I'm looking at this as a way to keep this machine operational for at least a couple more years before buying a new one. I guess what I wanted was servicable use of OSX on this machine. With the HD upgrade, new RAM, and OSX and $50 for service (and a MS Office for OSX) I'm at about $300 which is still cheaper than a new used machine with all I have on this one (I'm at a university so I get education discounts on some stuff). I only *dabble* in graphics and media applications so I can deal with pokiness. I originally bought this G3 (which, incidentally, is an AV G3) because I was doing a bit of video-editing work in graduate school but I'm not doing so much now. I tried to buy as upgradeable a machine as possible because my ill-informed purchase of an LC Performa a couple of years earlier had left me with an obsolete machine within 18 months. That this machine can still do basically what I need it to do five years later is great! For what it can't do I can supplement it with my kids' iMac for the time being.
Which brings me to where I am now. I got the machine back from the *tech* guy and it has the new drive and OSX.2 on it. I upgraded to 10.2.3 and I'm writing on it right now. I'm still feeling my way around 10 and I miss my familiarity with 9 but I haven't noticed any speed problems. I may find the answers I need as I poke around on the system and in the David Pogue book, but right now the most troubling thing is that the old drive (the original 8GB drive which I had left in as a slave drive) does not always mount a desktop image in OSX. As far as I can tell, the guy at the shop partitioned my drive and put all my old OS9 stuff in the second partition. All that seems to be on the old drive is OS 9 (and it looks like 9.0). When I try to boot into that drive I get a "please initialize disk" message. When I click cancel it lets me in anyway to the disk with 9.0. When I gave it to the guy it had 9.2.2 on it. In fact when I boot into 9 on the new drive it is also an older version. So I have three maybe unrelated problems: 1.) Where is the old drive sometimes? 2.) Why does the old drive keep asking to be initialized? 3.) Why didn't this guy put a more updated version of 9 on my new (or my old) drive? Should I do it? Then there's the problem I think is just a matter of my not understanding OSX yet where I can't get at any SimpleText documents that were created in 9 while I'm in X. I get a "no application" message. Also access to a lot of my program software seems to have disappeared (I get a text file instead of the application) when I try to access it through the Classic mode. (And just as a P.S. the tech guy misspelled my name when he named "home" in OSX and I can't find how to change it and as far as I can tell from the Missing Manual book I shouldn't change it -- which bothers me. I changed the 'user' name but it didn't change the "short name" and subsequently the "home" windows open with my name misspelled in the window frame). Anastasia Coles -----Original Message----- From: Winsor Crosby To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 1/20/2003 12:56 PM Subject: Re: Beige G3 Upgrade Advice On Monday, January 20, 2003, at 03:25 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > In a message dated 1/6/03 2:34:39 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > >>> "Coles, Anastasia" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >>> >>>> I have not been able to find anybody in my town (Lubbock, Texas) >>>> who knows enough about Macs to do an upgrade on my Beige G3. I >>>> don't feel like I have enough knowledge to do it myself. >> ... >>>> Does anyone have any advice about how to find technicians in the >>>> boondocks (I can't find them via the web) that I don't know about? >>>> Or do I need to find out how to do it myself? >> I just gave away my upgraded beige G3. There are some things to consider. I did my own upgrades and saved money that way. But on an old computer, everything contributes to slowness. Consider the cost of the new processor, new video card, a USB/Firewire card, new hard disk that is bigger and faster and maxing out the memory. And all that is connected to a slow system bus. If you count what you may be able get for your old Mac the upgrades may be more expensive than new. That is not counting the cost if you hire a tech. It will still lag way behind the cheapest new Mac. I did it as a transition and gradually replaced my old SCSI/serial port peripherals with newer, way better stuff. So why did I dump it? It was still too slow for what I wanted to do with film images. It was too slow for OS X. No one is making new software for OS9. The latest OS9 versions from Apple cause a lot of problems with older apps, but many of the newer apps will not work without the latest OS9. Catch 22. If I had it to do over again I would not bother. I was way more trouble than it was worth. I learned way more about extension conflicts than I ever wanted to know. The technician that upgrades your hardware will not be around for those. So get an Apple loan and buy a new Mac. If you pay it off in 6 months you don't pay any interest. Just my 2 cents. -- G-List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- We have Apple Refurbished Monitors in stock! | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> G-List list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/g-list%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com -- G-List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... 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