Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with g4

What can I do with an old G4 Mac that involves robots and cameras?

infinitewindow — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 11:26:48 -0800

What should I do with an old 450 MHz Sawtooth G4 Mac running OS X 10.2? Assume that it runs well as-is and that I have $100 to spend on accessories. Bonus points to answers involving robots (for which I don't have materials for) and/or digital cameras (for which I do).

Powerbook: No Logo

DiscourseMarker — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 09:41:28 -0800

Powerbook G4 won't boot up. I hear the chime, get a gray screen, but NO apple logo or spinning wheel. This is a circa- late 2003 1.25GHz PB running OS 10.5. something. Yesterday, my husband was trying to open some Word 2008 docs he had saved on this laptop. Word would not open, it just kept bouncing in the dock, and we could not get it to force quit, so he did a forced shut down of the computer. Ever since then I cannot get the computer to boot past the gray screen.

I have tried resetting the PRAM, but it still sticks at the gray screen, same with resetting the PMU and trying a safe boot. It never progresses to the Apple Logo, just stays on the gray screen. When I pressed my ear to the keyboard I heard a few clicks from the HD after trying to start up, but now there's no sound.

Any suggestions?

Laptop case compatibility

silkygreenbelly — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 19:11:34 -0800

Will the lower exterior case and optical drive from a mac powerbook G4 12inch 867 MHz be compatible with a mac powerbook G4 12inch 1.5Ghz? My powerbook G4 12inch aluminum 1.5Ghz has some issues. It is going to need a new optical drive and lower exterior case and power adapter (looooong story). Costs a lot to get the replacement parts individually. I found someone nearby offering a powerbook g4 12inch aluminum 867MHz for cheaper than ordering individual pieces would be. Before I go rearranging my schedule to see it, I'm wondering if the case and optical drive are compatible?

Speed up my G4 browsing

lemonfridge — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:16:37 -0800

Why is my iBook G4 so painfully crappy at browsing the net, and can I make it better? I have a iBook G4 (1.2Ghz, 768Mb RAM, Mac OS X 10.5.6)

I keep it around purely for browsing the net without having to boot up my desktop. It's great on most sites, but anything with flash video on it and the performance goes down the pan. YouTube videos drop to 1fps, scrolling goes all laggy, and sometimes the HDD seems to go nuts and make everything even worse for 10min or so - and Ive no idea why.

How can I make improve this? I browse with FireFox and I don't want to switch browsers if I can help it as I have synced bookmarks and things like Adblock.

Is this powerbook worth the money?

shopefowler — Tue, 05 May 2009 19:57:28 -0800

Is this 2002 titanium PowerBook g4 worth the money? I'm strapped for cash, but I've got the opportunity to purchase it for about $300. I'm a freelance graphic designer, and I'd like to install CS3 on it (if it'll install on a PowerPC) but will really only use it on vacation and not for intense tasks.

Assume it runs fine on Tiger, needs a new battery and needs a memory upgrade (to 1G). Think it's a good buy or not worth the $$?

Help me help her iMac boot from the install DVD.

The Deej — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 09:49:20 -0800

iMac G4 won't start from (iMac G4-specific) OS X install disk. But WILL start from the Apple Hardware Test CD. More details follow... After years of successful Mac troubleshooting, and much Googling, I am stumped.

My friend's G4 iMac (swivel-neck monitor) won't start from its hard drive, so I am trying to reintall the OS. (I think the problem started when she tried to install an OS update which crapped out before completing.) The disk is the correct disk for the iMac G4; it came with the iMac. I tested the disk on my iMac G4, and mine boots from it just fine. It's not dirty or scratched.

So here's what happens.

-Holding "C" on startup: the optical drive sounds like it's being accessed, but after a few minutes it stops spinning and the iMac stalls at the gray Apple logo screen.

-Holding "option" on startup: I can choose the hard drive or the optical drive. The disk in the optical drive is recognized as a potential startup disk. Selecting to start from the disk causes the same symptoms as above.

-Booting from the Apple hardware test CD: Boots up with no problem. Hardware test finds no problems.

-Running fsck from open firmware returns a hard disk error (expected) but it can't fix the problem. Obviously, this should not prevent optical disk booting.

-Have zapped PRAM, plus many other startup tricks (safe mode, etc). The only thing I haven't done is reset the PMU.

-The only memory installed is the factory memory. And hardware test finds no problems with it.

My current thought is that the optical drive is faulty, unable to read the install disk (DVD) but can read the hardware test disk (CD). I've seem other reports of similar problems, but no solutions.

Any suggestions? Thanks!

