9 year old iMac G5 needs replacing.

My nine year old imac is starting to go wrong and i would like advice on which new model to purchase. I am 80 and need a desk top which is not too different from my present model. Any help would be appreciated please as the shop assistant knew nothing! Thank you.

Brenda.S wrote:
My nine year old imac is starting to go wrong and i would like advice on which new model to purchase. I am 80 and need a desk top which is not too different from my present model. Any help would be appreciated please as the shop assistant knew nothing! Thank you.
Sadly the latest iMacs are as different to a G5 as it is possible to be:
1. A non-intuitive operating system (Mavericks) that does not compare to what you are used to with Tiger 10.4.11.
2. None of your applications that run on a G5 can run on a new Intel-based iMac. They will all have to be updated, i.e. re-purchased.
3. Nothing you may have connected to your G5 can connect to a new iMac: they do not have firewire, they do not have a built-in superdrive for CDs or DVDs so you can only install software via the internet. None of your existing accessories will work as is.
My personal recommendation would be to stick with your G5 and tell us more about how it is letting you down so that we can try to help you fix it.
I will ask the Hosts to move this thread to the PPC iMac forum where those of us who still use them hang out!

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My 7-year-old iMac died. I don't plan to replace it. It is backed up to Crashplan. Is it possible to restore my iPhoto library to the cloud, i.e. iCloud or Dropbox, so that I can access the photos as needed from my iPad or iPhone?

My 7-year-old iMac died. I don't plan to replace it. It is backed up to Crashplan. Is it possible to restore my iPhoto library to the cloud, i.e. iCloud or Dropbox, so that I can access the photos as needed from my iPad or iPhone?

Probably not - but that certainly does not involve iPhoto for the Mac - you need to look at Crashplan support for you options
And iCloud is not a place to store photos so that is certainly not a possibility
If you restore your masters folder out of the iPhoto library you will have all of your original photos to do with what you please
LN

I just purchased a one year old iMac. How do I create a brand new admin account?

I just purchased a one year old iMac. How do I create a brand new admin account?

The first thing to do with a second-hand computer is to erase the internal drive and install a clean copy of OS X. You—not the original owner—must do that. How you do it depends on the model, and on whether you already own another Mac. If you're not sure of the model, enter the serial number on this page. Then find the model on this page to see what OS version was originally installed.
It's unsafe, and may be unlawful, to use a computer with software installed by a previous owner.
1a. If you don't own another Mac
If the machine shipped with OS X 10.4 or 10.5, you need a boxed and shrink-wrapped retail Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6) installation disc from the Apple Store or a reputable reseller—not from eBay or anything of the kind. If the machine is very old and has less than 1 GB of memory, you'll need to add more in order to install 10.6. Preferably, install as much memory as it can take, according to the technical specifications.
If the machine shipped with OS X 10.6, you need the installation media that came with it: gray installation discs, or a USB flash drive for a MacBook Air. You should have received those media from the original owner, but if you didn't, order replacements from Apple. A retail disc, or the gray discs from another model, will not work.
To start up from an optical disc or a flash drive, insert it, then restart the computer and hold down the C key at the startup chime. Release the key when you see the gray Apple logo on the screen.
If the machine shipped with OS X 10.7 or later, you don't need media. It should start up in Internet Recovery mode when you hold down the key combination option-command-R at the startup chime. Release the keys when you see a spinning globe.
Some models shipped with OS X 10.6 and received a firmware update after 10.7 was released, enabling them to use Internet Recovery. If you have one of those models, you may not be able to reinstall 10.6 even from the original discs, and Internet Recovery may not work either without the original owner's Apple ID. In that case, contact Apple Support, or take the machine to an Apple Store or another authorized service provider to have the OS installed.
1b. If you do own another Mac
If you already own another Mac that was upgraded in the App Store to the version of OS X that you want to install, and if the new Mac is compatible with it, then you can install it. Use Recovery Disk Assistant to prepare a USB device, then start up the new Mac from it by holding down the C key at the startup chime. Alternatively, if you have a Time Machine backup of OS X 10.7.3 or later on an external hard drive (not a Time Capsule or other network device), you can start from that by holding down the option key and selecting it from the row of icons that appears. Note that if your other Mac was never upgraded in the App Store, you can't use this method.
2. Partition and install OS X
If you see a lock screen when trying to start up from installation media or in Recovery mode, then a firmware password was set by the previous owner, or the machine was remotely locked via iCloud. You'll either have to contact the owner or take the machine to an Apple Store or another service provider to be unlocked. You may be asked for proof of ownership.
Launch Disk Utility and select the icon of the internal drive—not any of the volume icons nested beneath it. In the Partition tab, select the default options: a GUID partition table with one data volume in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format. This operation will permanently remove all existing data on the drive.
After partitioning, quit Disk Utility and run the OS X Installer. If you're installing a version of OS X acquired from the App Store, you will need the Apple ID and password that you used. When the installation is done, the system will automatically restart into the Setup Assistant, which will prompt you to transfer the data from another Mac, its backups, or from a Windows computer. If you have any data to transfer, this is usually the best time to do it.
Then run Software Update and install all available system updates from Apple. To upgrade to a major version of OS X newer than 10.6, get it from the Mac App Store. Note that you can't keep an upgraded version that was installed by the original owner. He or she can't legally transfer it to you, and without the Apple ID you won't be able to update it in Software Update or reinstall, if that becomes necessary. The same goes for any App Store products that the previous owner installed—you have to repurchase them.
3. Other issues
If the original owner "accepted" the bundled iLife applications (iPhoto, iMovie, and Garage Band) in the App Store so that he or she could update them, then they're irrevocably linked to that Apple ID and you won't be able to download them without buying them. Reportedly, Mac App Store Customer Service has sometimes issued redemption codes for these apps to second owners who asked.
If the previous owner didn't deauthorize the computer in the iTunes Store under his Apple ID, you wont be able to authorize it immediately under your ID. In that case, you'll either have to wait up to 90 days or contact iTunes Support.
When trying to create a new iCloud account, you might get a failure message: "Account limit reached." Apple imposes a lifetime limit of three iCloud account setups per device. Erasing the device does not reset the limit. You can still use an iCloud account that was created on another device, but you won't be able to create a new one. Contact iCloud Support for more information. The setup limit doesn't apply to Apple ID accounts used for other services, such as the iTunes and Mac App Stores, or iMessage. You can create as many of those accounts as you like.

