please help, update my imac 2002

Your thread title says 2002. Misprint?

Can you please confirm the year this iMac was released and which Mac OS X version it is running?

Find that info by clicking the Apple menu () at the top-left of your screen and then select About This Mac. (Note- for privacy and security please never post your serial number.) With this information we can help you best, otherwise there's going to be a lot of guessing.

If it is in fact a 2002 iMac, then it is much too old to justify spending any time or effort trying to integrate it into your business. Put it in the recycle bin and look for one that is not older than 5-6 years.

D.I. Johnson asked you not to post its serial number: (Note- for privacy and security please never post your serial number.)

I asked the site Hosts to redact that serial number in your screenshot; unfortunately my reply got tossed out along with it. You should have received my reply in a email, but what I wrote basically echoed what he said — that Mac is a relic from 2003.

additionally, i can connect to the internet. but, i can search for updates, and other areas of the computer seem restricted.

It will connect to the Internet but those were the days in which website security and the protocols they demand was not a concern. It can be used for almost nothing today, if not literally nothing.

heyfrenchie wrote:

that’s the thing, i have a computer to run my business on. this computer isn’t intended for that. i just want to view modern websites, mainly, and in particular, ONE website. so, hardly a huge task to ask of a supposed, “GRAND” and still “THE BEST” computer after twenty years. this information provided me with some more insight on my iMac, thank you: )

It is a big ask to expect a 20-year-old computer to browse modern Web sites. Both computer capabilities and Web standards have changed a LOT in that time.

The iMacs which shipped in 2003 came with Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) or 10.3 (Panther). Those are 16-17 major versions behind the current version of macOS! They are also 9–10 versions behind macOS 10.12 (Sierra) – the oldest version of macOS for which Mozilla is still providing "critical security updates". Mozilla offers updates to browsers for much longer than Apple does – but even Mozilla eventually moves on.

as i stated, the computer should be able to open safari. and it can’t connect to a server, same thing happens when i ask it to update. the poor comp, hasn’t had a refresh since 2005. i just want an updated os on it, legitimately, i have airport, the better dvd tray, amongst other things like firewire, and all kinds of special stuff. there’s no WAY, this thing is a lost cause. people on youtube have the same computer, and they were able to run modern software on it.

Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) was the last version of the operating system that could run on PowerPC machines. I don't know if your particular iMac could run Leopard, or if, for it, Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) was the end of the line.

All versions of the operating system from Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) through macOS 10.15 (Catalina) are Intel-only. All versions from Big Sur (11) through Sonoma (14) are Intel- or Apple-Silicon-only. None of them; repeat, none of them, run on PowerPC-based Macs (like that 2003 iMac).

No 2002 era iMac can be used for that purpose. 2012 perhaps might be ok, but its previous owner must absolutely, positively prepare it for sale — meaning, it must be completely erased first. Before selling it.

heyfrenchie wrote:

yeah, it was a facebook marketplace find.. the gal said i could get my money back. and she kept pushing how it didn’t have bluetooth, or a password, but it does have bluie, and it did have a PASSWORD. lol

All of the iMacs from this era came with a set of CD or DVD discs that you could use if you needed to erase the drive and set things back to how they were when the machine came from the factory.

Provided that you did not set a firmware password, there was nothing that would lock you completely out of the machine. You might have to erase the disk to recover control (if you forgot all your regular passwords), but that was an option.

If the seller did not provide you with the recovery discs – or at least inform you of the need to hunt down a set of (long out of print / nearly impossible to find) discs, the seller did not do you a service.

no browser that would run on that macOS version would support any sort of modern JavaScript stuff (which many websites rely on)

If Apple released that iMac in 2002, then it's one of the first two PowerPC-based iMacs that had a PowerPC G4 processor, and the "iLamp" look. There was a 15" one in January 2002 and a 17" one in July 2002.

The ones with DVD burners were notable for letting you create your own home video DVDs. They had Firewire (which let you import digital video from a camcorder), iMovie, and iDVD. The G4 had new AltiVec instructions, which iDVD utilized to speed up MPEG-2 video encoding (which was still painfully slow).

The 15" one with DVD burner is a definite classic – almost as much so as the original 128K Macintosh. It is not, however, a practical machine for running a small business in 2024. If it is working, it really belongs in a history museum, or in the hands of someone who appreciates it as a classic machine rather than as a production tool.

Not to worry. The image is gone, but it contained the information D.I. Johnson asked for.

I can't imagine you paid much for that iMac, but if it's significant you might want to get it back. You usually have to pay to dispose of old electronics. An Apple Store ought to accept it for recycling at no charge though.

Bad or not bad, doesn't matter. I strongly suspect the seller was less than forthcoming about how it was being used though:

said computers primary use, is said website, in which we schedule, and/or view our appointment books for the day.

... since it cannot possibly be used with any recent Internet websites. It would be a stretch to think the seller might have been using an internal web server for scheduling purposes, which is technically possible, but seems unlikely and hardly worth the time and effort to implement.

And not having a password for the previous owner? Which was who exactly. Another red flag.

Was this marketplace a Facebook marketplace? I read recently where 2/3 of all Facebook marketplace transactions are scams. Facebook is a cesspit.

heyfrenchie wrote:

yeah, it was a facebook marketplace find.. the gal said i could get my money back. and she kept pushing how it didn’t have bluetooth, or a password, but it does have bluie, and it did have a PASSWORD. lol

Bluetooth was not standard on any 2003 iMac, and you couldn't get it on the 15-inch Early 2003 one. Sounds as though you must have a (17-inch Flat Panel, 1 GHz), (15-inch USB 2.0), or (17-inch USB 2.0) model.

Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g) was optional on those iMacs. A dial-up modem and an Ethernet port were standard.

John Galt wrote:

that Mac is a relic from 2003.

All of the 2002 and 2003 iMacs had "iLamp" designs, so that would make it one of the later "iLamps".