Vintage iMac g3 DV400 upgrade

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Level 1

8 points

Vintage iMac g3 DV400 upgrade

I must be mad, but I just sold my old indigo blue iMac G3 400 dv that I owned from 2000 (I had it upgraded to 10.4 and a bit more ram). Straight away I went and bought another one! This one is lime green and time warp! Running OSX Z1-9.0, Mem 64meg and virtual 65meg (the days of HD virtual memory). HD 10 GB. Mac OS Rom 3.1.1 . As this is the DV model I have 2x400 Firewire.

I want to go through the process of upgrading as much as I can. I think the design is timeless / classic. They make great juke boxes if you have the space.

So have been reading a bit ... not straight forward process, but wondering if someone could list the step by step process to get to 10.4 from 9.0 i.e. can I jump from 9 to 10.4. with out taking steps 10.1, 10.2 and 10.3 . Is it best to stay in 10.3 or go 10.4 . I think I remember noting much better speed in 10.3 .

I assume this has not had the firmware update, so I have downloaded iMac FW 4.1.9 nd burnt it to a CD. My Lime iMac reads the file, but I have not initiated anything yet. Was wondering if the first step was to get to OS9.1 or 9.22 . I know I should be able to upgrade ram to 1GB. (but I probably need to upgrade OS first before it can take 1 GB ... may not even take 512meg under OS9 ... I just don't know).

I am no computer expert ... but love the tinkering (call it relaxing!). I may youtube the progress as figured some enthusiasts will enjoy.

Will try and source the OS via eBay (but have noted things are getting expensive).

So ... I would appreciate a step by step upgrade process.

Many thanks for your input / discussion.

iMac, Mac OS 9.0.x, Lime Green iMac DV400

Posted on Feb 15, 2017 3:53 AM

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Answer 1

Jeff

Level 6

12,328 points

Feb 16, 2017 10:21 AM in response to Allan Jones

That firmware upgrade can be run in OS 9.1 (system updates can be found here), so you don't first need to run the OS 9.2.1 Update followed by the 9.2.2 Update. I responded to your same Topic, that you posted in the PowerPC iMac Forum.

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Answer 2

Allan Jones

Level 9

78,284 points

Feb 15, 2017 12:18 PM in response to cosmiconion

I took our Summer 2000 iMac G3 400 DV straight from OS 9.2.2 to OS 10.4 in one step with the firmware update, righteous Apple full retail install disks, and an external Mac-bootable FireWire DVD drive (the iMac had only a CD read-only drive). At the same time I replaced the 10GB hard drive with a 60GB and bumped the RAM to 512MB.

All was not good, however. It worked fine in our climate-controlled home but I gave it to my daughter who lives out of state in a house with only heating--no refrigerated air. The iMac was fine until they got a heat wave and the temps in the house rose to 85-90F. Then the computer started shutting down. We got her a newer Mac and had her bring the old "on again/off again" iMac home. Here it would not run in OSX; apparently the heat issues affected the the PAV boad, a weak link in that model. It would, however, boot into OS9 and actually run for a while.

It appears a hot environment, a larger faster hard drive and the extra work OSX put on the processor caused overheating that permanently damaged the PAV board. The G3 iMacs have only convection cooling--no fans. If I were to do it again, I would probably grit my teeth and install an ugly exhaust fan under the air outlet around the carrying handle.

If you will always have the iMac in a area that is cool year-round, your results may be happier.

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Answer 3

cosmiconion Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 16, 2017 6:48 AM in response to Allan Jones

Heat issue will not effect computer in England ! So you jumped from 9.22 to 10.4 ... so I will likely have to upgrade to 9.22 from 9.0 , that is a challenge in itself ! As I said I found the firmware upgrade and have burnt to a cd ... I just need to know when I can install the firmware upgrade i.e. from 9.0 or do I need to get to 9.2 first.

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Answer 4

Allan Jones

Level 9

78,284 points

Feb 16, 2017 8:14 AM in response to cosmiconion

The 4.1.9 firmware update may require a higher version than OS 9.0 but the upgrade disk boots from an optical drive and can be applied to any supported computer regardless of the version of OS9 previous installed.

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Answer 5

Rudegar

Level 10

180,600 points

Feb 16, 2017 6:44 AM in response to cosmiconion

for stuff with the old PowerPC cpu you will likely get more help here iMac (PPC)

then in this intel cpu imac forum

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Answer 6

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Feb 16, 2017 6:44 AM in response to cosmiconion

I had 1 GB of RAM in my Ruby iMac/400/DV, as I recall OS9's real RAM limit was 999 MB, on later Macs running 9 & had 1.5/2.0 GB, the OS masked out the excess as being used.

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Answer 7

cosmiconion Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 10, 2017 1:45 PM in response to Jeff

thanks : need 9.1 ... will work from there .

am trying to hunt down an airport base station, only cheap way to get wifi capabilities

thx

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