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General discussion

iMac PowerPC G4

Mar 6, 2012 10:54AM PST

I have an iMac desktop computer that has a 800 MHz PowerPC G4 processor in it with 1 GB SDRAM. When scrolling through websites the scrolling is not smooth at all, it it takes a second or 2 to actually scroll. Im thinking it might be in the software, but the processor on this computer is rather slow so it could also have to do with that. I have Mac os x version 10.4.11 on this computer. I was thinking about reinstalling the whole operating system on this computer, but was unable to find any free OS X 10.4.11 software online. Any suggestions would be greatly appriciated.

Discussion is locked

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It could be
Mar 6, 2012 11:49AM PST

It could just be that today's websites assume a computer several generations beyond what you have, that is the majority of the problem, but how does it seem to perform otherwise? Given the limitations of that hardware, do other programs seem to work more or less as expected?

I ask because with a unit that old, there's a decent chance the HDD is on its way out, but if that were the case you'd be expecting to see a lot of the spinning pinwheel, particularly during tasks that involved using the HDD. So opening an app for the first time, opening a file, saving a file, that sort of thing.

Also, Mac OS X is not free, but you should have gotten copies of the restore discs with the computer. Unfortunately that unit is so old that Apple won't likely even sell you replacement discs, and all replacement discs are locked to a specific unit type, so you would need discs specifically for an iMac G4.

If the HDD is going out on this thing, it's really probably not worth the effort associated with replacing it. Working on these units can be a bit of a trick, even by Apple's standards. Short of a special foam block to keep from snapping the display stem, unless you have a means of holding it upside down indefinitely while working on it, you'll need to take it somewhere, and given the age of the unit, the repair costs will probably be 50-60% of the unit's value if it were working perfectly.

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Re:
Mar 6, 2012 11:28PM PST

It preforms quite well otherwise, it does however have the same scrolling problem while going through my itunes library. All the programs open up pretty fast.

I haven't ever had any problems with the spinning pinwheel, which is a plus for as old as this computer is.

I have no copys of the mac os x installed on this computer. I do know that there was a new operating system installed on this computer by my buddy when he had this computer. He told me when he installed it that he had trouble finding software online for this computer, but he did end up finding the software.

I have an old 2003 Dell Inspiron 5100 that I had simular problems with a few years ago, while scrolling through internet pages it wouldn't scroll smooth, to fix that problem I reinstalled the software on that computer and it fixed my problem, although its a dell and this is an apple, I was thinking that maybe the problem with this iMac could be software related, but I never owned an apple computer before, only apple devices (iPod, iPhone) so I am a little bit clueless with this.

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Well
Mar 7, 2012 1:10AM PST

Well, I can tell you that until Mac OS X 10.7, which will not run on your system, there was no online distribution of Mac OS X. So anything obtained that way would almost certainly be pirated.

Have you tried other browsers? I'm betting you're using Safari, but you could try downloading the last version of Firefox that supported 10.4, and Opera as well. If they both do the same thing, more or less, I'd be more inclined to blame the fact that these days everyone tends to assume a system much more recent than yours.

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Re:
Mar 7, 2012 4:18AM PST

Ok, well then if that is the case and this is a pirated version of Mac OS X then that could be some of the problem. I have always used Firefox, and I do have the newest version that is available to this computer.

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Then try Safari
Mar 7, 2012 5:26AM PST

Then try Safari and Opera, see if they do the same. Firefox can be a bit... Heavy on the resource use. So, give a couple of others a try and see if things improve. If they do, then you can either accept that Firefox will be a little slow and keep using it, or switch to something that works a bit better with your system.

You can also add Camino to the list. IIRC, until recently it was based on the same rendering engine as Firefox, it just had a native OS X GUI.

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If you have always used Firefox
Mar 8, 2012 9:08AM PST

then you should try TenFourFox. It is basically the same browser, just optimized for PPCs. You will need the G4/7400 build. All of your preferences,bookmarks, and addons from Firefox will be imported automatically to TFF. Flash is disabled by default in TFF, but it is easy to turn it on.

Flash for PPC has not been updated for a long time, and could also be slowing down your Mac. You could use ClickToFlash, or a similar add on to control when you want to allow flash to run.

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I forgot one more thing that will speed up an old G4
Mar 8, 2012 12:05PM PST

Add Block Plus is another browser add on for TFF, or Firefox. Web pages will load a lot faster without adds, and look better.