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General discussion

Mac 5500/225

Jul 31, 2005 6:43PM PDT

I bought an old beige colored 5500/225. Turned it on and before it finished loading it gave me a message about finder not being able to open because appearancelib is not found. Help me please. Also, I'm on a pc, so I might need help with compatibility too.

:~D

Discussion is locked

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5500
Jul 31, 2005 9:49PM PDT

You will probably need to reinstall the OS on this machine. The Finder is the core of the OS and without it, you don't have a running machine. Hopefully you got the OS CD with the machine. If not, you will need to obtain one. The highest OS supported in this machine is OS 9.x.x so you will NOT be able to run OS X and all the neat stuff that goes with that. RAM max's at 128MB of 168pin SDRAM.
If you have the OS CD, you can either do a clean install, which just replaces the System Folder and leaves your data and other apps alone, OR, you can do a full Install after initializing the HD. This will destroy all data on the drive and just leave you with a System folder. The machine will boot but there will be NO apps.

Not sure I understand the compatibility statement.

P

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compatibility
Jul 31, 2005 10:11PM PDT

What I meant by the compatibility statement was is there is any way I can get an os off this pc onto the mac? The mac came from a thrift store so I got it as is, was only $10. Thanks for the help.

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Won't work.
Aug 1, 2005 8:20AM PDT

Older Mac's run on Apple software only. As far as Mac's booting from Windoze, give it 6 months.


Lampie

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PC software
Aug 1, 2005 9:38AM PDT

Newer Macs only run Apple software too. However, with the aid of Virtual PC, which has been around forever and earlier versions ran under all sorts of Mac OS numbers, you will be able to run PC software. V E R Y, V E R Y, S L O W L Y.
Your $10 was well spent though. There are a lot of things you can do with this machine once you get the OS sorted out.
Doubtful that Macs will boot from Windoze in 6 months though. Maybe Windoze will boot from a Mac though. I note that there will be a "Authentication" chip installed on each of the Mac's with Intel processors.
Meanwhile, see if you can find someone with a Mac OS disk


P

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Thanks
Aug 1, 2005 12:21PM PDT

Thanks for the help. I'll ask around for Mac disks, most of the people I know don't know anything about Macs and don't really like them. I like them though, I plan on buying an iBook sometime soon, I was just thinking to use this Mac to get somewhat familiar with the major difference in os. Again, thanks for the help.

:~D

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other software
Aug 2, 2005 3:05AM PDT

I thought newer macs would run linux/unix n stuff like that. No? I've been wrong before.

Macs won't boot from windows, but windows might boot from Macs? Huh?
I'm thinking of "Mac" as hardware, and "Apple" as software. Windoze would be software too.
Now I'm confused.

Lampie

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Conficious Reigns
Aug 2, 2005 3:19AM PDT

What I meant, I think, was that on the new Intel driven Macs (Hardware) you will be able to boot up the machine running some flavor of Windows. However, on a Wintel box driven by Intel, you will not be able to boot into OS X.
There are versions of Unix and Linux (I think) that already run on an OS X machine.

Happy

P

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Got an OS
Aug 3, 2005 10:28PM PDT

I got an OS 8 cd off eBay for a dollar. If I clean the hdd where can I go about getting programs for either for free or relatively cheap?

:~D

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Depends
Aug 4, 2005 3:08AM PDT

on what it is that you want to be able to do. There are a few free word processors for machines with an old OS. eBay may be a good place to look for old software. Your local Mac user group may be able to help too.
OS 8 is a start but ideally you need to get this machine up to OS 9.x.x to be able to support things like USB and Firewire, (added to your machine with a PCI card)and improved network (internet) connectivity.
Decide what it is that you want to do and remember that nothing you do on this machine is anywhere close to being a "real Mac" experience.
What OS is currently on the machine? During bootup, is there a number on the screen?
Before you decide to wipe the drive out, check that this CD will boot the machine. Insert the CD, restart the machine and hold down the "C" key. If that does not work, Restart and hold down Apple Key + Option + Shift + Delete + 3 You will need to practice that one. It will bypass the normal startup disk and go the the device with the SCSI addresss of 3. This is the CD Rom drive.

P

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Current OS
Aug 4, 2005 6:43AM PDT

When it boots currently the only thing it has is Mac OS, no numbers. I haven't recieved the cd yet, sorry for miscommunication.

:~D

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Networking
Aug 8, 2005 6:44AM PDT

I got OS 8 installed on the computer. It works nicely. I've got a couple pcs laying around that were made in the same year and they don't run nearly as fast. Anywho, now that I have it working, how do I network it with Windwoes XP?

:~D

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Networking with XP
Aug 8, 2005 11:25AM PDT

Now you are beginning to push the envelope. Congratulations on getting this beast up and running.
TO successfully network with the XP machine you will need a program called DAVE by Thursby Software.
You may have trouble finding a version to run under 8.0. Your next move, ideally, is to get this OS up to 9.2 where you will find that there is support for a lot more. Unfortunately, OS 9.0 was not free but the updates from it to 9.2 were.

P