Help, my 3+ year old iMac has a fried logic board

I have an iMac G5 PPC 1.8GHz 20". Within the past year or so Apple replaced the power supply as my serial# fell under the G5 Repair Extension Program. It was working fine until recently when the screen would lock up and require reboots. Now it will not even boot up. I took it back to the Apple Store and was told it had a bad logic board. The tech showed me the bulging capacitors. The estimate for the repair is a whopping 600+ bucks.
I am very reluctant to invest that much dough when I was already thinking of selling this one and buying a new Intel based iMac. Besides, I need the money for gasoline for the next week! I thought I could attempt the repair myself until I found I could not get the part any cheaper than what Apple was going to charge.
This really bugs me as I've had the computer for just over 3 years. Any ideas on what I should do? Try to sell the remaining good parts? Can it even be used as a monitor? The display is still in fine shape. Hard drive is good too (250G). Thanks in advance.
- Rick

My nearly 3 year old iMac died a couple months ago and after jumping through some hoops to get the date of purchase reset to what it should've been, I took my iMac in to a local service provider to get it fixed under the repair extension program.
I was then told when they diagnosed my computer that the logic board and power supply were both dead and needed replacing. When I brought up the repair extension program I was told that it only covered the power supply and not the logic board.
Should I contact Apple Customer Relations or should I go back to the people who diagnosed my computer and plead my case with them?
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Thanks

5 year old iMac, screen stays black on startup.

This 5 year old iMac makes the seek optical drive sound when switched on, but does not chime, but I can hear the hard drive going afterwards.
The screen just stays black, not a flicker.
The problem is that it is located in a small pretty isolated town in NE Brazil, I will be going back out there later in the summer so if anyone has any helpful ideas it would be most welcome. Fortunately we have a full CCC clone of the hard drive and a working MBP so we haven't lost anything, but it would be very good to have it working again.
Does it have a socket for an external monitor, I really cannot remember, as I have not seen it since November, I know the old round iMacs had one.
The nearest Mac store is probably in Rio or Sao Paulo which are a good day travelling by car and plane so there is no chance of getting it there.
Any useful thoughts? I will be pleased to hear them, anything to try we can probably do over a week or so.
Many thanks in advance

Yes it shouldn't be that difficult. You can tell her to try some basic resets too, they won't hurt and might help. First is try resetting the SMC and PRAM. It's OK to do these multiple times, also trying to restarting in Safe Mode may work. For the SMC and PRAM resets I will print the instructions below. To do a Safe Mode restart, hold down the Shift Key when the startup tone is heard, if she can see a progress bar appear release Shift key and let it fully boot. Then restart normally to test. If the screen is still black then the LCD or the graphics card has probably failed. In that case it's probably best to just replace the whole computer as the expense of repair will be difficult to justify.
SMC RESET
Shut down the computer.
Unplug the computer's power cord and ALL peripherals.
Wait 15 seconds.
Attach the computers power cable.
Wait another 5 seconds and press the power button to turn on the computer.
PRAM RESET
Shut down the computer.
Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
Turn on the computer.
Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
Release the keys.

How do I erase ALL data on my 8 year old iMac 10.6.8?

