Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Mac OS Update required by Itunes

Jul 24, 2007 12:49AM PDT

The lady upgraded her Itunes to the new 7.3 version, and it now says that Itunes requires Mac OS x 10.4.7. Currently, she has OS x 10.4.2 running on the machine.

I know very little about Mac's, but does anybody have a solution for this? I do not want to necessarily upgrade her OS and deal with updating all of her drivers. Can I uninstall Itunes and install an older version? Is there a simple patch that I can use? I appreciate any help on this.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
link for older versions
Jul 24, 2007 2:46AM PDT
- Collapse -
It's an IBook G4
Jul 24, 2007 3:16AM PDT

Thank you for the link to old Apps. I do appreciate it considerably.

I know that her machine can handle the current version of Mac OS, but I think she has just been lazy in doing so.

My fear is that if I start updating, some of her other Apps will fail and/or drivers will need updating. How intensive is an update from OS 10.4.2 to 10.4.7? As I mentioned earlier, I have very little experience with Mac's, hence my inane questions.

- Collapse -
Use the Software Update program
Jul 24, 2007 4:20AM PDT

that you will find under the Apple menu at the top left corner of the screen.
Update that machine to OS X 10.4.10 and everything will be fine.
The update is a simple as clicking the Install button and entering the Admin password. Agree to a couple of EULA's and the rest is automatic.

Her Apps will not fail and the drivers will not need updating. All will be fine after the free update.

Software update will only show you update options that are applicable to that machine.

Do the updates and let us know how you got on.

Maybe you should consider a Mac for yourself, it will ease your anxiety and lower your blood pressure. Your Windows training is showing! Happy


P

- Collapse -
Updating a mac's software is very easy.
Jul 24, 2007 4:23AM PDT

It is very rare for any update to ever interfere with the performance of a peripheral. As such is the case, I would use the automatic software update feature to update every thing including the OS, unless your friend has some objection.

First concern is your connection to the net. Is it broadband or dial up? If it is dial up then you might want to start updating before going to bed. Otherwise let's talk you through the process.

Since this appears to have been neglected for a while I would start out by doing a bit of house keeping. This will all sound complicated but it will be easier than you think.

Open a finder window and go to the Applications folder. Find the Utilities folder and open that. Double click on the Disc Utility to open it.

The side bar on the Disc Utility will show a picture of the hard drive (it may show 2 HD's or it may show external drives as well) Just select the top most HD. The dialoge box should now show a white window and a bar across the top with First Aid high lighted in blue.. If not, then make sure and select First Aid. Below the window you should have a choice that says Repair Disc Permissions. Click on this and let the utility do it's stuff. This is simply re-associating programs with files so the computer will run smoothly. After it is done then close everything.

Now, to update all the apple software on your mac. Click on the blue apple icon in the upper left hand corner of your screen and select Software Update . The software update will automatically scan the web for all available updates to any apple software on the computer. Select some or all of the updates you see available and click Install. The program will probably ask for an administrative pass word which you will need to get from your friend. enter the pass word and let the update utility do the rest.

After all this the computer will probably need to be restarted so make sure you save anything that was open before you restart.

That is it. You might want to run the Software Update one more time to see if any updates are available but chances are it will already be done.

I really doubt updating the computer will mess up a driver. If a problem should occur though, it is very easy to fix in most cases.

FYI... the Disc Utility should be run at least once a month to keep things running smoothly.

You can let your friend do all this if you're not comfortable but it is still the same process no matter who does it.

Cheers

grim

- Collapse -
Thank you
Jul 25, 2007 8:49AM PDT

Grim & Mr. Mac,

Thank you for the great advice. It went off without a hitch. Could not have been easier.

I'll take your advice on getting a Mac into consideration, but I use way too much proprietary software through work to use a Mac. I know they've got Windows for Mac now, but that kind of defeats the purpose. I'm not a big fan of running to operating systems on one machine either.

Whatever the case, you guys are lifesavers.

- Collapse -
(NT) Glad it worked for you
Jul 25, 2007 10:59AM PDT
- Collapse -
(NT) You're welcome.
Jul 28, 2007 3:09AM PDT
- Collapse -
Mac OS Upgrades
Jul 27, 2007 4:06PM PDT

The Mac upgrades are simple and so dead easy I don't know why anyone would not want to do it, unless they have been through some of the Windows upgrades in the past!

Just do it - go to the Apple menu and click on Software Update - then relax and be patient.

- Collapse -
...if you CAN upgrade...
Jul 28, 2007 5:06PM PDT

However, I got my mac G3 from a friend who got a newer one. I like the G3, because of its appearance, more than anything that followed it. The computer is right inside the beautiful translucent monitor - no ugly tower on the floor next to my desk.

The original reason he decided to give his machine to me is that when he tried to upgrade from OSX 10.2, the machine choked on the newer operating system. So he reinstalled the original one and finally got it to me. Right now it already has iTunes on it and I'm hoping it will work when I actually start using it. It's been my experience that the oldest version of software that will work is the best version, since the software becomes more austere and like adware everytime it is upgraded. Can anyone say "RealPlayer"?

Billy

- Collapse -
G3 iMac and OS X
Jul 28, 2007 11:33PM PDT

The ablility to install OS X beyond the original version is dependent on your computers ability to handle it.

The early iMac's could cope with 10.0 and 10.1 but had difficulty with 10.2 because of the minimum memory requirements. Early iMac's could only accommodate 128Mb of RAM which is the bare minimum required for OS X. That coupled with a 233Mhz processor was the kiss of death for any further advancement.

Later versions of the G3 iMac, those with a Slot Loading DVD player and Firewire, could handle much more memory, had larger hard drives(not too important, but nice) and a faster processor.

If your iMac fits into the above category, then you should have no problem running OS X 10.3.9

your description of the "Translucent" case would indicate that you have a later, slot loading, iMac and with the RAM increased or max'd out, you could be up there running 10.3.9 quite easily.

P

- Collapse -
That about describes it...
Jul 29, 2007 12:37PM PDT

...a translucent aqua and white body. Yes it has a CD sort of slot in front, but I haven't put anything in it yet. As for firewire I have no idea what that would look like. For now I would wait until I could get a try-before-you-buy deal on a 10.3.9 upgrade. Pete actually gave me an extra unopened 10.2, implying he ironically installed it from another source!

My course of action now is finding downloadable software that is old enough to work in this version. Examples are the mac equivalent of common Win programs like Paint and Soundrec. Also a MIDI sequencer, and software for editing MIDI wavetables. It's amazing what you can do with an old old computer if you can get the old old software.

Billy

- Collapse -
It's even more amazing when
Jul 29, 2007 9:58PM PDT

you add more memory to it and run an up to date version of the Mac OS and not be messing around with a fairly unstable version from 5 years ago.

P