Please help newbie with bondi blue paperweight

[rnjhughes]

I recently inherited this machine and have no idea what to do with it. It will boot up after about 7 or 8 attempts. Then it seems to run just fine. It is running os8? Im not sure how to check what version exactly or any of the specs on it. I have so many questions I want to ask but I will try to keep them down to a minimum. First can this machine be crashed to like a factory state, and if so how. Second can I upgrade, should I upgrade? My plans for this computer is to give it my 11 year old son and use it for teaching myself and my kids some computer system variety.

[nixgeek]

I don't understand what you mean on your first question. Do you have any of the install disks that came with that iMac? If not, see if you can get it from whoever you inherited from.

As far as upgrades, you can upgrade to OS X but it will require the following:

1. RAM. Lots of RAM. I would say a minimum of 512 MB in order to run OS X.
2. Firmware upgrade. You will need to install this before you install OS X on that iMac. This is going to require using the older system in order to perform the upgrade as it will not run in OS X. (Consider that this iMac came out before OS X was the officially supported OS on Macs.)
3. More HD space. Since this is one of the earlier models, a hard drive replacement is in order. The one shipped is too small to be used for OS X and other apps. You should be OK in getting any ATA-66 hard drive that's over 10 GB.

If you weren't able to acquire the discs that shipped with that iMac, you're going to have to purchase the install discs for it. See here for prices:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/software/

Good luck and let us know how it all plays out.

[nixgeek]

BTW, the other option is to install Linux on it. If you don't mind running Linux on this iMac, check out some of the following Linux distributions that will run on PowerPC Macs.

- Ubuntu / Kubuntu
- Fedora Core 5
- Yellow Dog Linux

These and many other distros are free for download (just download the ISO and burn it to a disc). If you have experience with Linux installations then this shouldn't be too bad.

FOr the record, my son is 4 years old and has no problems using the Gnome desktop on Ubuntu. Your 11 year old should fare just fine.

[ex2bot]

You may want to just stick with OS 8 or buy a copy (I'm sure very inexpensive) of 9.2. The newest Mac operating system, OS X (as in version 10) would likely run too slow for you.

You can click the Apple menu and click "About this Computer" to learn the basic specs of your machine.

Doug

[rnjhughes]

I do not have any disks that came with the machine It had Duke nuk'em in the cd rom, that's all I managed. The odds of getting them are slim to none. As for my first question, I was wanting to formatt. Half the hard drive is full of the previous owners junk and I have no use for it. Being the newbie that I am I dont know what is usefull and what is not (like apps)Just figured I would like to start from scratch. I found the specs: os 8.5, 33mb virtual mem, 32 mb built in mem, 233 MHz, 4 gig hard drive (I know its a wimpy machine)Thanxxx

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Well, to start completely over, reformat the drive, and install a fresh copy of Mac OS 8 or 9, you will need a set of install disks. There is no way to "start over" without them.

You must boot from a device other than the hard drive in order to format the hard drive. I believe your only option is to acquire a set of install disks, or just make do with what you've got already.

[SatCure]

As you are having startup problems the first thing you should do is replace the internal memory battery.

Instructions here:
http://www.satcure.com/accs/imac.htm