help,im a noob

[mblvshj]

hello, i am new to the mac world,trying to slowly merge from windows

i just recently purchased four g3 imacs for 50 dollars ranging from 400 mhz to 600 mhz

only problem is that they did not come with any hardware(ie hard drive, ram, power cord, keyboard and mouse)

so i got everything needed(including a os(os9))

i turn on the mac hear the chime and then see a folder flashing from a ? to the mac face(i expect it cant find the os)

so after some reading i have saw that i need to press c to boot from cd...this is my delima

ive tried three diffrent keyboards (kensington, acer, logitech) and none of them seem to work, i expect the usb to be in working condition since the optical mouse i plug in does show signs of life

i cant understand if its because the g3 imacs use usb 1.1 and i just so happen have snagged 3 usb 2.0 keyboards or what

sorry for any spelling errors, just excited and hoping to get a mac os9 system up and going tonight

 

[BlueRevolution]

USB 2.0 should be fully compatible with USB 1.1, albeit at a slower speed. For keyboards, that's not an issue.

Try holding down the option (alt) key instead. It's possible that the CD isn't being recognized for some reason.

 

[mblvshj]

USB 2.0 should be fully compatible with USB 1.1, albeit at a slower speed. For keyboards, that's not an issue.

Try holding down the option (alt) key instead. It's possible that the CD isn't being recognized for some reason.

ok first off id like to thank you for your help

now after i pressed alt a screen popped up with 2 arrows on pointing right and another like the refresh button in firefox


if i press the one pointing right it just sits there, if i press the one that looks like a refresh button it loads the same screen again


anything else by any chance?

 

[Consultant]

There are almost no usb 2.0 keyboards.
They are usually listed as "usb 2.0 compatible" but only usb 1, because keyboard don't transmit that much data.

I suspect the system disk you got is probably for different machines and not compatible with the imacs. That's why you don't see anything on the arrow, refresh screen which would normally show any bootable volumes.

OS9 is about 10 years old and is not the right thing to start off with in this day and age.
You should get OSX, probably 10.2, 10.3, or 10.4 for your machine.

 

[mblvshj]

There are almost no usb 2.0 keyboards.
They are usually listed as "usb 2.0 compatible" but only usb 1, because keyboard don't transmit that much data.

I suspect the system disk you got is probably for different machines and not compatible with the imacs. That's why you don't see anything on the arrow, refresh screen which would normally show any bootable volumes.

OS9 is about 10 years old and is not the right thing to start off with in this day and age.
You should get OSX, probably 10.2, 10.3, or 10.4 for your machine.

well ive also tried yellow dog linux and it does the same thing, as far as osx 10.2 up, from my understanding it needs a firmware upgrade for the imac's i have

could it be i need to freshly format the hd? it had linux on it, or will os9 and osx see the partition and properly format it?

 

[Consultant]

A proper system install disk would allow you to boot from the optical drive and format the internal harddrive.

Are you successful at booting from optical?

everymac.com to see if your model have any limitations.

 

[BlueRevolution]

I ran 10.4 on my 500 MHz G3/320 MB iBook. It worked, albeit sluggishly. The 600 MHz ought to be able to handle 10.4, given enough memory, but the 400s should probably stay at 10.3. They should all be able to run OS X, though.

 

[mblvshj]

well i got it to show the mac 9 disk...i guess the cd drive is no good in one of them, i press alt then it loads and it says mac os 9 on the same screen, but when i press the arrow pointing right it just reloads the screen

i had a friend stop by who has a osx 10.2 disks and it does the same thing