I'd like to erase ALL data on my 8 year old iMac 10.6.8 before hauling it off to electornics recycling. I have the original Snow Leopard start up disc but need help in it's use for this purpose. Any help would be appreciated. Richard

Sorry RK I was having trouble posting the pertinent Snow Leopard article earlier, but looks like the OP got there without it.
Humm... it still won't let me post it.

We have a 4 year old iMac 24 inch. My hard drive died and we have a new hard drive now, but all that the fixit shop put on it was the Snow Leopard OS; can I ask Apple for a download of our other many software programs to reload them? Does it cost to do

We have a 4 year old iMac 24 inch. The hard drive died and we had a new hard drive installed. They only installed the Snow Leopard OS on it, and there were many software programs that came with the iMac originally.. now missing. Does anyone know whether Apple will resupply these? I do have an Apple installation disc but have upgraded from the original Leopard to Snow Leopard... so the OS is not quite the same. Ideas? Thanks!

No bootable bakup/clone or Time Machine backup? No initial install discs? If no to both of those, call 1-800-MY-APPLE and request replacement discs for that machine. They're available for a nominal S&H charge.

Four-year-old iMac and Mountain Lion

My wife has a four-year-old iMac that has been horrendously slow for the last couple of years. This has been true with nearly all the programs, but especially Word for Mac and Outlook (both part of Microsoft Office for Mac) -- even when only three or four programs are open at a time. Click Outlook, for example, and you can wait a minute and half for it to open while it checks identities.
I just upgraded the machine to Mountain Lion hoping that might solve some problems but the situation is even worse now. She clicked on Message last night as I was standing there and I finally gave up waiting and walked away. Frankly, the speed of the machine under both Lion and now, worse, Mountain Lion is driving us crazy.
So, what to do?
Should I be doing some sort of in-depth analysis of the the current machine? (A little background: three months after buying it, it had a problem and Apple Service ended up replacing the screen and the motherboard.)
Or should I just buy a new iMac and forget about this machine ever being fast enough?
Here are the specs on the current iMac:
Model Name:                    iMac
Model Identifier:              iMac8,1
Processor Name:              Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed:              3.06 GHz
Number Of Processors:   1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache:                           6 MB
Memory:                            4 GB
Bus Speed:                         1.07 GHz
Thank you for any advice.
Don

Your computer is on the very low end of systems which are supported by Mountain Lion. Anything newer than Snow Leopard will likely hurt performance rather than help it.
When your computer is freezing up, it is probably loading data from the disk into RAM. You can't put any more RAM into the machine, but you can have the hard drive upgraded to an SSD. That's quite a bit of money to pour into a five-year-old machine, but it's a lot cheaper than getting a new computer.
One other option is to back up your files, wipe everything, and start over. Install the applications one at a time until things start to slow down. You may have an application that is sitting in the background and using up system resources.

Flash Player won't start on a 4 year old iMac with Maverick

L.S.
I switched to Maverick on my 4 year old iMac. At first the program Maverick slowed down te activity speed. After changing datafiles to an external drive it works oké now. No problems untill now.
Recent I needed Adobe Flash Player, which is downloaded in the most recent version on my iMac, for starting a program for showing results. The program doesn't start, I had to download the most recent version of Adobe Flash Player.
No result - Testing - downloading - removing cookies - restarting - downloading and installing again, etc.
Testing the Flash Player on YouTube the problem results in the same problem.
The software on my iMac is up to date.
Has anybody the solution to solve this ?
Thank you,
FamB

Flash Player has to be downloaded, installed and allowed .
1. System Preferences > Flash Player > Advanced > Delete All
     Press the "Delete All" button
     Install Adobe Flash Player.
    http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/
    Follow the prompts.   Quit Safari.
    Restart computer. Relaunch Safari.
2. Allow Plug-ins
    Safari > Preferences > Security
    Internet Plug-ins > "Allow plug-ins"
    Enable it.
    Press " Manage Website Settings" button for more options.

My four year old iMac is running much slower than when it was new. Any suggestions on cleaning out the cob webs?

My four year old iMac is running much slower than when it was new. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I can do to "clean it up" and get it running like it used to?

