imac g3 dv nightmare

[jspagettie]

I bought this cute little imac months ago and pieced it together with a hard drive and some memory off of ebay. For christmas I got a set of four cds. OS 9 install and restore disks. I have tried to get it to install and then boot up to the hard drive but I keep running into problems. It freezes at the desk top during start up. I did get it to start up one time but still ran into errors and all kinds of other problems. When I rebooted I was back to the freeze thing again. I have used windows for so long that this apple stuff is really foreign to me. Please, can anyone tell me how to get the OS installed correctly. Thanks

[nixgeek]

You mentioned that you received the install for OS 9 and some restore CDs, Are these the ones specifically for this iMac? If not, then that might be why you are having problems. Think of it as getting the version of Windows and restore disks for a Compaq Presario and you want to use it on your Dell. It's not going to work. Unless the operating system installation disc has the version number plastered on the background (like a "9" for OS 9 or an "X" for OS X), it's only meant to be used with the Macintosh it originally shipped with.

The only discs that will work on all Macs are the retail versions of the operating systems, which usually come as full installation discs and upgrade-only discs.