Powerbook g3 with Jaguar

[macstudent]

Hi, I have a powerbook g3 233mhz with 160MB RAM. I have had os 9.2.2 on it for awhile and was bored today so I decided to install jaguar to see how it would perform. I did a clean new install. After installing x.2 the screen would get really choppy and look like there was a constant kernal panic going on. But i was able to naviagate to the software update to install the combo upgrade to x.2.3 and everything seemed fine after installing it.

But I have noticed a rather large problem. About half of the time when the computer boots into the GUI the entire screen goes dark and there is nothing I can do. Does anyone have any experience with this problem and know of a workaround?


Thanks in advance

Fritz

(for the curious, when the screen is readable I was quite impressed with the speed. Photoshop 7 was actually usable on a 233mhz with X.2.3!)

 

[FattyMembrane]

i don't think that the origional powerbook g3 is officially compatible with mac os x. look for "xpostfacto" on versiontracker. this utility will help you install osx on unsupported machines with a minimum of problems. you may want to do another clean install with xpostfacto. make sure that you read all of xpostfacto's documentation before using it.

 

[macstudent]

This powerbook is offically supported. It is the bottom of the heap for support, therefore who knows how well it will work. I will check out the information you gave me.

thanks again

 

[Gus]

Hmmm.. Because you have enough RAM, I wonder if it is a video card problem. Your machine is actually the Rev. A Powerbook G3 (The original, otherwise known as "Kanga" was a 250 Mhz machine that was basically the 3400 enclosure), and CAN run OS X. I wonder if it is a video card issue. I was looking for the card that was included with that machine and all I could find was that it allowed 24-bit color at 1024X768, which means it should be compatable, but who knows. Have you checked the Apple Support Discussions? Maybe another clean install of X? What size hard drive do you have, and do you have partitions?

Regards,
Gus

 

[AmbitiousLemon]

i think he has a wallstreet not a kanga.

the wallstreet is fully supported. the kanga is not.

he should not have any problems with osx on the wallstreet.

potencial problems i could see is a bad install (fix would be zero all data and re-install) or not enough hard drive space (since you dont have very much ram, the os will use hard disk space for ram. if there is not enough space then problems can occur).

also of note after installing osx on any machine you should boot up from the install disk again. switch from the installer to the disk utility (in the menubar) and repair permissions.

 

[macstudent]

It is a wallstreet with 160mb Ram and a 2.0GB HD. I did a clean install, but I will try repairing the permissions to see if that helps at all.

thanks again

 

[Gus]

Sorry if I wasn't clear before, I was actually confirming that he had a WS, not the Kanga. Thanks, though Lemon.

Regards,
Gus

 

[FattyMembrane]

well, since it is a supported machine, i would check to make sure that you have the latest firmware update. there was a problem with g3 imacs in jaguar that did not have the latest firmware whose symptoms sounded similar to your problem. also, run the hardware diagnostic cd. as the others said, it may be a graphic card issue, in which case i would recomend searching the archives at http://www.xlr8yourmac.com as i seem to remember a few comments on enabling support for graphics cards in older powerbooks.

good luck.

 

[AmbitiousLemon]

i would be most concerned about the hard drive. I forgot those came with only 2GB. A standard install of Jaguar takes 1.9GB. OSX seems to run into problems when operating with very little free drive space, and the problme is exacerbated by low RAM levels. The problem furthermore seems to be even greater in 10.2.3 since there seems to be a bug people encounter from time to time that begins halving your drive space.

Although it can not be certain, I would guess that perhaps all you need is to upgrade your hard drive. Not a bad idea anyway considering ide hard drives only have an expected life span of ~3years.

 

[Gus]

Yeah, I agree with Ambitious Lemon, in fact that theory is where I was heading earlier with the questions about your HD and partitions, etc. I think a new, larger HD will fix the problem. I THINK. ;-P

Regards,
Gus