Update a Power PC 6500??

[brobson]

I am visiting my in-laws for Christmas.
My father in law is wanting to update his Power PC 6500.
I suggested upgrading from OS 8.5 to at least classic 9.2. (One thing that bothers him is that he used to have a timer on his control strip that showed how long he had been on the computer and he could shut it off from the control strip. Not a big deal but it aggrivates him that it has disappeared after a friend worked on it)
What do you all suggest?
Would this computer hold Mac OSX? He doesn't do any high tech applications but it seems inevitable that he will need to go that route sometime.

It is 275MHz with 6GB (only 18%) is being used and it is in good condition.

I don't want to do anything too radical because he is used to this machine but it is giving him trouble.

Please reply soon so I can do this in the short time I am here. He lives in a very small town in NE and there are not too many Mac support places here.
I suggested Best Buy in Lincoln would do it but if it is just a matter of downloading, I think I could handle that.

Thanks!!,
And Merry Christmas Eve!
Brenda

[CanadaRAM]

The OSX upgrade for a 6500 is called an eMac. Seriously, I wouldn't sink any time or money into this machine. It is not a candidate for OS X.

Apple's word: "Mac OS X 10.3 requires a Macintosh with a PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 processor, built-in USB, at least 128MB of physical RAM"

The upgrade to 9.x is a purchased upgrade, not downloadable. You'll have to buy it off eBay or somewhere. The 6500 does not support 9.2.x without a hack, only 9.1 Any improvements OS 8.5 to 9.1 will be marginal.

The best you can do is to make sure F-I-L's machine has the maximum 128 Mb RAM (2x64 Mb 5 Volt EDO 168 pin DRAM DIMMs, *not* PC66 DIMMs), tidy up his extensions and control panels and run DiskWarrior on it.

I spent a ton of time and cash upgrading a 7200 for my wife with a G3 accelerator card, RAM, hard drive, etc. and it still didn't work well enough for her, even just for Web browsing - slow and buggy. Shoulda cut my losses earlier, especially now a new 1 GHz G4 machine with DVD-ROM/CD-RW, OS X and 17" monitor is less than CAN$1000 (and $799 for a demo unit).

Thanks
Trevor
CanadaRAM.com

[cluthz]

It's possible to run OSX 10.1 on it (with some effort), but it will run slow (very slow...)
You probably need to upgrade the memory too (atleast 256mb to make osx usable at all).

It will not run anything never than 9.1 without using some third party apps to help installing.

There is a app called OS9 helper, it will help you install os 9.2 on it.

9.2 will run great on it.

[brobson]

Thanks Guys, you've been a great help as usual!
Brenda