Wireless keyboard for G4 Mini?

caution live frogs — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 05:44:18 -0800

Trying to find a keybaord / mouse combo for a G4 Mac Mini (no IR, no bluetooth) that will work in a living room PC without costing me an arm and a leg. Recommendations? Short story: Wife will be having the baby in the near future (due on three weeks!). Computer is downstairs in the basement. I'm in the process of refurbishing a 1st-generation G4 Mac Mini which I plan to connect to our LCD TV for her to use as a computer, for web / email access, to keep her from having to drag the kid up and down the stairs just to get online.

Mini was a freebie, needed a new HD (done). Leopard installed, runs fine, TV has an RGB input for use as a monitor, and I've already dropped a Cat5 cable into our living room so the thing will be wired into our home network.

Basically my little Mother's Day present is all set except for the input devices - I need a keyboard and mouse combo that will work in our living room. She'll likely be sitting about 8-9 feet from the Mini.

I'm leaning towards the Microsoft Laser Wireless for Mac keyboard. Had also considered the Kensington Ci70.

Both are about in the price range I'd be happy with, and I do prefer Microsoft's mouse shapes over Kensington, but (a) the MS setup has some poor reviews for range and connectivity from some people, and (b) the Kensington layout is PC-specific with an Apple key tacked on in the bottom corner. I'd prefer a native Apple layout.

Searching for keyboards online has given me hundreds of PC keyboard combos that work on a Mac but aren't native layout, and every time I find something that might work it turns out to want Bluetooth. (Yes, I could get a BT dongle, and I might eventually, but for now I just want something that works out of the box!)

Any help? I'm trying to keep this a surprise...

Can I give my Mac laptop a newer operating system?

kim in chicago — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 13:57:18 -0800

How can I "upgrade" my Mac PowerBook G4's OS 10.3.9 to at least a 10.4.9 in order to install MS Office Home & Student Edition? I had to replace my 5-6 year old hard drive and the laptop is now working well. The old hard drive had MS Office for Mac installed on it and the new one doesn't, of course. The MS Office system requirements say I need a minimum of 10.4.9 to install the program. Is there anything I can do to the laptop (get a different hard drive, install more memory, etc.) that will get the OS up to at least 10.4.9? I really only need MS Word and internet ability so I'm trying to avoid buying a new laptop, if possible.

Is this iBook toast?

clockwork — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 13:55:16 -0800

The hard drive in my girlfriend's iBook (12" G4 late 2004) died, or at least that's what I think happened. I want to cover all my bases and I need a little advice on best practices. A few months ago it would make a gnarly clicking sound, but only intermittently. We backed up all her data, figuring that the hard drive was going to fail pretty soon, but the clicking went away and everything was fine until this week when it seemed like it was running a little hot and then went totally catatonic.

After it first died, Disk Utility (running from OSX install discs) couldn't even see the drive and Apple Hardware Test returned a variety of Mass Storage "2STF" errors. After it cooled down, Disk Utility was able to see the drive, but it didn't return any errors and it passed the first Hardware Test but failed every subsequent time I ran it. I have been able to boot from the drive when the computer is totally cold, but I've never left it running for very long. I'm a little puzzled by the symptoms. I would expect the hard drive to stop working altogether.

Did I miss any totally obvious fixes? or troubleshooting steps that might indicate something other than the hard drive?

She would rather spend $65 on a new hard drive than $1k for a new MacBook. And while I have a vested interest in taking the thing apart, I don't want let my impulse to fiddle about inside the thing color my thinking about the problem itself. Thanks.

I can't read my book.

tylerfulltilt — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 12:44:08 -0800

Is my g4 iBook forked? I've had this machine for awhile now. It's a g4 iBook, 1ghz processor, 1gig of ram, bluetooth, wifi. And today it started acting up.

I can power it on. It will go to the dark gray screen, then it will go to the light gray screen with the dark grey apple in the middle. Then the little processing wheel will come up beneath it, the little "Hang on I'm thinking" wheel that pulses in a circle. Then a different screen comes up that tells me my computer needs to be restarted.

I've powered off and back on at least twenty different times to no avail. The computer will never fully boot up because it always thinks it needs to be restarted. I've tried taking out the battery and re inserting it. I've also tried running without the battery solely on ac power. None of that worked. I've tried the aboce in combination with holding the 4 bottom left keys and that didn't work either.

Does anyone have idea how to fix this?
If my Laptop is forked is there anyway I can salvage the data on the hard drive?

Okay, so plate spring on vocals only?

