Help needed in mounting a USB flash drive on a G3 Pismo (OS 9.2.2)

I requested help for this on the Apple support forums, but haven't arrived at a solution yet. So maybe someone here might know the answer.

My system:

G3 Powerbook Pismo, 400MHz, 128Mb RAM, OS 9.2.2

The problem:

When I insert a flash drive (Sandisk Cruzer Mini) into either one of the Powerbook's USB ports, the flash drive won't mount (i.e., won't show up on the Desktop). However, when I check Devices/Volumes, the Powerbook freezes. Removing the flash drive unfreezes the Powerbook. After removing the flash drive, the unfrozen Devices/Volumes lists "Cruzer Mini" next to the USB port. (Reinserting the flash drive after that still doesn't mount it, though).

I've checked to make sure I have all the proper USB extensions enabled. However, I notice that when I have USB Mass Storage 2.1.1 enabled, the Powerbook immediately freezes upon insertion of the flash drive, even though Devices/Volumes isn't being run, and can't be unfrozen by removing the flash drive. I then have to restart the system using the button in the back. USB Mass Storage extension 2.0.9 enabled doesn't create that problem (though the system will still freeze when checking Devices/Volumes). Previous installations of OS 9 don't allow the flash drive to mount, either.

Plugging a mouse into either of the USB ports does work, and the Cruzer Mini does appear on my G4 Ti's Desktop as soon as it's plugged in.

Any suggestions?

motulist said:

a G3 Pismo can probably run OS X 10.3.9 in a usable fashion. So unless you need OS 9 for something that can't be done in OS X, then I recommend that you upgrade to OS X. That way you won't have all these technical hurdles that must be happening all the time on that machine.

Click to expand...

Would 256 Mb RAM be sufficient for OS X, or should I get a lot more? I've got an extra 128 Mb card lying around, which I was going to add to the machine (to bring it up to 256).