1st timer

Last time I used an apple was the Apple ][+! Went over to the PC camp. Never used a Mac. Recently acquired a powermac G3 which I thought can be used as a trial of mac os. Some problems though. Please help...

1) When switched on there is a musical chime and a grey screen appears with a folder icon which alternate between a ? and a face. Nothing else happens. How do I proceed? Could it be because I plugged in a pc keyboard (a wireless microsoft desktop 1000 via usb) since I do not have a mac keyboard

2) Are the pci cards the same as for the pc? That is can I plug in any card meant for use in a pc

3) Noted that the ram is pc100. Are they the same as used in pc's. Have some old dimms which I would like to try...

dan1eln1el5en said:

"?" in startup is that it can't find the OS.

Check Harddrive, check installation, check and check (Use the original CD)

PCI's are the same, do check for drivers though also RAM are the same.

only graphic cards might be different and CPUs

Click to expand...

There are 2 hdd's - 6GB (master) 40GB (slave). Is the OS on the master? Removed the slave with the same result. Looked at the drive after plugging into my pc and there are 6 partitions on that! Will have a look at the master hdd...

Another question - are optical drives the same as those used in pc's? I have loads... from CD readers to DVD writers. Will they work? I probably need one to re-install the os. Need to buy a compatible version of OS X. Wikipedia says Tiger works with G3. Is that a good idea?