I have a G3 Yosemite the old blue and white G3 tower

[leftofthedial]

is it useful for anything?

[Elwood P Dowd]

1. What are the specs?

If you have upgraded the hard drive and increased RAM to 512, it could run OS X. I knew a guy who ran Panther on one.
Reconditioned units sell for $99.95 at Mac Of All Trades, so you might get that or more if you have upgraqded it and have the original install discs. I'm in a similar situation with an old 90's iMac running OS 9.1. It's not worth much, so I just keep it around in case something happens to one of the other Macs.

[leftofthedial]

2. I upgraded the hard drive and it also has maxed-out RAM

it's a 450MHz G3

but last time I tried using it (running OS X and trying to do some basic Internet stuff), it was exteremely unreliable.

[Elwood P Dowd]

3. It might just need a new battery (3.2v lithium I think)

if it's been idle and unused for several months. Worth a try for five bucks.

[leftofthedial]

4. I wonder if it would work for games

or maybe as just a machine for hanging out at DU

[Elwood P Dowd]

5. I still surf the net with my old iMac G3 350Mhz using 9.1

It's not as fast as my iBook with Tiger, but it's not like you're using an old Road Apple such as one of the 5200 Performa models. You might be better off using 9.1 and the Wamcom 1.3.1 browser (a Mozilla version). That combo is the fastest I've tried on the internet with the old iMac.

[leftofthedial]

6. If I can get it running

and keep it from crashing like it did all the time when last I used it (about 18 months ago)

:knock wood:

thanks!


ya know. I have a bunch of OS 9 games and such that don't work like they should in Classic Mode--this could be good!

[Richard Steele]

7. I was going to mention the "old games" issue...

No, Classic Mode is NOT always sufficient to run some older programs.

I have a 95mhz PowerMac sitting here because OSX Classic Mode won't run
my Crystal Caliburn Pinbal, amongst other things.
(And many hundreds of the old games can be had for FREE these days, you know...)

It also runs my flatbed scanner.
It's a 10-year-old UMAX VistaScan that still works like new,
but it sure don't work with OSX.
So the old PowerMac does my scanning, and plays file server for
my newer iMac.


I'm sure your old Mac is still good for HUNDREDS of things,
if you put your mind to it.
Get it up and running with OS 8.5 or so, and delete all the unnecessary
extra files to clear some room on the HD.
Then pick a few tasks it does well, and DEDICATE it to
those tasks alone....