Installing a utilities folder on a G3 iMac that’s not online

Update one day later: Making good progress. I had updated the OS from 8.6 to 9.2.1 yesterday. There were some issues in so doing due to Open Transport not being present in the old system. Not sure why, but it wasn’t there. That triggered a couple of warnings of a couple of extensions not being installed. OS 9.2.1 finished installing anyway, so went ahead with loading the software for the Harmoni accelerator, and then the actual hardware installation.

Upon restart with the accelerator onboard, everything boots just fine and the accelerator seems to be doing what it is supposed to. Only thing is, I am getting a boxed reminder that “problems were encountered in loading the Sonnett Harmoni software, and to contact tech support if more problems arise”. Not sure what the problems were, but maybe related to the missing Open Transport issue and the extensions that didn’t load because of it. Regardless, I’m not finding any glitches related to it yet. But, if the boxed reminder could somehow be prevented from making it’s appearance on every startup, I wouldn’t mind.

I ran Norton benchmark tests on it to see how much the new accelerator had improved performance. I have attached some photos to this post to show the improvement afterward. It is definitely noticeable.

Another outcome of upgrading to 9.2.2 was the new ability to alter the display geometry! Going back to my original post on this thread, I was looking for help on how to adjust a lopsided display. OS 9.2.2 had that capability within display preferences. Took under a minute to make the adjustments.

All that remains is the prospect of adding OSX 10.4 Tiger to the “Classic environment” of OS 9. Before going ahead with it, now that the accelerator is up and working I am not sure if I should be following a course for the original 233 processor, or more likely for the new 600mHz upgrade. The RAM on the accelerator has been increased to 512 mb. The current original HD is small, at 4 GB, so should be upgrading it as much as possible, especially since this machine will be used primarily with a film scanner. Here again, I don’t know if the addition of the accelerator affects the size of an upgraded hard drive in any way. Need to learn more before doing anything.

John, thanks for replying to my question. I will definitely try your suggestion to cycle it on/off a few cycles. That may well be enough to restore the geometry to normal, which it always was before it was put into storage more than 15 years ago.

The utility I found was at macintoshgarden.org. The URL is https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/apple-service-manuals.

There is nothing in Disk Utilities that provides any way to adjust the geometry of the display, so this may be the way I have to address the issue if cycling on/off doesn’t help.

The utilities are found inside of a .DMG image file under “Apple troubleshooting utils”>”Apple’s MacTest Pro”>”MacTest Pro (G3 28May02.dmg”.

I haven’t downloaded it yet, but plan to do so today after upgrading the iMac to OS 9.1.2, which I need in place to do the other upgrade, which is adding a Sonnett Harmoni G3 600mHz accelerator card to it. After that…..well, might think about adding OSX 10.4 Tiger, which I don’t yet have on CD. The reason I’m upgrading this old iMac is to pair it with another old beast, a Leafscan 45 film scanner that’s also been sitting here for the past 20 or more years unused. Looks new yet and has a complete set of film holders for everything from 8X11 mm up to 4” X 5” formats. Too many antique toys here to play with, but they’re just that, toys, so might as well have some fun with them. Have thousands of old negatives in boxes here, too, so can keep occupied for a long time, or until the novelty wears off.

Well, not sure what my next move will be, other than to first hope that your initial suggestion of repeated power on/off cycling to see if that helps. The other possibility, which I haven’t yet looked into, is to see if any mechanical means for adjusting the CRT geometry exists on the neck of it. IIRC, early Macs had some adjustment rings there.

Yes, care definitely required so as not to be accidentally zapped. Will pursue software solutions before resorting to the adjustment rings as a last resort. Did upgrade the OS to 9.2.1 this morning, but didn’t have Open Transport on the old OS 8.6, so need to locate a copy of that to complete some installation of file sharing. Otherwise, that part went fine and allowed the installation software for the Harmoni accelerator just fine. Will be interesting to see if the accelerator is still functional, as it’s been dormant for a very long time as well. Will know more by later today on that. The geometry issue isn’t huge, so am content in waiting awhile before pursuing it beyond the download and installation of the software files.

Thank you!! This is exactly what I needed to adjust the geometry. Just curious, but on your G3 iMac did you need to partition the HD when upgrading to OSX 10.4, assuming you kept OS 9 to run in the classic environment? I have heard it isn’t necessary to do so providing the iMac has the earlier tray loading CD drive, but is necessary for the later slot loading CD drive.

One added question about your iMac G3 and OSX 10.4 Tiger: It can be found on DVD, but not on CD. How did you manage loading 10.4 onto your iMac G3, which does not have a DVD drive, or does your iMac have a DVD drive?

Thanks much for adding that clarifying information. I recall reading somewhere that slot loading drives required a separate HD partition for OSX when used with OS 9. But, I also seem to recall that the older tray loading CD players did not require HD partitioning, but I need to double check on that. With my iMac being an original 233 mHz bondi-blue model, but have a 600mHz Sonnett Harmoni accelerator for it which has a firewire port. Once I get that up and running, I can run an external DVD drive thru it and then load OSX 10.4 on DVD rather than searching for the uncommon CD version. Keeping my fingers crossed that it all works once installed, as 25 year old equipment isn’t necessarily going to be reliable after sitting unused for a good share of that time.

Just went to another iMac, a G5 that I have here, that’s running OSX 10.4.11 . In display preferences window, only “Display” and “Color” tabs exist. No “Geometry”. Not sure why that would be, unless there is a hidden menu somewhere, but that’s all there is….