[Haz]

I want to install Panther on a 350mhz G3 blue & white tower , but every time I put the install CD in the tray it loads up and shows a gray apple and then it shows one of those "no" signs. After that it just hangs. It doesn’t even boot into any part of the installation process.

Previously I had the same problem so I had my cousin install Panther on my hard drive while it was installed in his g4 tower then we reinstalled my hard drive onto my computer and it worked perfectly. I can easily do the same thing again but I won’t see my cousin for another 3 weeks and was just wondering if someone knows what the problem was and how to fix it.

Also once I get this up and running I have an empty 8 GB drive that I want to clone my working hard drive into for emergencies such as this one. What would be the easiest way to go about this? Is there a free app that can do this?

[Quagmire]

Did you hold down option during the boot up? That what it says on my panther cd.

[Brad]

This is not a topic suited for the Speculation and Rumors forum.

Moving to Genius Bar...

And I'm giving the thread a more appropriate title. "Please help me if you can" doesn't convey much to passersby.

[Luca]

Well, I'm not sure about the main problem... I'd say try a few things. Zap the PRAM (command-option-P-R at boot) maybe. But I'm afraid that it might have problems due to perhaps a damaged hard drive. I don't want you to jump to the conclusion that that's it, but it could be the problem. It would suck if it is.

But as far as the second question goes, it's easy. You want a hard drive clone program, just get Carbon Copy Cloner. It's free. Then you just select a source drive and a destination drive and it copies all your information, bit for bit, to the second hard drive. The clone HD will even be bootable in OS X because it copies over EVERY single file, hidden or not!

[Haz]

Thanks for the advice guys. I finally got it to work. All I did was put in the cd and held "c" and it installed fine. However the damn machine crawls!!!! Sure if I run just one or two apps it does fine but anything more than that and it goes into super slow mode. So I decided to just throw the machine out.

These were the specs:
G3 350 in the bluen and white enclosure
348mb ram
120gb HD.
Revision 1 motherboard

Guess I can't ask for much from a G3. Anyway hopefully Apple's new iMac is headless so I can purchase one. If not I'll just stay in the windows world for now.

[Maciej]

Not sure if it's possible, but throwing some more ram, maybe so you have a minimum of 512, would maybe speed things up. But I am not familiar with those at all, maybe someone else can shed some light on speeding her up.

[Luca]

You know, it's worth at least $100. Maybe more like $200. Don't just "throw it out" as you say.

There are also a number of upgrades you can get that will make it much faster. A G4 ZIF processor upgrade at 400-450 MHz will probably cost about $150 or so. You can also get a faster video card (such as a Radeon 7000) for about another $50, and run it with a hack called PCI Extreme to get Quartz Extreme acceleration. Do those two things and it'll run nice and fast in OS X.

[windowsblowsass]

ill take it for free i always liked b&ws

[kretara]

My Smurf has 704mb RAM, a Radeon 7000 and a G4 450 in it and while no one would call it fast, it does hold its own and is still a very useful machine.
I did notice that 10.2 was dog frigging slowwwwwwwww on the B&W but as soon as I upgraded to 10.3 its like a whole new computer (much faster).

[Luca]

The other awesome thing about smurf towers is that they can use the fastest G3 ever - 1.1 GHz 750GX, with 1 MB of full-speed L2 cache. Apple has never released a computer with 1 MB of L2 cache running at 1:1 with the CPU speed. eMacs, iBooks, PowerBooks, and PowerMac G5s all have 512 kb. Also, unlike Sonnet's 1 GHz G4 upgrade, it allows the bus speed to remain at 100 MHz instead of dropping it to 66 MHz. I am quite sure the $350 1.1 GHz G3 upgrade would outperform Sonnet's $400 1 GHz G4 upgrade.

[Haz]

Originally Posted by Luca The other awesome thing about smurf towers is that they can use the fastest G3 ever - 1.1 GHz 750GX, with 1 MB of full-speed L2 cache. Apple has never released a computer with 1 MB of L2 cache running at 1:1 with the CPU speed. eMacs, iBooks, PowerBooks, and PowerMac G5s all have 512 kb. Also, unlike Sonnet's 1 GHz G4 upgrade, it allows the bus speed to remain at 100 MHz instead of dropping it to 66 MHz. I am quite sure the $350 1.1 GHz G3 upgrade would outperform Sonnet's $400 1 GHz G4 upgrade.

