Upgrading iMac - anything I should know?

[sluthy]

Hey, I've got my iMac G3 500 slot loader running 10.2.6, and I'm about to upgrade it to Panther. Is there anything I should know?

I have 128MB of Apple-supplied RAM and 512MB of generic RAM - is there any chance that generic RAM might disappear? Can I stop it in any way? Remove it, install Panther, put it back in?

I've got a SMB link to an XP machine, accessing a couple of shared folders. Will I still keep this?

I just want to install it, because of the speed increase and the fixing of printing (my Lexmark X86 is a nightmare right now, only connects every third time at best).

Speaking of speed increase, where can I get XBench? Test it pre- and post-10.3.

EDIT: Found a copy of XBench 1.0 on my HD, my score pre-10.3 is 37.83. Any good?

 

[dudeami]

You really shouldn't have any problems, as long as you haven't been messing with the system files. I have in iMac in our lab, that has had all sorts of software installed, tested, sometimes removed, sometimes not. Anyway on top of that, it has been upgraded from 9.1 through 9.22 to 10.1 through 10.1.5 to 10.2 through 10.2.8 to 10.3 through 10.3.3 over the last five years so and has never had a "clean install" of the OS since the day it arrived in our lab. It has never had a problem during an OS upgrade. It has a "generic" RAM chip too, if the system is already detecting it, it will be fine to leave it in during the upgrade.

Xbench 1.1.3 can be found at http://www.xbench.com you can also compare your score with other machines, by default on the comparison site you will initially only see other scores from people who have test using 1.1.3.

Anyway, if you like Xbench, personally I think it is a great tool, please feel free to donate (I think there is information at that website). That guy is losing money every month. If it keeps up, I don't see why he would be motivated to continue development of this app. It seems to me he is paying money out of his own pocket every month just to let people compare their results. Which, I think the comparison site is one of the great benefits of Xbench.

 

[sluthy]

It has a "generic" RAM chip too, if the system is already detecting it, it will be fine to leave it in during the upgrade.

It's just that there's been other threads all about Panther not accepting some RAM chips and not detecting them (or maybe it was that Open Firmware 4.1.9 install). I was worried because 80% of my RAM is generic

 

[blue&whiteman]

i'm sure the ram issue won't be one. panther will run well on 640MB. enjoy panther, I sure do.

 

[sluthy]

Computer rooted

Well, I tried to install Panther, and it told me I had to update my firmware. Gulp, I knew this would happen eventually. Oh well, so I rebooted into OS 9 and updated the firmware. The little bar came up and finished, it spat the Jaguar disc out (I got the update off it - wasn't on the Panther disc), and restarted. Sort of. The screen went black, it made the startup chime, then - nothing. No screen, no USB lights, nothing. Uh-oh. I wait five minutes and press reset. Chime, still nothing. Arse. I hold down power for five seconds, power off, and power back on. Still nothing. It ain't coming on. Now what? Is it a goner, or is there hope?

 

[dudeami]

The firmware update from the Jaguar CD should have been 4.1.9. It sounds like it is waiting for you to complete this next step. Give it a try.
---
Follow the onscreen instructions. When prompted, click Shut Down in the dialog box to shut down your iMac.

3. Locate the programmer's button on the side of the iMac, to the right of the reset button. Press and
hold in the programmer's button. You may need to use a pen or a straightened paper clip.


4. While you hold in the programmer's button, press the Power button to start up your iMac.

5. Continue to hold in the programmer's button until you hear a long tone.
Release the programmer's button when you hear the tone. The update starts automatically.

A status bar shows the progress of the update. When a message says your computer's firmware has been successfully updated to version 4.1.9, you are finished.
-----
Just in case you not sure, the programmer's button is the little button on the right closer to the usb ports.

Here is a link.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75130#English

 

[Horrortaxi]

The firmware update didn't do anything "funny" did it? Funny like stop in the middle? Do you have a button you have to press during firmware update on that model? If so, did you press it?

