Hello, my name is Joseph, and I am writing this on an iBook G4. The serial number is 4H6182DQSE7. I received this from a university professor who was on her way to throw this laptop out, due to it being old and such. There is a locked teacher account and a student account. She nor I know the password for the teacher account, so I am stuck writing this on the student account. I am unable to make changes to the system preferences, install google chrome, or update plugins on mozilla firefox. I presume this is due to a lack in administrator privileges. I would like to update this laptop as far as possible, so I can stream videos and such. My only guess to do this is to factory reset the laptop. Can you help me with this? I have tried restarting the laptop holding the apple + S keys, but it boots up normally without going to command prompt. I am wondering what to do. I want to get this to work without getting a new OS X dvd. Thank you very much.
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I need help with my iBook G4
- Thread starter JohSef
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You are under several misconceptions about what you have. You have an iBook (per your thread title), not a MacBook. That means you have a PowerPC processor and not an Intel processor. There is a difference as Apple switched to Intel processors in 2006.
I'm going to guess here that you thought you were getting an Intel Mac (a modern Mac) and are expecting to be able to run current apps. You can't. This is a PowerPC Mac.
If that's a deal breaker for you because it's not what you thought it was then you might want to sell it.
You cannot install Google Chrome. Google Chrome requires an Intel processor. You have an iBook that has a PowerPC processor.
The last version of Firefox compatible with PowerPC Macs is Firefox 3.6. Even if you could update plugins it wouldn't get you very far with that old a version. If you want a more modern browser you can try TenFourFox.
In the case of Chrome, it's because you have a PowerPC Mac and not an Intel Mac.
The farthest you can go is OS X 10.5.8 Leopard. Snow Leopard, Lion, Mountain Lion and Mavericks are Intel Mac only. Leopard retail disks can be found on the used market for about $100.
Do not expect to do any kind of video streaming with a PowerPC Mac like you can with an Intel Mac or a PC. The youngest PowerPC Mac is eight years old.
Buy a Leopard or Tiger retail disk, boot from it, wipe the drive and install the new OS.
This is single user mode. And what do you mean by command prompt?
If you have an old OS X DVD, Leopard or older, but no older than Panther then that should work. Again, this Mac cannot run anything newer than 10.5.8 Leopard.
I'm going to guess here that you thought you were getting an Intel Mac (a modern Mac) and are expecting to be able to run current apps. You can't. This is a PowerPC Mac.
If that's a deal breaker for you because it's not what you thought it was then you might want to sell it.
I assume this is what the OP wants when he says holding command-S down does not turn up to a command prompt.
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@eyoungren
I found that to be a rather unfriendly and cold reply to my thread. I have never owned a mac before, and instead of helping me, you just pointed out any technical mistake I made. [Even if you understood what I said] I said I wanted to see if its possible to factory reset this machine in order to gain the administrative privileges that I currently don't have. It would be extremely preferable if I didn't have to spend any money on this process. If anyone could kindly point me in that direction, that would be great.
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Yes sir, that is correct. I hold command and 's' keys, and instead of opening up in the special mode, it starts up normally. Am I doing something wrong?
I found that to be a rather unfriendly and cold reply to my thread. I have never owned a mac before, and instead of helping me, you just pointed out any technical mistake I made. [Even if you understood what I said] I said I wanted to see if its possible to factory reset this machine in order to gain the administrative privileges that I currently don't have. It would be extremely preferable if I didn't have to spend any money on this process. If anyone could kindly point me in that direction, that would be great.
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Yes sir, that is correct. I hold command and 's' keys, and instead of opening up in the special mode, it starts up normally. Am I doing something wrong?
He was being very helpful, everything he said is exactly what I would have said had he not gotten to it first. If we didn't point out technical mistakes, this forum would be pointless. One must understand the PowerPC architecture decent enough if planning to use it often. So things like video streaming and whatnot will be pretty much worthless. Erik here was helping you understand. Give him credit for that. Welcome anywho. Unfortunately I have had no luck using the command prompt alternative myself. All this really does if I understand is deletes all accounts and creates a new administrator. The best way to restore your system to factory defaults is to buy new Tiger or Leopard DVDs, which of course will cost money.
I already explained how to reinstall the OS. You can use a Leopard or Tiger install disk. If you do not have one, you will have to obtain one.
If all you have is a Snow Leopard disk or higher then you will not be able to install the OS.
My apologies if you thought I was being rude. I'm not. But what am I supposed to think when one of your questions assumes that you actually can install Google Chrome, versus asking if you can install Google Chrome? Generally, anyone making those kinds of assumptions is totally unaware of the difference between PowerPC and Intel Macs and is very disappointed with US for pointing it out.
If all you have is a Snow Leopard disk or higher then you will not be able to install the OS.
My apologies if you thought I was being rude. I'm not. But what am I supposed to think when one of your questions assumes that you actually can install Google Chrome, versus asking if you can install Google Chrome? Generally, anyone making those kinds of assumptions is totally unaware of the difference between PowerPC and Intel Macs and is very disappointed with US for pointing it out.
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You are going to need a Leopard or Tiger disk to reload the OS. You must use a retail copy and not a machine specific disk. You can tell what one is by whether they are grey or not. If they are grey stay away.
Once you get it all reloaded, you will probably need some software. Some software I recommend for Leopard users is in the list below.
Dropbox
iTunes 10.6.3
Office 2004 or 2008
iLife 06
Adobe CS2
iWork 09
Spotify 0.6.6.10
and some other titles. Check out Gavin Stubb's PowerPC Archive in his signature. There are some great titles in there.
As for a Leopard disk, there is one going cheaply here.
Hello,
You'd be surprised how relatively affordable a retail copy of OS X like Tiger (10.4) or Leopard (10.5) is on eBay. Also, having a copy of the OS is very handy in case you'd like to clean your hard drive again or acquire an older MacBook Pro later in the future.
I'm new to Macs myself and also have an iBook G4. I found these lil machines to be very relevant and useful, even for today's standards, albeit it's a lil slower than most computers, it gets the job done.
Welcome aboard!
You'd be surprised how relatively affordable a retail copy of OS X like Tiger (10.4) or Leopard (10.5) is on eBay. Also, having a copy of the OS is very handy in case you'd like to clean your hard drive again or acquire an older MacBook Pro later in the future.
I'm new to Macs myself and also have an iBook G4. I found these lil machines to be very relevant and useful, even for today's standards, albeit it's a lil slower than most computers, it gets the job done.
Welcome aboard!
Ironically, Leopard is usually quite expensive on eBay. That is why I suggested the link but I am not sure if OP took advantage of it.