OHH MY GOD!!! You're telling me that for $350 I can get a REALLY fast mac!!! great!!!! thank you for saving me from the stupid decision of throwing this wonderful machine out.

I am so excited. This is FINALLY my chance to completely move to the Mac platform. I couldn't afford a fast one before but now.... ha I can't wait.

THANKS, THANKS.... Wow only $350 and to think that I was going to throw this one out and wait to buy a new EXPENSIVE iMac.

Thanks again... wow 350... AND I got this mac for free.

PS: You think the reason OS X is not installing correctly is due to the fact that I am using my brother's install cd's?

I seriously doubt that's the case because there is no way that the CD itself can recognize the fact that it has been installed in more than one computer; unlike windows Xp which utilizes that stupid "call home" feature and cd keys.

I understand the whole moral aspect of paying people fpr their work, but when you are only a 2nd year college student making $170-$200 a week buying the actual cd's is just out of the question.

Another question... I can easily install the OS by putting my hard drive in my cousin's G4 tower and then installing the OS into the hard drive through his computer using his install cd's. When I put my hard drive back into my computer it works like a charm. The CPU is even reported correctly even though the OS was originally installed on a 800mhz G4.

[murbot]

I've just gone through the same thing with my B&W G3 350. I could install OS9 no problem, and Jaguar would install with a bit of fussing, but it would not boot from any Panther install CD. (yes, even originals - I do have some )

Anyway, I read this thread a while ago since I was having the same trouble, and kind of dismissed Luca's first comment since I thought my drive was fine. It ended up crashing and burning badly yesterday and is now sitting in my garbage can. With a new HD in it, I installed Panther perfectly, and I'm posting from the machine right now, totally problem-free. Something to consider.

It's actually a decent machine, even if the specs sound 10 years old.

[staph]

You know, you can still ship that machine to me. It's not too late. Think how good it will feel to have given me an excellent dedicated http and sftp server. Isn't that worth the loss of capital?

I thought it was.

Really, it's not too late.



-S

[chung123]

Originally Posted by Haz OHH MY GOD!!! You're telling me that for $350 I can get a REALLY fast mac!!! great!!!! thank you for saving me from the stupid decision of throwing this wonderful machine out. I am so excited. This is FINALLY my chance to completely move to the Mac platform. I couldn't afford a fast one before but now.... ha I can't wait. THANKS, THANKS.... Wow only $350 and to think that I was going to throw this one out and wait to buy a new EXPENSIVE iMac. Thanks again... wow 350... AND I got this mac for free.

I recently upgraded my Blue & White G3/400mhz which I got a couple months back in like new/mint condition(along with the 17" monitor) original keyboard and hockey puck mouse and the original manual and discs.[talk about a time warp!]

At the time, I had no real intention of upgrading it...just using it stock as a back up machine running 10.3 Panther. Or as a iTunes jukebox...

I did add 512megs of memory and and installed a second 20 gig hard drive internally. And I thought that would be it.

But I had an itch that needed to be scratched as I can't afford a g5.

So two weeks ago--I bought a 600mhz G4 ZIF upgrade from Daystar for $199.
Talk about sweet---the newly transplanted thing runs just as fast as my 800mhz eMac and feels as fast as the Quicksilvers at night school.(perception wise anyway).

Since the thing has only the stock Cd-rom--I didn't have burning capabilities so I found the Pioneer DVR-a07XL B DVD-RW for $109 ---plus a forty dollar rebate(which knocks it down to $69!)

Photoshop runs nice, iChat works(video chat requres at least a 350 G4 or a 700mhz G3 I think...) and iDVD 3 works also, so I'm happy as a clam.

So the total bill:

$200 for the G3 Tower and Monitor
$90 for 2 x 256 megs of memory
$199 for ZIF upgrade
$69 for DVD-R drive.

Damn....could have bought a refurb....but it wouldn't have been as much fun!