Upgrading a Power Mac G3

Panther can be obtained from eBay.

The RAM of the G3 can also be upgraded, however the Max RAM depends on the model. Is yours the Beige or Blue and White G3?

All beige box G3 models can take up to 768 MBs of RAM.

The later Blue & White G3 can take 1 GB of RAM.

As far as the OS goes, Beige G3 models can only go to OS X 10.2.8 Jaguar.

Special Hack software was needed to instal OS X 10.3.9 Panther.

This Hack was called XpostFacto. It used to be supplied by Mac RAM vendor OWC.

Here is the link

http://eshop.macsales.com/osxcenter/xpostfacto/

OS X 10.3 Panther is as far as you can take the old Beige G3 models.

The Blue and White G3 can be taken all the way to OS X Tiger OS X 10.4.11

Finding older retail versions of OS X 10.2, 10.3 or 10.4 will be harder to find and probably more expensive to obtain. You need the official retail sales discs. NO GREY COLORED DISCS WILL WORK!

Hopefully, you can find these at cheaper prices.

You can try both eBay, Amazon and try a search for these to see what other Mac resellers would still have these.

Other upgrades you can make to old G3 models, if interested.

CPU upgrades. Came in either 500 MHz or 1 Ghz G3 or G4 ZIF chip cards. ( hard to find today-try eBay)

4 MB VRAM upgrade card ( these can still be found - again try eBay)

PCI Video card upgrades to 32, 64 and 128 MBs of VRAM ( these have to say Mac Editon and can, be still possibly found on either Amazon.com or eBay)

PCI USB 2,0 and FireWire 400 cards. ( reliable cards use an NEC chipset) ( try Amazon.com or eBay)

PCI 10/100 Base T Gigabit Ethernet cards ( try Amazon.com or eBay)

OWC might still have a lot of these old components. Check their site out, too!

They will have, at least the USB, FireWire and Ethernet cards

What is the CPU speed?

No. Mac OS 9 and lower were based on Apple's original software for the first Macintosh. It wasn't Unix based and versions were continually optimized to run on Motorola Power PC CPUs and logic board architectures such as yours.

Motorola PowerPC computing hardware stayed with the Mac until 2005. That's when Apple switch CPU manufacturers from Motorola to Intel. The two technologies are completely incompatible with each other.

In order to run OS X, there were a series of Firmware updates that need to be download and installation must be done in OS 9

I found the search archive, but you need to read these first and install them in the right order.

Hopefully this link I post will bring you to the same location on Apple's website

http://support.apple.com/kb/index?page=search&src=support_site.kbase.search&loca le=en_US&q=PM%20G3%20%28Blue%20and%20White%29%20Firmware%20Update%201.1

Just tried this and it didn't work.

This is what you are looking for.

PM G3 (Blue and White) Firmware Update 1.1

Try copying and pasting this into Apple website search field and see what comes up.

You will need this to firmware updater to be able to OS X on your Mac.

It might already be installed, but I do not know how you confirm its installation on your Mac.

There is another firmware update for FireWire and another for SCSI issues.

Good Luck!

When you do the search, go to the support tab first.

It won't come up initially, but there will be some search criteria you can alter.

You'll find this if you alter the support search to include Archived documents or downloads.

Again, Good Luck.

OS 9 was not based on UNIX, it was based on the Macintosh Toolbox. OS X is based on the Mach kernel which isn't "true" UNIX (generally only System V derivatives are considered "true" UNIX) but it is certified UNIX (confusing I know).