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Leopard installation on a PowerBook G4?

Changepoint

Changepoint

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 15, 2008
83
0
My wife recently purchased a new Mac Book and it came with a OS X 10.5 installation CD which I promptly slotted in my old PowerBook G4 1GHz laptop hoping to get some free Leopard action. After it restarted the PB to begin the installation process, nothing happened, just a lot of CD drive reading noises and the beach-ball timer on a blank screen. I had to power-down the computer and eject the disc to restore the PB to normal.

Was I hoping for too much? I tried a clean install (hold C down when powering up) but the same happened, nothing. I know you can't jump from 10.3 to 10.5 but surely with a clean install anything is possible?
 
Changepoint said:
My wife recently purchased a new Mac Book and it came with a OS X 10.5 installation CD which I promptly slotted in my old PowerBook G4 1GHz laptop hoping to get some free Leopard action. After it restarted the PB to begin the installation process, nothing happened, just a lot of CD drive reading noises and the beach-ball timer on a blank screen. I had to power-down the computer and eject the disc to restore the PB to normal.

Was I hoping for too much? I tried a clean install (hold C down when powering up) but the same happened, nothing. I know you can't jump from 10.3 to 10.5 but surely with a clean install anything is possible?
Click to expand...

1. Installation DVD will not allow you to do so.

2. You may not have a DVD drive in your G4. The installation disk is a DVD not CD.

3. May be this thread is useful: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/597682/
 
dubhe said:
1 GHz, 768 MB RAM, 80 GB HDD
Click to expand...

That explains it then. I am running 1.33Ghz and 1.25GB RAM - and it's fine. Under 1GB RAM for 10.5 is going to be a big ask, I think.

Tiger's fine anyway - I just can't deal with inconsistency.
 
Leopard runs tip-top on my (well, not mine anymore. I gave it to a friend) PB 1.67GHz w/ 1.5GB RAM.
 
Changepoint said:
My wife recently purchased a new Mac Book and it came with a OS X 10.5 installation CD which I promptly slotted in my old PowerBook G4 1GHz laptop hoping to get some free Leopard action. After it restarted the PB to begin the installation process, nothing happened, just a lot of CD drive reading noises and the beach-ball timer on a blank screen. I had to power-down the computer and eject the disc to restore the PB to normal.

Was I hoping for too much? I tried a clean install (hold C down when powering up) but the same happened, nothing. I know you can't jump from 10.3 to 10.5 but surely with a clean install anything is possible?
Click to expand...

The point isn't about whether or not your PB can run Leopard or not; you can't use the Restore DVD for a MacBook on your PowerBook. Because the Restore DVD is a restore and not an installation disk, it can only work for a specific model.
 
alphaod said:
The point isn't about whether or not your PB can run Leopard or not; you can't use the Restore DVD for a MacBook on your PowerBook. Because the Restore DVD is a restore and not an installation disk, it can only work for a specific model.
Click to expand...

I should have known it would be too good to be true. i guess I should look for a copy of tiger on ebay, seems like my 256 mb of ram would find Leopard a strain.....
 
Changepoint said:
seems like my 256 mb of ram would find Leopard a strain.....
Click to expand...

Although you need 512mb to install leopard, you don't actually need that to run it.
I'm pretty sure, It will run on 256mb of ram (I ran it with 384mb), but its going to be s.....l......o.....w......!......!
Max out the ram if at all possible and It'll run relatively well on a powerbook.

(once you've bought a copy that is. ;))
 
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