Cantdosleepy — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 01:22:48 -0800

Please help get my old iBook to be as fast as possible! Hey all,

I've had an iBook G4 14" 1.42GHz for a few years now (bought it about a month before they switched to Intel chips). I haven't treated it super-kindly (the day-to-day account is also the admin account, since I didn't realise you were meant to make yourself a limited user account; I've installed and uninstalled all sorts of software of varying quality; and I've made it a bittorrent packhorse for days at a time) and the battery was on the point of dying. I recently put a new battery in, and now that I'm not permanently tethered to the wall I'm enthused about fixing the machine up to get it as fast as possible.

I've been using the DAW Reaper for a few months now and like it a lot. Unfortunately my computer isn't fast enough to do any audio effects work - every channel has to be clean or the program judders and overloads.

My goal for this project is to be able to use Reaper and Reason ReWired together for recording sketches in my bedroom. Nothing too ambitious - I'm not talking about running bitcrunchers, choruses and delays on dozens of channels - I'd just like the ability to use panning, compression and reverb on four or five tracks to make things sit nicely together.

So how do I squeeze out the speed? Will reinstalling the OS help? I've already got the maximum amount of RAM that this computer will hold. What processes run in the background that I don't need? Does the Quicksilver launcher eat up a lot of memory (I currently use it)? Would installing Leopard be a bunch faster, or would that money be better spent elsewhere? Can I tell the computer to prioritise one program at the expense of others? Should I set up a separate user account for recording that has almost everything disabled that isn't needed for ReapsonWire?

Aside from music making I'll be using this machine to cruise the internet, watch '.avi' files and write bits and pieces - so nothing too demanding.

Any and all tips considered. Thanks!

Raising the Dead

mkb — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 09:26:08 -0800

PowerBook G4 won't react to power button. Are we SOL? My parents are trying to move off their crusty old iMac to my brother's less crusty and old PowerBook G4 (FW800 model, 1.25 GHz, aluminum enclosure). I got their new user accounts and files copied over last weekend, and this weekend my brother sends me a text message saying that the machine will no longer boot. He hits the power button and nothing happens. He tried resetting the PMU to no avail, and the battery reports itself as full.

Is this machine fixable? I'm not sure what to try next without taking it into the shop. I'm wary of bringing it to the Apple Store, but there is a well regarded Apple-only shop in Boston (The Computer Loft) I would gladly bring it to instead.

Will CS4 run on a G4 Powerbook?

i_love_squirrels — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:37:08 -0800

Will Adobe's CS4 run on a Powerbook G4? Adobe says you must have a Mac G5 to use the CS4 Creative Suite. However, I've read message boards where people say it will run on a G4 tower or G4 Powerbook. One person reported that an Adobe rep told them it would work, it just wouldn't be as optimal as a G5.

Since I trust Mefites more than people on random threads. Has anyone here tried it? Did it work for you? I'm specifically interested in hearing about Flash, Photoshop and Illustrator CS4. Thanks!

Four Years of Dedicated Service

Monstrous Moonshine — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:29:27 -0800

Powerbook G4 (hardware?) woes, followed by death of battery LEDs. Firstly, excuse my style of description.

Yeah, I gave my laptop a tap to the side, which was followed by the Beach Ball. The charge was low (according to the battery LEDs), so I let the thing cool down and, after a little charging, I started the computer. Backlight came on, but the screen remained black. The fan quickly turned on; it was obvious to me the thing was working very hard at some futile task.

The computer only correctly started once. After, like, taking out the battery, three PMUs, blah blah... The thing stopped working again mid-trash-emptying. Earlier, I noticed the LEDs only work when the computer's plugged in. Now the LEDs are always dead. :| What?

I'm itching to crack the thing open and look for something loose. If you have some advice for key signs of easy fix/dead mother board/etc... lemme know.

I saw a really cool ad for Fight Club featured on the awesome channel G4. What I am after is the soundtrack to that ad, does anyone know what it was? Or possibly where there are scores like it?

bostonhill — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:00:29 -0800

I saw a really cool ad for Fight Club featured on the awesome channel G4. What I am after is the soundtrack to that ad, does anyone know what it was? Or possibly where there are scores like it? It was basically a 30 second really intense drum beat. I know this is vague, but any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Got them low down dirty Kernel panic blues

cosmicbandito — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 21:55:19 -0800

Mac OS X kernel panic shortly after boot on G4 iMac. How do I troubleshoot this? Every time I boot my G4, it kernel panics after about 5 minutes. Doesn't seem to matter what's running. I tried reading the kernel panic log, but don't see anything helpful. What's the best way to go about getting this fixed? I'm a Mac noob, but am good with Windows and reasonably proficient with *nix and command line stuff.

