As I mentioned before, a friend of mine gave me an old purple iMac to play with. (Thanks, picunurse, for the mouse!) It currently has OS 8.6 on it, but it doesn’t seem to be working. The computer starts up, but nothing else works. Looks like there are some components missing.
Anyway, I found a full version of OS 10.1 on eBay (with manual). The first thing to do is to replace the OS 8.6 with one that works (OS 10.1, in this case – if I win the auction). My friend said we could upgrade the memory too. And therein lies my question.
As I understand it, the iMac has a maximum of 256 meg RAM; which this one already has. But my friend says there is another slot. Is the memory upgradable? Or is my friend mis-remembering?
FWIW, I’m not looking to do a lot with this computer. It’s just something I can use to learn how to use Macs. Since it didn’t cost me anything, I can put a little money into it.
According to EveryMac, your system (assuming I’ve found the right one) has two RAM slots and is indeed capable of using only 256MB. There is also a note that maximum RAM “will be 384 MB when higher-density DIMMs are produced.” Apparently, some models (scroll down to middle of page) can even address 512 MB, and there’s no way to know whether yours will until you actually try it. Good luck.
So ‘tray loading’ is like your typical PC, and ‘slot loading’ is like the CD player in your car dash? (This iMac has a CD drive similar to the one on my PC laptop.)
I won the OS-X full-install (with manual & box) for about $26 (including shipping), and I installed it today. The guy that gave me the iMac came over and installed Panther. He offered to install Final Cut Pro in a couple of days. I’m sure it won’t run very fast on an iMac, but I can practice on it so that I can jump on his G5-based editing suite. The iMac only has 6 gig though, so I’ll buy a bigger hard drive for it before I get FCP. As I said, the iMac is just a ‘practice computer’ so that I can learn the ways of Macs; but since it was free I can spend fifty bucks on a bigger hard drive.
Tried to get online with it today, but there was no dial tone. Unfortunately, my house is 70 years old and it only has one phone jack. I have a splitter that takes a line to the PC and the desk phone, and another splitter that goes to the answerphone and the cordless phone. I unplugged the answerphone and plugged the cord into the iMac. When I tried to log onto the PC, there was no dial tone. I plugged the cord back into the answerphone, and I got my dial tone back. I’ll have to figure out what’s going on with that, but it’ll get sorted eventually.
Nonsuch’s link says that the iMac has a 56K modem. OS-X offers a choice of two 56K Apple modems. I’ve tried both. I learned a little more about the dial tone – very little.
When I plugged the cord into the modem, I picked up the phone and heard a dial tone. When I tried to connect, I got a no-dial tone error. When I picked up the phone, there was no dial tone, which is odd since the modem supposedly had disconnected. Just dead air. I unplugged the modem, and got a dial tone back on the phone (and on the PC).
Should I call Apple? Or is it an Earthlink thing? Or can anyone offer a fix here?
