Q: iMac G4 1.25 GHz (Need Help)...
Hey all,
Just come back from a long sabbatical, and while I was in the process of organizing I noticed that I haven't touched my iMac in a while and while running Tiger is okay, I felt like I needed a serious upgrade to my ol' reliable here.
What are my options as far as Leopard 10.5.x is concerned?? I know about the RAM situation, I just need some amount of guidance for the OS part of it.
What part numbers/restore discs should I be aware of??
Thanks in advance for all the help.
iMac, Mac OS X (10.4.11), G4 / 1.25 GHz, 256 MB RAM, 80 GB HD
Posted on Jan 15, 2014 12:51 PM
The Drop-in DVD for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard that I used (and it will boot the computer, run a full install and gives access to its own disk utility, etc; and install a standalone 10.5 to a fully erased HDD without Tiger) has a verions 10.5 and this number: 2Z691-6040-A ©2007. A mostly black disc with big X, and lavender spiral galaxy behind the X... Check the booted installer's menu options carefully for this to work as a full installer.
And it prefers all the RAM one could throw at it. In the iMac G4 1.25 17"/20" that could be as much as 2GB if the computer were taken apart to access the difficult factory slot where one stick of standard 184-pin RAM hides; and the upgrade slot under the bottom tin plate where a laptop kind of PC2700 DDR333 200-pin SODIMM resides. Since the stock RAM was 256MB and the upgrade slot, empty when shipped, the total would only be about 1.2GB RAM with a 1024MB notebook chip. The same chip fits the bottom slot as the mid-2005 iBook G4 uses.
However, if you upgrade to Leopard 10.5.8 there would be no access to use any of the OS 9.2.2 or earlier Mac OS applications. The iMac G4 1.25 can't dual boot, so Classic 9 wouldn't work anymore. But you could put a clone on an external HDD that supports Mac OS X booting (oxford chip) & has its own power supply; if you wanted to keep Tiger and perhaps the ability to use a Classic application on chance you may need one.
The convenience of a bootable backup, though, is also a kind of insurance if you update the backup.
Anyway, hopefully this helps...
Good luck & happy computing!
Posted on Jan 15, 2014 5:54 PM