When something strange happens I zap the PRAM (hold command, option, p, r while booting and let it gong 3 times) and reset the firmware (hold command, option, o, f while booting, then type reset-nvram followed by reset-all). That hasn't failed yet.

 

[sluthy]

The firmware update didn't do anything "funny" did it? Funny like stop in the middle? Do you have a button you have to press during firmware update on that model? If so, did you press it?

The firmware update from the Jaguar CD should have been 4.1.9. It sounds like it is waiting for you to complete this next step. Give it a try.
...
A status bar shows the progress of the update. When a message says your computer's firmware has been successfully updated to version 4.1.9, you are finished.

The update was 4.1.9. No, it didn't stop, the bar came up and went right through uninterrupted, spat the CD out and restarted. Nothing came up after restart, it just went blank. No message. And I CAN'T rest PRAM or go into Open Firmware, because they require keyboard entries, and the computer doesn't even get to the stage of turning USB on! (I'm using the black Pro keyboard, the one without the power button)

 

[dudeami]

I don't think it actually flashes the firmware during the first pass when you run the update on that model. You have to hold down the programmer button until you hear the long beep, after the first part of the firmware update has run and the machine has rebooted. If you have never held down the programmers button with a pen or paperclip during the boot up, then you still must complete this. The program button is on the side of the machine by the usb ports, not on the keyboard.

Have you held down the programmer's button on the back right side of the iMac yet during the boot up, until you hear a long tone?

After you hold down the programmer's button on the back right side of the iMac by all the other ports, like usb, ehternet, modem until you here the long tone, then you can let go of the programmer's button, and on the black screen you will see a little window come up with a progress bar, this will indicate the actual progress of flashing the firmware. After that completes it should reboot again, and be usable. Are you sure you have completed flashing the firmware?

 

[sluthy]

I don't think it actually flashes the firmware during the first pass when you run the update on that model. You have to hold down the programmer button until you hear the long beep, after the first part of the firmware update has run and the machine has rebooted. If you have never held down the programmers button with a pen or paperclip during the boot up, then you still must complete this. The program button is on the side of the machine by the usb ports, not on the keyboard.

Have you held down the programmer's button on the back right side of the iMac yet during the boot up, until you hear a long tone?

After you hold down the programmer's button on the back right side of the iMac by all the other ports, like usb, ehternet, modem until you here the long tone, then you can let go of the programmer's button, and on the black screen you will see a little window come up with a progress bar, this will indicate the actual progress of flashing the firmware. After that completes it should reboot again, and be usable. Are you sure you have completed flashing the firmware?

Yes, I said that. I started the program, and it gave me the instructions and told me to reboot with the button in. I did that, and the long tone came on and I let go after it finished. The progress bar came up and finished, and it went to reboot, the startup chime sounded, and then nothing.

 

[sluthy]

All better

That's funny - I woke up this morning and started it, and it worked fine! Straight into OS 9 and it told "Your iMac's firmware has been succesfully updated to 4.1.9f1!" Phew. I don't know what caused it, but it's fine now. And my RAM is still there so far, so I'll give Panther another go. Thanks guys.

 

[sluthy]

Running Panther

Well, I'm now running Panther fine. Most of my settings stayed right, so I'm hapy. And my RAM didn't disappear.

I ran an XBench before and after, and my score actually went down a point. Some stuff, like circle graphics, went up a lot, but text scrolling and writing went WAY down... Even typing this started out a lot jerkier than earlier. I'll try again after a shutdown and reboot.

 

[dudeami]

Sluthy,

Glad to hear the everything ended up Ok. Sorry to hear that the GUI isn't "snapping" for you. The GUI typically much faster in Panther then its was in Jaguar. You may want to run through some of the maintenance routines, like running your daily, weekly, and monthly maintenance scripts, and running the repair permissions with the disk utility.