Help me listen to my music ... please?

chairish — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 01:38:15 -0800

Tossing an idea around here ... I'd like to use my old Powerbook as a media server for my Windows network. 1. Me - Vista Business notebook, brand new. I also use an eeePC when I go away.
2. Beloved - almost new XP Pro notebook
3. Son - teenager at home - aging XP Pro desktop, aging Pocket PC, Windows compatible phone
4. Daughter - comes and goes - aging XP Pro notebook

And I have a spare G4 Powerbook that, although three and a half years old, is running nicely.

What I want to do is somehow turn the Powerbook into a media server for our Windows machines. We are a wireless household and we all love our music and movies (currently over 100GB of each on an external hard drive - NTFS). I'd love to be able to use the Powerbook as some sort of server for our media. Ideas?

Is it my iBook battery or something more sinister?

kmtiszen — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 06:51:17 -0800

iBook G4 battery is out of juice. Computer won't start up... even when AC adapter is plugged in. Is there something else going on? I'm going to be purchasing a MacBook soon, but I'd first want to unload my old G4. It's about four-years-old and the battery, to my best knowledge, is pretty much kaput. I can't even get the computer to start up when the AC power adapter is plugged in. Is this a symptom of the battery's age or do you think there's some deeper issue here? Could the adapter port be mangled beyond repair?

I'd like to replace the battery before selling... it's still a great machine when it's up and running. But if it's not the battery, I'd rather not go through the hassle and just sell the silly thing for parts.

Any advice is really appreciated!

Thanks!

Should I buy a used 12" G4 Powerbook as a stopgap machine?

stackhaus23 — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 15:33:57 -0800

Macfilter: Thinking of buying a 12" G4 Powerbook, is this irrational thinking? I need a new laptop, quite badly. However, it really is for nothing more than sitting at our local haunt, in the living room with my girlfriend while she watches TV or friends houses that have Wi-Fi etc and browsing the internet, showing them photographs or things I'm working on.

I was kind of hoping that today Steve Jobs was also going to announce the much talked about but never appearing line of aluminium Macbooks which I had every intention of buying the cheapest model. But since I still feel they are around the corner, I don't want to buy the current plastic Macbook if in a month or two it's going to be out of date - especially since I can't bare to think I might spend £700 ($1400) on something that's just used for the internet. So is it irrational to buy something like a 2006 G4 just because it's cheap at £250 ($500) just as a stopgap. I'd only buy the top spec model, 1.5 G4 PowerPC - and I realise that it's totally redundant technology but it's only to use for the next year or so.

Could I even run Leopard on it? What kind of drawbacks would it bring other than things being optimised for Intel chips now? Are there any users that can testify it's merits or it's weaknesses?

I have no intention of going back to a Windows based machine so that debate doesn't even come into it. The other two machines I use for Graphic Design are also Macs.

Resell an ibook: fix it?

The Esteemed Doctor Bunsen Honeydew — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:09:03 -0800

A question about reselling an ibook g4 with a broken screen. I'm in the market for a new laptop (probably looking at a macbook, yes I will wait until after WWDC), most notably because the screen on my ibook g4 is horribly broken. But here's the question: is it worth it to try and replace the screen before I resell it? I can probably manage this for around $130, but don't know if the resell value will be boosted enough to make it worth my while.

also, what is a fair price to ask for a 14'' ibook g4 running Tiger with a 60g HDD, 512 MB RAM and a 1.42ghz processor? (both with good screen and a bum screen, if possible). I'll most likely be selling on craigslist or ebay.

Mac Powermac G4 AGP will not boot, can I take the drive and boot using a firewire enclosure on another G5?

safepants — Mon, 26 May 2008 09:38:14 -0800

Mac Powermac G4 AGP will not boot, can I take the drive and boot using a firewire enclosure on another G5? I've tried replacing the CMOS battery and resetting the PMU which didn't work. I really need to boot from this drive to use the files immediately, then take the data off afterwards.

Can I boot with this drive in a firewire enclosure using a G5, or does it have to be another similar G4 system? would a powerbook g4 work too?

Help! My Leopard is changing its spots!

annabellee — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 19:12:35 -0800

My iBook G4 is possessed! Please help perform an exorcism. Suddenly many things are wrong with my iBook G4 running Leopard. There is a white box over the right-hand side of my menubar, and Spotlight, Airport, clock, and all my startup items (Quicksilver, WeatherDock, MenuCalendarClock) are gone.

I can't open many applications that might help (including Disk Utility, Finder Help, System Preferences). I cannot open Mail, but I am indeed online as I can open Firefox and Fetch and use them. I tried inserting the Leopard Disk and reinstalling, but I can't run the install program. I repaired permissions in single user mode (startup with Command-S, run fsck) and my hard drive seems to be fine.

