Major Prob...

[NightrainSrt4]

Ok...i just got an iMac on a routine trip to the town disposal. Theres always a pallet on the ground in which people come and dump there old computers, or just ones they do not want. The other day i went and saw this lil teal and white thing wrapped up in bubble wrap...yeah bubble wrap...normally there all trashed or just seemingly thrown there, but this one was all wrapped up so i figured the person prob took car of it. So i take the iMac home plug it in (everything was there...power cord, keyboard mouse) but alas there wasnt any CD's with it. I turn it on and it runs very well. But it is running os 8.6. Normally this wouldnt be an issue...i would just update all the firmware and use a copy of os x to make it almost like a new computer (slow i know cuz its older and doesnt have much ram or anything...its only the 333Mhz). but i cant seem to get onto the internet. My family has cable...running into a D-link router i believe...they screwed up the wireless so i ran a lan cord up to my room and used a linksys 5 port switch to run cat6 cables to all 3 of my computers. i went out and bought a new cable for the mac...because it does have the ethernet port on the side by the usb ports adn phone line port. but i plug the cable into the switch adn the iMac but it doesnt work...the light on my switch doesnt even begin to recognise it...no lights nothing...i read somewhere that sometimes you have to use a crossover cable to get some to work...cant find the link (said for direct to router...but i fig id try it with the swich) but nope...nothing...i dont know what to do...i dont have the money to buy a mac...i found this one and fig id try it...i like the simplicity of all of them...used them in high school all the time...anyone have any ideas of what to do

i also wanted to reinstall a fresh version of os 8.5 or 8.6 but i dont have the cds and cant find any anywhere...ahhhh......i have a few distros of linux...from conventions and such...but they dont work...ive tried holding c at startup but that doesnt seem to do nething...doesnt boot anything ive tried...if all else fails i might try yellow dog linux on it cuz i read that it can run on macs...at least that may give me an option or something...Any help plz???????????

 

[CanadaRAM]

Welcome to MR

No, we're not going to talk about where to download OS8. Ebay, and buy some used disks.

Could it be that the machine was dumped because its Ethernet interface had failed? Pretty impossible to troubleshoot it from here if the hub is not indicating a valid Ethernet connection to the machine.

You don't need a crossover cable to plug into a hub.

Hint: Make your Thread titles relevant to the question you're asking, and you will get better responses. This is the 2,193'd post entitled "Help" or "Problem"

 

[NightrainSrt4]

Is there a way i can change the title of my post???i edited out the other part but i dont know how to change the title...

And You cant go backwards can you...cuz the apple site has a version of 7 for download...but i dont know how to get it from my pc to the mac...thats assuming i can install version 7 on a machine that already has a higher version on it

 

[dpaanlka]

And You cant go backwards can you...cuz the apple site has a version of 7 for download...but i dont know how to get it from my pc to the mac...thats assuming i can install version 7 on a machine that already has a higher version on it

No, you cannot go back as far as OS 7. Possible OS 8.1, but you'd best stick with 8.6 or 9.2.2. There is no free Mac OS version for that machine, sadly. Join those of us who want Apple to do so, and send them an email calling for the release of all the classic OS versions.

 

[SpaceMagic]

From my own experience, tray loading iMacs had many problems with the ethernet board. I had to use a Belkin USB wireless dongle to connect to any network.

OS 8 cannot be downloaded legally, but picked up off eBay for next to nothing.