[maplesoph]

So this is my first post...hello everyone!!
I am a newbie Mac user...I have an oldschool eMac. Power PC G4.
It's running on Mac OS X 10.1.5.

So when I got the computer it came with Microsoft Office, I could actually use Facebook, it also had Safari and some other programs.
Now I let someone else touch my computer and they ended up taking the Mac OS X install discs and totally erasing everything!! Now I've been trying to get back to where I can use everything I once had, or a place where I could maybe download a newer OS (I'm a student so I'm perma-broke). I am on Firefox right now however it's 1.0.7. I can't go on Hotmail and I can't view Facebook properly.

Does anyone have any tips or help they can give me with this? I only recently became keen to update this since my PC died (of course).

Thanks!!

 

[daniels]

Run software update it should get u back up to 10.1.5, and get flash player from here Adobe - Adobe Flash Player

 

[maplesoph]

Thanks! I already updated it to 10.1.5 and I updated it to the latest Flash Player I could find.

 

[eMacMan]

This must have been one of the very early eMacs otherwise you would be running at least 10.2.8

Question how much RAM and what HD size. Given adequate RAM and HD, I would suggest upgrading to at least Panther (10.3.x). Panther disks should be readily available in CD format and at very affordable prices.

 

[maplesoph]

The memory is 128mb. Is it worth upgrading and also is it expensive to do so? When I go to About This Mac, I do not get anything on RAM or stuff like that. It just says PowerMac G4 and Memory 128mb.

 

[EvanPitts]

^^^
Not expensive at all, though SDRAM is getting harder to find. You can go to at least 1GB, and run whatever you like up to Leopard. 128MB will handle Jaguar fine, but you will need 256MB for Panther and 512MB for Tiger to get decent performance.

Identifying the machine and it's capabilities is important, so you really should check out MacTracker. There are two basic kinds of eMacs, early and late models, and they used different memory, as I recall, so you need to know which kind you have to know which memory you will need.

 

[maplesoph]

Thank you! Do you know approx. how much it is to upgrade the ram? I'll check out MacTracker.

 

[maplesoph]

On the MacTracker website, I couldn't see a version of the program for Mac OS X 10.1.5. Am I blind?

 

[EvanPitts]

Thank you! Do you know approx. how much it is to upgrade the ram? I'll check out MacTracker.

Sure - I would think that 512MB would be in the $30-40 range. http://www.canadaram.com/macram.html carries it - you have to know if you need PC133 or DDR for your machine, and MacTracker will help you with that, as well as the System Profiler. You may be able to obtain such RAM locally as well, like Tiger Direct or Canada Computer, and I'd think it would be in the same range.

You could also put up a Wanted To Buy ad here, as people may have spare RAM they want to get rid of, like maybe they pulled a 256MB in order to put a bigger size in - and two of those would be pretty decent in a system. Some eMacs die because the monitor goes, so those people will have memory that they might want to cabbage if they are just scrapping it.

 

[maplesoph]

Thank you! I am thinking about maybe selling it when I can afford to buy a newer Mac since I want something that will last me through college and university..

 

[mkolesa]

Thank you! I am thinking about maybe selling it when I can afford to buy a newer Mac since I want something that will last me through college and university..

+1 on that, any intel imac will be quite a step up in terms of performance and future usability.

 

[Gerbill]

It would be a real help to this discussion to specify exactly which model eMac we're talking about. The later model ones were constructed quite differently from the early ones. The speed of the processor would tell the tale.

 

[maplesoph]

When I click on About This Mac, it says Processor: PowerMac G4.

Does that help?

(Sorry I'm a newbie at this.)

 

[mkolesa]

you need to get to the system profiler. one way is using 'about this mac' and clicking the 'more info' button on that pane. the 'hardware overview' will give you info on your processor and if you click on the 'memory' choice under that it'll tell you what flavour memory you're using already

 

[maplesoph]

Thanks! I used Sherlock to find it.



System: Mac OS X 10.1.5 (SS60b)
Built-in Memory: 128mb
Memory type: SDRAM


700mhz

Anything else?

 

[Gerbill]

Thanks! I used Sherlock to find it.



System: Mac OS X 10.1.5 (SS60b)
Built-in Memory: 128mb
Memory type: SDRAM


700mhz

Anything else?

OK, now we know. It's the very first eMac model, and the slowest.
Introduced April 2002 and discontinued May, 2003.
The maximum RAM is 1024 MB (1 GB).

This is a good little old Mac. You could max out the RAM, install Tiger (OS X 10.4.x) and have quite a nice machine for general computing. It wouldn't be much use for 3D gaming or video editing, but fine for other things.

 

[maplesoph]

Thank you so much for your help! So I have to look for SDRAM now?

 

[EvanPitts]

Thank you so much for your help! So I have to look for SDRAM now?

Yes, you need PC133 SDRAM for that machine, as DDR won't work...

 

[maplesoph]

Thanks so much guys!