Crufty iMac G4 - advice needed

[Tunney]

Hi everyone!

I have a relative with a poorly iMac and wondered if you lot could give some advice. I know the Mac basics but I don't own one myself. I'd rather double check my advice with the experts here before passing it on.

My relative owns a iMac purchased in late 20006. It's a 20" G4 model, like the one in this photo. Sorry, I don't know the exact model number and spec but I beleive that it runs a 1.25Ghz G4 CPU and has 256MB of RAM. Worst case scenerio, as far as I can tell, is that it has a 1Ghz G4 CPU and 128MB of RAM.

The main problem is with iPhoto. There's around 4,000 photos on the HDD and iPhoto has become unuseable. The app constantly hangs and it's impossible to delete photos from it. The Mac also has a weird problem in the mail client where it won't show e-mail folders beyond the basic (inbox, outbox, etc). Generally, all of the iLife apps have become very quirky.

So I think there's three solutions I can use in parallel to get the iMac back on its feet:

1) Buy some more RAM. Apparently I can add a 512MB module quite easily, bringing the total RAM up to 768MB (depending on how much it started with).

2) I could install the latest version of Mac OS X (10.6 aka Leopard?).

3) I could run some system tools like a defragger over the system.

I'm definitely going to do 1+3. Potentially 2 if it's worthwhile. The cheaper the fix, the better.

So the questions I have are:

a) Will the latest version of OSX run sufficiently well on a 1.25Ghz G4 CPU with 768MB of RAM? Are there any Apple programmes which aren't compatible with PowerPC CPUs at the moment?

b) I assume that installing the latest version as an upgrade won't wipe the user files off the HDD?

c) Is the latest version of iPhoto an improvement over the version available two and a half years ago?

d) Does OSX come with system tools like a HDD defragger?

Any other general advice is welcome. No, buying a new iMac is not an option.

Thanks.

 

[Tunney]

No-one? Does everyone on here ditch their iMacs after a year?

 

[Will_3rd]

The main problem is with iPhoto. There's around 4,000 photos on the HDD and iPhoto has become unusable. The app constantly hangs and it's impossible to delete photos from it.

It might have more photos then it can handle, do you know what version it is? Older versions can't handle large libraries well, might be worth splitting them into different libraries per year if you want to get the speed back.

1) Buy some more RAM. Apparently I can add a 512MB module quite easily, bringing the total RAM up to 768MB (depending on how much it started with).

Should be easy, just unscrew the plate at the bottom and stick the SO-DIMM in there. Think it probably will support 1GB max 512 inside the machine and then the slot in the bottom.

2) I could install the latest version of Mac OS X (10.6 aka Leopard?).

10.6 is Snow Leopard and won't work with PowerPC Macs, you should be able to put 10.5 Leopard on it though.

a) Will the latest version of OSX run sufficiently well on a 1.25Ghz G4 CPU with 768MB of RAM? Are there any Apple programmes which aren't compatible with PowerPC CPUs at the moment?

1GB would be better, the CPU would be fine with 10.5. They are phasing out PowerPC support in some apps. But most apps run both on Intel and PowerPC now.

b) I assume that installing the latest version as an upgrade won't wipe the user files off the HDD?

Yep, make a backup though just in case though

c) Is the latest version of iPhoto an improvement over the version available two and a half years ago?

Maybe depends if you want face recognition features and GPS tagging. The version before it is very nice though still.

d) Does OSX come with system tools like a HDD defragger?

Nope.

 

[Tunney]

Cheers, especially for the libraries trick in iPhoto.

I assume that it has Mac OS X 10.3 and iLife '06 installed. Apparently the iMac G4 unofficially supports up to 1GB RAM in each slot so I might give that a go.

 

[Spyhop]

I would backup, chuck in some more RAM ,then do a full format and fresh install of Leopard.

You don't know what state the current install is in, and a fresh install is good for the soul

 

[vidda]

One thing about the PowerPC versions of Macs is that they seemed to be able to handle anything you throw at them without chugging the whole system down to a complete halt unlike the early Intel versions.

Most likely cause of your issues is lack of RAM, even at 256mb (compared to 128mb) having to load 4,000 photos a bit much.

 

[LordSplodge]

a) Will the latest version of OSX run sufficiently well on a 1.25Ghz G4 CPU with 768MB of RAM? Are there any Apple programmes which aren't compatible with PowerPC CPUs at the moment?

b) I assume that installing the latest version as an upgrade won't wipe the user files off the HDD?

c) Is the latest version of iPhoto an improvement over the version available two and a half years ago?

d) Does OSX come with system tools like a HDD defragger?

Any other general advice is welcome. No, buying a new iMac is not an option.

Thanks.

a: 10.5 Leopard will run fine on that machine but you won't be able to go to 10.6 Snow Leopard when it comes out.

b: Better to back up the users files to an external drive and do a Erase and Install as this will result in a lot faster operation.

c: Yes, the newer versions have improved library handling.

d: No as the file system doesn't need defragmentation. However you could run Onyx on the machine but only if you know what you are doing!


I know it isn't an option at the moment but if your relative likes the Mac experience then they should start saving as that Mac is End of Line and won't be able to run any new versions of OS X after Leopard.

Hope it gets sorted.

 

[Will_3rd]

Cool, let us know how you get on.