1 on your old laptop. You could try to install from a firewire harddrive which has a bootable TIGER install on it. but i dont understand what he's talking about *shame*. i know almost nothing about computer "lingo" or hardware or anything at all. All i know is, it turns on, it turns off and thats it. LOL sorry! My father, God rest his soul, gave me my G4 and even though its slowly starting to show its age ive never had one problem with it (and i think he gave it to me around 2004, cant remember. but its been good to me and im a bona-fide mac'ian - that a word? - well anyways, if i didnt have to use one at my work id never use a windows pc). i thought id try here one more time before just giving in the towl and giving it to her as is (which really there's nothing wrong with it... as i said in another post , old doesnt mean totally useless. its all what you do with it. all she's going to use it for is researching reports, email, keeping in touch with friends, learning computer basics and typing, etc. so its perfect for her). thanks for any/all help!!! OH and one more thing… it has an airport card but ive never used wifi before ( *more shame*) so i cant figure out how to use it to get on the internet with it. how do you use it, please? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/213381-need-help-with-a-g3-laptop-please/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
lazybon3 Posted March 21, 2010 Share Posted March 21, 2010 Hi! If your PowerBook has Airport it hast to be fourth generation of PowerBook G3 (Pismo). This is the last generation of G3 Powerbook, and has "Firewire" too. Firewire is an Interface that you can use to connect an external CD/DVD Drive, since you say your internal Disk Drive is broken this seems to be the only easy way to get a fresh OS X Setup. If your external Drives are not detected by the PowerBook maybe you need to attach an additional power source (if possible). The other Thing you could do: Make an OS X Setup to an external HDD from your G4, and then build the Disk with 10.4 into the PowerBook. But since you say you are not that good with hardware stuff, all of this could be a little to complicated for you. If none of the above works out for you, just find any nerd that does that stuff for you. good luck. Hi! I have a laptop im wondering if anyone can help me with. my story is, i bought it at a yard sale intending to give it to a friend's granddaughter. I thought it would be a nice little starter computer (she probably would never be able to afford one … well not for a long time) and i thought since today in this day an age if you dont have computer skills youre practically disabled in the job market, ya know? Anyways, long story short, this thing is a G3 10.2.8 (yeah practically a dinosaur). I have a universal 10.4 install disk but my problem is is that the dvd drive on the laptop is dead. I tried getting a external hard drive for it and it works on my G4 but the laptop wont recognize it. Some nice person on here suggested this... but i dont understand what he's talking about *shame*. i know almost nothing about computer "lingo" or hardware or anything at all. All i know is, it turns on, it turns off and thats it. LOL sorry! My father, God rest his soul, gave me my G4 and even though its slowly starting to show its age ive never had one problem with it (and i think he gave it to me around 2004, cant remember. but its been good to me and im a bona-fide mac'ian - that a word? - well anyways, if i didnt have to use one at my work id never use a windows pc). i thought id try here one more time before just giving in the towl and giving it to her as is (which really there's nothing wrong with it... as i said in another post , old doesnt mean totally useless. its all what you do with it. all she's going to use it for is researching reports, email, keeping in touch with friends, learning computer basics and typing, etc. so its perfect for her). thanks for any/all help!!! OH and one more thing… it has an airport card but ive never used wifi before ( *more shame*) so i cant figure out how to use it to get on the internet with it. how do you use it, please? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/213381-need-help-with-a-g3-laptop-please/#findComment-1432367 Share on other sites More sharing options...
verdant Posted March 21, 2010 Share Posted March 21, 2010 Hi! I have a laptop im wondering if anyone can help me with. my story is, i bought it at a yard sale intending to give it to a friend's granddaughter. I thought it would be a nice little starter computer (she probably would never be able to afford one … well not for a long time) and i thought since today in this day an age if you dont have computer skills youre practically disabled in the job market, ya know? Anyways, long story short, this thing is a G3 10.2.8 (yeah practically a dinosaur). I have a universal 10.4 install disk but my problem is is that the dvd drive on the laptop is dead. I tried getting a external hard drive for it and it works on my G4 but the laptop wont recognize it. Some nice person on here suggested this... but i dont understand what he's talking about *shame*. i know almost nothing about computer "lingo" or hardware or anything at all. All i know is, it turns on, it turns off and thats it. LOL sorry! My father, God rest his soul, gave me my G4 and even though its slowly starting to show its age ive never had one problem with it (and i think he gave it to me around 2004, cant remember. but its been good to me and im a bona-fide mac'ian - that a word? - well anyways, if i didnt have to use one at my work id never use a windows pc). i thought id try here one more time before just giving in the towl and giving it to her as is (which really there's nothing wrong with it... as i said in another post , old doesnt mean totally useless. its all what you do with it. all she's going to use it for is researching reports, email, keeping in touch with friends, learning computer basics and typing, etc. so its perfect for her). thanks for any/all help!!! OH and one more thing… it has an airport card but ive never used wifi before ( *more shame*) so i cant figure out how to use it to get on the internet with it. how do you use it, please? IF both the G3 Powerbook and your G4 have Firewire ports, use Target Mode.....see here..... Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/213381-need-help-with-a-g3-laptop-please/#findComment-1432446 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Belldandy Posted March 22, 2010 Author Share Posted March 22, 2010 IF both the G3 Powerbook and your G4 have Firewire ports, use Target Mode.....see here..... Thanks for your help guys! Just a couple more questions... A. what does the firewire port look like? sorry. do i have to buy a special wire too? and B. you dont think that trick will hurt my G4, do you? im paranoid about this thing. lol well it was the last thing my dad gave me before he passed and i dont want to loose it (well i know i will someday but id like to prolong my poor baby's lifespan. lol). OH and another thing… the dvd drive on the G4 doesnt work either… so i have an external drive for it. LOL. If i try that trick will it work with it? and the external drive doesnt have a power cord to it either. it gets its power from the computer. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/213381-need-help-with-a-g3-laptop-please/#findComment-1432731 Share on other sites More sharing options...
