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iBook G4 downgrade from 10.5 to 10.3 trouble

J

jhomayne

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 1, 2004
219
0
Hi.

I'm trying to revive a sluggish iBook G4 (12" 1.2GHz 1.25GB ram)

However, although the HD boots fine into 10.5.8, when I insert my 10.3.7 install discs and attempt a clean install, the HD does not appear in the destination section.

I've searched around, but cannot seem to find someone with the same problem.

The partition map scheme is Apple Partition Map.
S.M.A.R.T status is verified.
Write status: read/write

Does anyone have any suggestions? Many thanks. :confused:
 
G

G4TheWin

macrumors member
Dec 8, 2012
61
0
A ditch somewhere
Whaa?

What I want to know is why you want to run such an ancient version of OSX. My iBook has the same specs as you, and with a few tweaks it actually can run about as fast as tiger. Here is a link to those tweaks:http://mymacintoshcollection.com/optimization-recommendations/ Why do you want Panther anyway? The software update servers for it are offline, and the only web browsing options for it are old versions of Camino and iCab. I hope this was helpful, not nagging.
 
G

g4 powerbookboy

macrumors regular
Aug 10, 2010
139
0
i have a ibook g4 with a 1.2 processor and 768 mb of ram and it runs leopard nicely. why would you want to use something even older?
 
J

jhomayne

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 1, 2004
219
0
Valid points!

Reason being that I want to start afresh with the iBook as it is really dragging in 10.5.8.

My only install discs are the 10.3.7 discs that came with the iBook when new and a Tiger upgrade disc.

I figured that I'd go back to Panther, then upgrade to Tiger and then see how things ran from there.

I have a Windows laptop that is much newer that I use for most things, but I just wanted to get the iBook running snappily again.

If anyone has any tips for a different route to that scenario, please let me know.
 
eyoungren

eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Aug 31, 2011
28,793
26,883
jhomayne said:
Valid points!

Reason being that I want to start afresh with the iBook as it is really dragging in 10.5.8.

My only install discs are the 10.3.7 discs that came with the iBook when new and a Tiger upgrade disc.

I figured that I'd go back to Panther, then upgrade to Tiger and then see how things ran from there.

I have a Windows laptop that is much newer that I use for most things, but I just wanted to get the iBook running snappily again.

If anyone has any tips for a different route to that scenario, please let me know.
Click to expand...
Save yourself a lot of trouble and run some system maintenance. Download Onyx and use all the maintenance/cleaning functions in it you can. If Safari is bugging you, reset it. You can use Onyx to clean out all your browser caches as well.

Boot from the Tiger install disk (if you have one) and repair the disk, then repair permissions. Use DiskWarrior as well, if you can get a hold of a copy.

Then optimize. Strip out extra languages using Monolingual and strip out extra code using XSlimmer. If problems still persist, use Activity Monitor and Console to get an idea of what's causing the problem.

All Macs ever really need is some routine maintenance, particularly when things get slow (but if you are doing maintentence regularly this happens rarely). It's only with the big problems that we should consider reinstalling the OS. And we have DiskWarrior for that most of the time.
 
Last edited:
Nermal

Nermal

Moderator
Staff member
Dec 7, 2002
20,637
4,036
New Zealand
jhomayne said:
My only install discs are the 10.3.7 discs that came with the iBook when new and a Tiger upgrade disc.

I figured that I'd go back to Panther, then upgrade to Tiger and then see how things ran from there.
Click to expand...

Have you tried installing Tiger directly? Although "upgrade-only" copies do exist, the vast majority of Tiger DVDs can be installed regardless of the current OS.
 
G

G4TheWin

macrumors member
Dec 8, 2012
61
0
A ditch somewhere
eyoungren said:
Save yourself a lot of trouble and run some system maintenance. Download Onyx and use all the maintenance/cleaning functions in it you can. If Safari is bugging you, reset it. You can use Onyx to clean out all your browser caches as well.

Boot from the Tiger install disk (if you have one) and repair the disk, then repair permissions. Use DiskWarrior as well, if you can get a hold of a copy.

Then optimize. Strip out extra languages using Monolingual and strip out extra code using XSlimmer. If problems still persist, use Activity Monitor and Console to get an idea of what's causing the problem.

All Macs ever really need is some routine maintenance, particularly when things get slow (but if you are doing maintentence regularly this happens rarely). It's only with the big problems that we should consider reinstalling the OS. And we have DiskWarrior for that most of the time.
Click to expand...

My point exactly! That's pretty much what the link I posted earlier in this thread said, however.:p
 
J

jhomayne

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 1, 2004
219
0
Thanks for all the tips.

I'll give them a go and see what happens.

However, does anyone have any idea for why the HD doesn't show in startup disk?
 
G

G4TheWin

macrumors member
Dec 8, 2012
61
0
A ditch somewhere
I see from your signature that you kinda sorta already did the upgrade. Dunno why, as Leopard Webkit is great on these older machines, and blows Tenfourfox out of the water.
 
J

jhomayne

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 1, 2004
219
0
Ah the signature is a little out-of-date. Apologies.

I tried all the optimisation stuff, but it's still pretty sluggish. I guess my main option would be to try to source some leopard install discs and do a clean install from them?
 
California

California

macrumors 68040
Aug 21, 2004
3,885
90
jhomayne said:
Ah the signature is a little out-of-date. Apologies.

I tried all the optimisation stuff, but it's still pretty sluggish. I guess my main option would be to try to source some leopard install discs and do a clean install from them?
Click to expand...

It sounds like your hard drive is failing. If you are using the original HD, please upgrade. Those OEM 30gig 4200RPM drives were absolute crap.

I have a 80 gig 5400 with Leopard installed if you need a better PATA drive.
 
G

G4TheWin

macrumors member
Dec 8, 2012
61
0
A ditch somewhere
Ariii said:
Or dual-boot :D!
Click to expand...
On a 30 GB drive, I don't think that dual booting is an option. On my computer, just the stock apps, iLife '06, and Office 2004, I have about 10 GB remaining, or not enough to run Linux with a good-sized sharing partition. Plus, no hardware video acceleration.
 
Ariii

Ariii

macrumors 6502a
Jan 26, 2012
681
9
Chicago
G4TheWin said:
On a 30 GB drive, I don't think that dual booting is an option. On my computer, just the stock apps, iLife '06, and Office 2004, I have about 10 GB remaining, or not enough to run Linux with a good-sized sharing partition. Plus, no hardware video acceleration.
Click to expand...

It depends on what the OP needs. Personally, I never needed any more than 5GB for Debian.

Also, there would be plenty of HDD space if the OP did end up switching to Panther.
 
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