I plugged in my backup drive and tried to restore from Time Machine. I get the Time Machine interface, but I can't click on any past backup windows.

When I place the mouse cursor over the white rectangle on the menubar, I get the beach ball. I am unable to shut down or logout without doing a hard restart. I can't get to System Preferences to create a new user to see if it's particular to my login.

Please help. I know Leopard requires more memory than I have, but I have been running it since release with next to no problems.

one signal bar, two signal bar. three signal bar, four?

twistofrhyme — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 16:45:13 -0800

i live two floors above the wireless router, and my powerbook can't get a strong enough signal. what's the most cost-effective solution? i'm subletting in an old house- i'm on the third floor. the ethernet jack and router are on the ground floor, and they can't be moved-- ethernet must be plugged into an computer that apparently didn't take well to an expensive wireless card-- and i'm not comfortable asking the other tenants to change their established system and run cables all over the place for the new persson.

we have this bell sympatico router. it's in the back of the house. (specifically, it's one room away from the main stairwell, and it's sitting on a table near the doorway of that room, pointed towards the stairwell / centre of the house. given that it has to be in that room, i think it's in the optimum position). its signal has to either go through 2 floors, or follow a slightly bendy route up the stairs and through one wooden door in order to reach me.

i have a 2005 12-inch powerbook g4 (the aluminum one), which is apparently notorious for its crappy wifi antenna. in my apartment, i can get at best 2 bars of signal- not good enough. i've found a couple places in the apartment where the signal kind of works better, but even that's unreliable. previous tenant had a 2007 macbook and he didn't report any net problems, so i think my laptop is mostly at fault.

i guess my options are:
get a stronger antenna for my laptop (i don't know what kind though- suggestions?)
get a signal booster to attach directly to the wireless router, (again, don't know what kind and the guys in the bell store had no idea what i was talking about), or
get a signal repeater and place it halfway through the house, maybe in the stairwell or in my apartment? (again, what brand?)

does anyone have insight about which of these options will work best, and suggestions of where to get whatever bits i need, cheap? i'm in toronto.

thank you in advance.

Powerbook charging troubles

rtha — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 09:32:20 -0800

Help me diagnose my Powerbook’s power supply woes. I'm running 10.4.11 on a powerbook g4 (1GHz, 768 MB RAM). The trouble started yesterday when I got to work and plugged it in: the light at the site where the cord connects to the laptop doesn't light up, although the indicator in the menu bar says that it's charging. It shows a 95% charge, and that hasn't changed.

When I got home last night, I plugged it in again - I have two different powercords, both the standard Apple-supplied brick kind, one for home and one for work - and the home one does glow (green), but again, the charge doesn't increase. It isn't dropping either, at home or work.

The original battery for this powerbook keeled over in September or October, so it's got a new battery in it. I have googled, but found nothing helpful. So, help?

Repairing a whining iBook?

Marquis — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 13:49:05 -0800

[Ohgodno!Filter] My iBook G4 has for months been making a weird sound when I move it, but today something in the vicinity of the hard-drive has started to make a sharp rhythmic whine/scrape when the laptop is tilted. Is there any hope other than bringing it into the shop? For several months now my computer's made a whirring sound in the lower left quadrant, usually when I'm hefting the thing around - lifting it in and out of its case, carrying it. Basically when it's swinging in the air and not flat on a desk/lap. It's a weirdly pendulum-like sound, like something's weighted not quite right and so the hardware's moving a bit.

Today -- panic. I picked up the computer to go and do some writing at a cafe and when I held it under my arm it began to make this severe, rhythmic (ie, every few seconds) bark/whine/scrape sound, amidst the usual whirr. And then it just abruptly shut off.

I was able to reboot the machine, and things are fine as it sits here on my lap, but when I lift or tilt the machine I hear that familiar, gravitationally-variable whirr/buzz, and eventually the sharp/fast "zzzzzirr!" that sounds really broken.

I ran Disk Utility and the disk turns up fine. I'm just assuming it's a problem with the drive hardware because it's coming from southwest of the keyboard.

Anyone have any ideas for fixes? I'll take it in if I have to but both the cost and lack-of-computer access would be particularly inopportune right now. Could it just be a matter of a loose screw or something? If so, any simple instructions exist for getting in there and tightening it?

I am relatively technically competent; certainly enough so to not be afraid of opening my iBook up (though I can't figure out how to get any deeper than the keyboard/airport card), but I am not a hardware geek and don't know what anything is or what it does unless a website tells me explicitly so.

Thank you!