verdant Posted March 22, 2010 Share Posted March 22, 2010 Thanks for your help guys! Just a couple more questions... A. what does the firewire port look like? sorry. do i have to buy a special wire too? and B. you dont think that trick will hurt my G4, do you? im paranoid about this thing. lol well it was the last thing my dad gave me before he passed and i dont want to loose it (well i know i will someday but id like to prolong my poor baby's lifespan. lol). OH and another thing… the dvd drive on the G4 doesnt work either… so i have an external drive for it. LOL. If i try that trick will it work with it? and the external drive doesnt have a power cord to it either. it gets its power from the computer. A. For Firewire 400 to Fire 400 6-pin cable see here.....and for a Firewire 400 port see here.....and to identify your G3 and G4, see here...... B. Not if you are careful to follow the Apple Target mode instructions fully and be gentle/accurate when plugging and unplugging the Firewire cable.....see here....... Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/213381-need-help-with-a-g3-laptop-please/#findComment-1432738 Share on other sites More sharing options...
lazybon3 Posted March 22, 2010 Share Posted March 22, 2010 Hey, just wanted to add that verdants solution is really better and much more simple than mine, i completely forgot about the Targed-Mode since i never use it. Just try his method and if it works you can forget what i posted. Bye. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/213381-need-help-with-a-g3-laptop-please/#findComment-1432849 Share on other sites More sharing options...
westwaerts Posted March 24, 2010 Share Posted March 24, 2010 it does not make great sense to go up to 10.4 a stable system for this class is 10.3.9 Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/213381-need-help-with-a-g3-laptop-please/#findComment-1433858 Share on other sites More sharing options...
verdant Posted March 24, 2010 Share Posted March 24, 2010 it does not make great sense to go up to 10.4a stable system for this class is 10.3.9 I am running Tiger 10.4.11 on all my 400MHz/500MHz G3 Pismo Powerbooks and G3 Lombard Powerbook without any problems and find it better than Panther 10.3.9......the key factor is maxing the RAM.......the faster it runs.......but I am not the only person to think so.......see here..... Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/213381-need-help-with-a-g3-laptop-please/#findComment-1433869 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Belldandy Posted March 27, 2010 Author Share Posted March 27, 2010 I GOT IT TO WORK!!! *rejoices* well, kinda sorta… i was too scared to do the firewire thing on my old baby so i was going to just give up BUT low and behold … my dad, God rest his soul, came thru for me… originally when he gave me my computer he gave me the install disks… Cd's not DVD's… and which i didnt realize were universal. So i said to myself, what the heck, ill just see if i can pop one of those in there and just try if it works and it did! BUT... i hit another snag... i got it to upgrade to 10.3 BUT when i tried to upgrade the software to 10.3.9 it says it requires an admin password.... i dont have it. Like i said, i bought it at a yard sale (and i dont want to go back and bang on a total stranger's door >_< is there any way around this? heh,oh and one last question... how do you use WIFI? lol i have an airport card on it but how do i use it to connect to the internet? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/213381-need-help-with-a-g3-laptop-please/#findComment-1435310 Share on other sites More sharing options...
verdant Posted March 28, 2010 Share Posted March 28, 2010 I GOT IT TO WORK!!! *rejoices* well, kinda sorta… i was too scared to do the firewire thing on my old baby so i was going to just give up BUT low and behold … my dad, God rest his soul, came thru for me… originally when he gave me my computer he gave me the install disks… Cd's not DVD's… and which i didnt realize were universal. So i said to myself, what the heck, ill just see if i can pop one of those in there and just try if it works and it did! BUT... i hit another snag... i got it to upgrade to 10.3 BUT when i tried to upgrade the software to 10.3.9 it says it requires an admin password.... i dont have it. Like i said, i bought it at a yard sale (and i dont want to go back and bang on a total stranger's door >_< is there any way around this? heh,oh and one last question... how do you use WIFI? lol i have an airport card on it but how do i use it to connect to the internet? Original Apple Airport WiFi card is not very secure these days.......but see here...... Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/213381-need-help-with-a-g3-laptop-please/#findComment-1435697 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Belldandy Posted April 1, 2010 Author Share Posted April 1, 2010 thanks for the info! i already have a card in it though (but for some reason i cant get it to work). is what this site's saying correct? http://www.simplehelp.net/2007/04/17/how-t...reless-network/ if it is, i did all that and it still isnt working. what happens, i see the wireless network in the list, i click on it and it and it still doesnt bring up anything in the browser. i tried two different places that have wireless and it still doesnt work. i cant figure it out. thank you again for all your help! EDIT... wait, what is "interference robustness"? on that site here, if you look at the picture on #5, it says that below "create network"… i dont think i saw that on my computer when i went to try the wifi. what does that mean? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/213381-need-help-with-a-g3-laptop-please/#findComment-1439552 Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtopman Posted April 6, 2010 Share Posted April 6, 2010 Interference Robustness is supposed to trade speed for signal strength. Create Network can do two things. #1:Share an internet connection that you have accessed through ethernet (make it a wireless router) #2:Make an ad-hoc network. To reset the password, boot from your install cd; then under the Utilities menu select reset password. Obviously, this only works if you have the install cd if not then use the other method. Method #2: Follow the instructions here, otherwise, press command-s as soon as you hear the ding and after some scary lines of text you will be greeted with a command prompt. Type: mount -uw / rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone shutdown -h now Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/213381-need-help-with-a-g3-laptop-please/#findComment-1443205 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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