I spent the better part of this afternoon filing about 6 months of paperwork that’d been piling up in the home office (with my lovely wife’s help) while getting an old iMac Rev/B up to stuff for a buddy.
My buddy picked up this old iMac through the request I made for one a while back. He got it for a fair price, and it was in great physical condition. The specs of this machine are actually quite subpar for a power-user, but its primary user will be a teen-age girl that really only needs to be able to get online, do email, and print the occaisional paper for school. This machine will be perfect for her.
The machine was in pretty good condition, though I don’t think it had ever been opened up. It was quite dusty on the inside when I pried the back off of it, and pulled out the innards to install some more RAM (it still only had the original 32MB RAM chip in it). I fixed that by installing two 128MB chips bringing the machine up to 256MB as well as expending the better part of a can of compressed air getting all of the dust bunnies out of it. (My poor white Bichon Frise ended up sneezing for about 5 minutes cause he got in the path of the dust ‘exhaust’ from the other side of the machine. It was actually quite funny).
After getting the hardware up to date, I reformatted the 4GB 5400RPM ATA drive completely, mainly to give myself the piece of mind that I had a completely clean disk to work with. I installed Mac OS 8.5 from a disk I had laying around (I think this is what this machine shipped with, but haven’t actually opened up the software package that is in the bag my buddy got with the machine). I then surfed around Apple’s Support section where I found this document that explained what updates I might need to run to get this machine up to snuff software/firmware wise.
I ended up installing the iMac Firmware Update 1.2, then the iMac Update 1.1. I didn’t need the iMac CD Update 2.0 for some reason, but the computer knew it didn’t need it, so I didn’t worry about that one. I should probably installed the Apple Modem Updater 1.3.5, but from what I remember about that one, I didn’t need it on my own machine for some reason, so I think I’ll just tell my buddy he might need it if he notices problems. Lastly, I installed the USB Mass Storage Support 1.3.5 updater. I doubt they’ll need it, but it shouldn’t hurt to go ahead and get it installed for them, in case they do.
I then skipped the Mac OS 8.5.1 upgrade and installed Mac OS 9, then Mac OS 9.1, then 9.2.1, then 9.2.2 to bring it up to snuff OS wise. I didn’t want to install Mac OS X on this old 233MHz G3 processor, mainly because the graphics card is so old… and OS X really can use the extra power in the graphics card.
After getting all of the core software and other stuff up to date, I installed some software that the new owner bought: most notably Office 2001 for Mac. I also installed AOL Instant Messager, and a few other sharware apps. I also upgraded all of the freeware that comes on the machine like Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, and Netscape.
The trusty old Bondi iMac is now ready for its new owner, Claire, and I think she’ll love it (even if it is over 4 years old).
It’s nice to be able to help introduce someone to the wonders of Macintosh.
If that really is a Bondi Blue iMac (and not a later “blueberry” model), you can actually do some pretty amazing upgrades to it. It has a socket-style processor that can be upgraded (later iMacs all had processors soldered on the board) as high as 500mhz.
i got imac/c 266 with 192 mb ram and installed mac os 10.2.4, works very fine. i like the extended accessibility options as it is used my disabled stepdaughter too. i was actually looking for an information if and how to upgrade its modem firmware and/or script as i usually connect at 48000 only. it looks updates are not for x, unfortunately
I recently installed Jaguar (Mac OS X 10.2.6) on a bondi-blue iMac Rev. B, 233 MHz — it runs fine, and I am impressed by its performance. OS 9 was snappier, but it’s fast enough for everyday use (office, www, e-mail). I beefed up the memory to its maximum, 160 MB ram, though.
The only problem I ran into is the missing firmware update (to 4.1.x). All apple information is about slot-loding CRT-iMacs (Rev. C and later, the candy-colored ones). It can do without — but after pressing the startup button, I am confronted with a plain text dialogue (a firmware command line promt, I suppose). The system continues to boot normally, if i type “boot” (without quotes) and hit enter.
I guess the firmware issue is the cause of it, but that’s just my educated guess…
Thanks for sharing your experiences with us. I was just given a Bondi 233MHz/32MBs by someone who had finally had enough and bought a nice new 2G PC. I decided I would let my boy use it (10 yrs old) so I set about looking into updating the OS and drivers. Now bearing in mind that this is the first Mac I have ever TOUCHED, I am a PC Veteran of 15 years service, and I am deeply suspicious of pants that zip their own fly, if you catch my drift, I was not entirely confident in my ability to get this thing working right and share a DSL connection through my main PC.
I learned a lot from the Mac Support Site (I’m not used to Support Pages being useful) and then, quite by luck, found this page. I followed the instructions and the directions on this page and had a successful and gratifying time installing 8.6 and the firmware updates etc.
I then called my ISP and they were next to useless in helping me connect to my DSL connection by sharing. They only want to let you connect directly to the modem but I use XP’s firewall to protect the PC’s in my home so… anyway, turns out all I had to do was go into TCP/IP and follow the instructions and my nose, and there you go, set up more easily than I had imagined.
Needless to say, while I am a long way from conversion due to the scarcity of decent software (and the fact that I run UD agent which has no Mac client) I am no longer hating on Mac’s and am looking forward to being given another one for my 8 year old daughter.
It is very important that we share our experiences on the Internet, that is what gives the Internet it’s power, gathering human experience for the benefit of all.
Alenn X.
So now I have a 7200/75 which is failing during the bootup but not due to the extensions. I have no bootup floppy or OS CD.
I guess I’ll have to use the force…
I want for my old IMac an up date for the website so I can enter the pch.com sweepstakes. How do I update my website from a 5.0 AOL so I can connect to the more updated websites on my computer e-mail? A lot go to the iMac trash websites itself.