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dwhitak1

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 20, 2011
5
0
I just got this ibook today, and I was wanting to delete the previous owner but I cannot get the system pref app to work. It was not in the apps folder either. I reinstalled the combo 10.5.6 update and still nothing, all it does now is when I go to system pref from the apple icon it goes to the dash board, also the icon is not the gear box, it looks like a compass and pencil. This is my first mac, I just got it to play with, everything else works..and I have no restore disks..Any ideas??? Thanks in advance.
 
The Compass with a pencil icon you're talking about is the default application icon (like when an app doesn't have it's own icon, it uses this by default) so it's a bit odd that it's using that. If the system preferences aren't there then the combo update will do nothing to restore as it's an application. I've attached my System Preferences.app which may or may not work. I'm running Tiger so I doubt my system prefs app will work on your iBook.

On a side note. I highly recommend downgrading the OS to OS X Tiger (10.4) because iBook G4's do not run it well. I have the last iBook model they made (mid-late 2005 model) and the GUI is nowhere near fluid, and you can only open about 3 apps before Leopard slows down. Tiger runs fluidly and snappily even with 10+ apps running at once because it was designed for these computers.

Happy computing! :apple:
 

Attachments

  • System Preferences.app.zip
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Thanks..but as expected your system pref wouldn't run on mine. Is it complicated to downgrade...just get the full install dvd and go? It is a little cheaper than leopard..also how fast is your processor and how much ram do you have?
 
Tiger will be cheaper than Leopard for sure (but in some cases not by much). For me I have a mid 2005 iBook G4 at 1.33ghz and 1.5 gigs of ram. You should also take into account that some iBook G4's didn't have superdrives or combo drives (meaning they couldn't read DVD's) so you would need to find the CD set instead of the DVD version of Tiger. It's the same software but it's bootable on Mac's without DVD capabilities. I think Nameci seems more than happy to help you with the installation :)
 
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