installing g3 firmware update??

my standard stuff... You could have the firmware already. Check.

You need to figure out the level of your firmware before installing 10.2 or greater. ( The PC name for firmware is BIOS. ) Installing 10.2 with a down level firmware will most likely make your iMac unusable and difficult to fix.

What is firmware?

The firmware software receives control when you poweron your machine. It does some hardware testing and some hardware configuration then passes control to your version of Mac OS. It reside on a PROM ( program read only memory ) chip on the logic board.

Figuring out what level of firmware you have?

1) Mac OS 9.x or 8.x, you need to use the Apple System Profiler.

Apple -> Apple System Profiler

2) Mac OS X, use the System Profiler.

Apple -> About This Mac

click on the More Info... tab

click on Hardware

read the Boot ROM Version

3) Open Firmware, boot into Open Firmware.

Power on your iMac while holding down command+option+o+f

The first output line contains the firmware level. Mine reads:

Apple PowerMac4,1 4.1.9f1 BootRom built on 09/14/01 at 13.18.04

Copyright 1994-2001 Apple Computer Inc.

On my machine, I have 4.1.9f1.

What firmware do you need?

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86117

For a slot loading iMac, this article indicates that you need to be running 9.1 or later version of Mac OS Classic.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75130

"The iMac Firmware Update 4.1.9 will only run on iMac computers with lot-loading CD or DVD drives running Mac OS 9.1 or later from a local drive. If you are using Mac OS X you must boot from a local Mac OS 9.1 or later writeable partition (not a CD, or network disk) prior to following the update instructions."

You can download the Mac OS 9 updates from the Apple site.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1387?viewlocale=en_US

For tiger, you need 256meg of memory. A slot loader will take 1gig of memory.

You may need to get more memory.

get the 512meg card(s)

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/apple/memory/iMac/G3_450MHz_500MHz_600MHz_700MHz

Mac OS X 10.4: System requirements

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1514

There is no need to partition. You can save hard drive space by doing a custom install. Leave out the print drivers you do not need and the languages you do not need. By customizing, you can trim Tiger down to about three gig.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1442

outoforderorder explains how...

By the way, here it is how you find the terminal application.

Macintosh-HD -> Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal

From: san francisco,ca

Registered: Apr 27, 2007

Re: Do the widgets drain system resources and power?

Posted: Apr 28, 2007 2:51 PM

I tend to think dashboard is neat, but not neccesary for my everyday workflow.

it is possible to enable and disable it as needed,

by entering the following commands into the terminal:

-- To turn Dashboard off:

defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES

-- To turn Dashboard on:

defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean NO

-- You have to restart the Dock after making either change for it to take effect:

killall Dock

Bye Bye Dashbaord

http://www.kainjow.com/kermitsoft/downloads.html

Disable Spotlight, Bonjour and Dashboard:

http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=8749558#8749558

> There is no hard drive so i am trying to use usb sticks.

This iMac doesn't support booting from USB media. ( At least, no one has reported success. )

How are you running 9.0?

> Would you recommend using firewire instead?

Give it a try.

Here is what Apple is saying:

"The iMac Firmware Update 4.1.9 will only run on iMac computers with slot-loading CD or DVD drives running Mac OS 9.1 or later from a local drive. If you are using Mac OS X you must boot from a local Mac OS 9.1 or later writeable partition (not a CD, or network disk) prior to following the update instructions."

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75130

Seems to allow Firewire. However, I got the impression it must be the internal disk.

Also I downloaded the instal disk to a usb stick

Where did you download the install disk? Apple has not released 9.x or any of the X software to the public domain.

and when now i have switched on to reload, it says in the system profiler that the disk is blank.

> Advice please..

Install what version of 9.x you have.

Download updates. You can download them from any machine.

Copy to Mac.

Install updates.

Update firmware.

For local help, try an Apple User Group

http://www.apple.com/usergroups/

---------------------------------------------------- Standard stuff -----------------------------

Slot loading iMac

You need to get the 3 and a 1/2 inch ATA harddrive. They are also known as parallel ATA or PATA. The iMac was designed to take a maximum drive size of 128gig. The 120gig drives are the largest readily available. People have put larger drives in the machine, but only 128gig is usable.

Odd size drives less that 20gig may not work. Do not try 3gig or 7gig.

For drives greater than 128, I suggest you create a 127gig partition and leave the rest of the drive as free space. That way you will not have to worry about the boundary conditions.

Did you set the harddrive to master? Master is a must. Cable select doesn't work. You need to set the hard drive to master mode. There is usually a label on the hard drive that tells you what jumpers you need to set. If you are not sure, give us the name and model number of the hard drive and usually someone will be able to tell you how to set that drive.

Did you check all of the cables? Put everything back and verify that all works.

to boot from the cd, get the cd in the cd drive somehow. Power down the machine. Hold down the c key then poweron the machine.

You can boot in startup mode on the slot loaders by holding down the option key when you poweron. This will give you a little more info. Click on what you want to boot the click on the right arrow.

Robert