G3 iMac problem

Kathleen Stewart wrote:
> I have an old G3iMac that I want to resurrect for my grandchildren.
> Some time ago I made two partitions. Now I would like to erase and
> have just one but cannot remember how to do it. Can anyone help me?

Via the CD that came with it. If you're going to install a newer OS (much recommended) you can do it from that CD/DVD. When you get to the first install screen with a menu bar you should be able to use a menu to get to the disk utility. Then erase it. Preferably with the 0 option.

> Also, it appears that the airport card is dead and it needs a new
> battery. Does anyone know where I could get those things (or even have
> one sitting around that they would like to get rid of?)

The airport card may come back to life after you install a new battery and reset the parameter ram and everything else.

Radio shack is the easiest way to get a battery. Half size AA 3.6 volt. I think they now label them as the "Mac" battery. But there were a few systems that didn't use this. Pull the old one first to make sure.

David

At 5:40 AM -0700 3/17/08, Kathleen Stewart wrote:
>I have an old G3iMac that I want to resurrect for my grandchildren.
>Some time ago I made two partitions. Now I would like to erase and
>have just one but cannot remember how to do it. Can anyone help me?

        Reboot with the install CD/DVD and use "Disk Utility" from the
pull-down menu to erase/repartition the drive before reinstalling things.
Similar tools are on the Mac OS 8 or 9 installation/restoration disks if
you do not have a Mac OS X installer.

>
>Also, it appears that the airport card is dead and it needs a new
>battery. Does anyone know where I could get those things (or even have
>one sitting around that they would like to get rid of?)

        Radioshack sells batteries of the proper type, as does
otherworldcomputing.com. Here is some info about replacing it. Slot-loading
iMacs (with Firewire connections) can access the battery through the hole
where the memory is added - earlier models require more disassembly.

<http://www.academ.com/info/macintosh/>

        Old airport cards are hard to come by - I do not think anyone makes
the underlying chips any more. They can be found at a few places including
ebay. You want one that is NOT the "Airport Extreme". I think the iMac also
needed a card holder of some sort that I have seen on eBay for under $20.

        If you are running Mac OS X on the machine, I belive that there are
a few wireless USB devices that can be used - they might be less expensive
than a slow old Airport card.

        I looked at <http://otherworldcomputing.com/> and they have the old
Airport cards for about $70, the battery for $5, a USB wireless adapter for
$30 (10.3 and above) and a fancy 802.11n wireless USB adapter for just
under $70, again for 10.3 and above).

        If possible, wired Ethernet is almost always better than wireless -
Ethernet cables are pretty inexpensive.




--
* Johann Beda - contact link: <http://xri.net/=j-beda> *
* Johann's MostlyMac Computer Consulting - <http://mmcc.beda.ca/> *

After spending lots of time last night I finally got the drive
reformatted into 1 partition and loaded Tiger on the machine. I think
that the airport card does work but cannot recognize the newer
airport network. Is that possible? I know wired would be better but
at my daughter's house, wireless is going to be the only way to go
for this machine...either that or only use it as a word processor. I
would rather the kids have the Internet available to them if it is
possible.

Kathie

On Mar 18, 2008, at 8:52 AM, Kathleen Stewart wrote:

> After spending lots of time last night I finally got the drive
> reformatted into 1 partition and loaded Tiger on the machine. I think
> that the airport card does work but cannot recognize the newer
> airport network. Is that possible?

Yes, but it might be fixable. The older Airport card supports
802.11b. The router in use might support 802.11b and g but it might
be set to support g only, you have to check how the router is set-up.
If the router is setup to support b and g, and a b client connects,
it will then use only the b protocol (it can't support b and g at the
same time). This means that all computers connected to the router
wirelessly will use the slower b protocol. I cannot say if anyone
will notice the difference.

An alternative is to buy an Apple Airport Express, connect it to the
iMac via the Ethernet port and have it connect to the router wirelessly.

--Paul Chernoff

Kathleen Stewart wrote:
> After spending lots of time last night I finally got the drive
> reformatted into 1 partition and loaded Tiger on the machine. I think
> that the airport card does work but cannot recognize the newer
> airport network. Is that possible? I know wired would be better but
> at my daughter's house, wireless is going to be the only way to go
> for this machine...either that or only use it as a word processor. I
> would rather the kids have the Internet available to them if it is
> possible.

The plain older airport does only "b". Most things these days are "g" or both. If you have your wireless router/access point set to "g" only then the iMac would not see it. Setting your wireless to both will slow down others but if you're just surfing "b" is still faster than most computers can surf the internet. Having a mixed network in most home setups is really only a problem when transferring large amounts of data such as file sharing or constant photo printing.

David

On Mar 18, 2008, at 5:52 AM, Kathleen Stewart wrote:

> I think that the airport card does work but cannot recognize the
> newer airport network. Is that possible?

It's certainly possible. As others have suggested, make sure the
network support 802.11b clients and try disabling encryption. You
should definitely be able to connect to a network in that
configuration. Once you have that working, re-enable encryption on the
network. The older AirPort drivers have problems connecting to WPA-
protected networks, so make sure you've installed the latest AirPort
software available. Also, I believe the older AirPort cards are
incapable of WPA2.

That said, like you, I was trying remotely to help a friend's sister
get her iMac G3, running Panther, connected to a wireless network. If
I had been sitting in front of the computer, I may have eventually
gotten it working with encryption, but we ended up just giving up and
leaving the wireless network open.

Kathleen Stewart wrote:
> If this is the case, how do I set the router to b? I also just
> discovered that the iMac is self-assigning an IP address :(. I have
> tried all I know to do to stop that but to no avail. Of course, it is
> never going to connect if I can't stop it.

I don't see where you mentioned the brand and/or model in any of my saved emails but it will be a configuration choice in the setup for the router.

As to the IP you have it backwards. It self-assigns BECAUSE it can't find a network. Once it finds a network it should use a manual setting if you've made one or use what the network/router gives it if it is handing out IPs via DHCP.

David