No Software problem.

[maxhammad]



Heylooo,

I've got a Powermac g4 that my neighbor gave me. When i start it up, it shows the deadly flashing finder/question mark thing, just sitting there mocckiing me. I tried holding down the certain startup button and none of them worked. I put in leopard, and it can't install but i was able to view some stuff about the computer but nothing important. I want to put panther on it because that's what the neighbor said was on it. Do i have to have the install disk that came with it, or can I just buy a version of panther? How do I install panther once i get ahold of whichever one will work?

another thought i had was,
Can I put OS9 on it???



 

[Jethryn Freyman]

You either need an OS X disc or the discs that came with that specific model computer.

Depending on the exact model, you may be able to install OS 9.

I *think* the light grey models are OS X only, and the ones with dark blue fronts with pinstripes are OS 9/X.

 

[dolphin842]

Some of the gray ones could boot OS 9, some couldn't (the cutoff date was somewhere around early 2003).

If you can find an install disk for your model (or even one approximately close to it time-wise), you should be able to do a full install with all the included software (even still, some system disks did not include iDVD because the Mac they came with did not have a DVD burner, so caveat emptor!). The best bet is to find a retail disc of Panther to install, but you will miss out on several of the iApps (iPhoto, iMovie, etc). You'd have to track down an iLife disc to get those. Keep in mind you could also run Tiger (10.4) as well; in fact I'd recommend it because it will help with software compatibility (lots of modern programs require at least 10.4).