What year, screen size, CPU speed and amount of RAM installed?
To find out info about your system,
Click on the Apple symbol in the upper left of the OS X main menu bar. A drop down menu appears.
Click About this Mac. A smaller popup window appears. This gives you basic info like what version of OS X your iMac is running, the speed of your iMac's CPU and how much RAM is installed.
Click on the button that says More Info. A larger window appears giving you a complete overview of your iMac's hardware specs.
Highlight all of this info and copy/paste all of this into another reply to this post, editing out your iMac's serial number before actually posting the reply.
This will tell us everything about your iMac so we may begin to help with your iMac issues.
How full is your Mac's hard drive?
Locate your iMac's hard drive icon on the OS X desktop. Click the icon once, then use the keyboard key combination Command-I. This will give you additonal info about your iMac's internal hard drive.
Post this info in your reply here, also.
Here are some general tips to keep your Mac's hard drive trim and slim as possible
You should never, EVER let a conputer hard drive get completely full, EVER!
With Macs and OS X, you shouldn't let the hard drive get below 15 GBs or less of free data space.
If it does, it's time for some hard drive housecleaning.
Follow some of my tips for cleaning out, deleting and archiving data from your Mac's internal hard drive.
Have you emptied your Mac's Trash icon in the Dock?
If you use iPhoto, iPhoto has its own trash that needs to be emptied, also.
If you store images in other locations other than iPhoto, then you will have to weed through these to determine what to archive and what to delete.
If you use Apple Mail app, Apple Mail also has its own trash area that needs to be emptied, too!
Delete any old or no longer needed emails and/or archive to disc, flash drives or external hard drive, older emails you want to save.
Look through your other Mailboxes and other Mail categories to see If there is other mail you can archive and/or delete.
STAY AWAY FROM DELETING ANY FILES FROM OS X SYSTEM FOLDER!
Look through your Documents folder and delete any type of old useless type files like "Read Me" type files.
Again, archive to disc, flash drives, ext. hard drives or delete any old documents you no longer use or immediately need.
Look in your Applications folder, if you have applications you haven't used in a long time, if the app doesn't have a dedicated uninstaller, then you can simply drag it into the OS X Trash icon. IF the application has an uninstaller app, then use it to completely delete the app from your Mac.
To find other large files, download an app called Omni Disk Sweeper.
Download an app called OnyX for your version of OS X.
When you install and launch it, let it do its initial automatic tests, then go to the cleaning and maintenance tabs and run the maintenance tabs that let OnyX clean out all web browser cache files, web browser histories, system cache files, delete old error log files.
Typically, iTunes and iPhoto libraries are the biggest users of HD space.
move these files/data off of your internal drive to the external hard drive and deleted off of the internal hard drive.
If you have any other large folders of personal data or projects, these should be archived or moved, also, to the optical discs, flash drives or external hard drive and then either archived to disc and/or deleted off your internal hard drive.
Good Luck!

HT3231 I have a new iMac OS X version 10.8.5 and a 12 year old iMac OS X version 10.4.11.

I have a new iMac OS X version 10.8.5 and a 12 year old iMac OS X version 10.4.11.
I wish to transfer Quicken and iPhoto from the old to the new.
I tried using wired Migration Assistant and received error message.
So following directions for alternate methods I used a flash drive. It seemed to work but I received error message to the effect that the PowerPC G4 is not compatible with the new system with 2.7 GHz Intel Core.
I discissed by phone with Apple service rep who indicated that it is true that this transfer is not possible.
But this HT 3231 article seems to say that it is possible. Any suggestions?

Properly configure the flash drive:
Drive Partition and Format
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to APM then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed.
Copy the files from the old machine to the flash drive. Then plug the flash drive into the new computer. Copy the files from the flash drive.
You need to understand that the files are no likely to be compatible which means you may not be able to use them. But the above process will transfer the files properly.

Updating LR1 to LR3 - is it worth it on a 4 year old iMac?!

Hi,
Please can anyone offer some advice.
I currently have Lightroom 1.4. I have a 4 year old iMac (2.16 Ghz, Intel Core 2 Duo) running OSX 10.4.11 with 1 gb ram. Everything still runs quickly touch wood (apart from LR which can be a little sluggish when dealing with lots of images).
With Photoshop I've always tried to upgrade every other version and intended to do the same with LR.
However, in order to upgrade to LR3, I would also need to boost my memory to 2gb and update to Leopard or Snow Leopard.
It would become quite an expensive upgrade which I'd accept if I thought it would be worth it.
My fear is that loading more memory intensive programmes onto an older Apple will ultimately just slow my machine down. I tried this some years ago on my first iMac, updating to Panther and adding more memory. But it slowed my machine down to a crawl.
I wonder whether I'd be better just opting for an old upgrade copy of LR2 and stick with what I have.

Salmon81 wrote:
Hi Butch,
Thank you very much for your help. Strong case you put forward!
Just wondering, if your iMac is about the same age, have you noticed any slowing down at all since updating everything? Do you find LR3 with Snow Leopard runs quicker on your iMac than LR1 did with 10.4?
Thanks again.
Best wishes.
I find it runs quicker and more responsive for most tasks ... but LR3 adds some new features that that use more computing power, while it isn't what I would consider slow, it didn't increase speed dramatically though it is very stable and consistent ... I've had no crashes or problems and LR3 runs as well as LR2.6 did for me.
I should also note that my catalog is on the startup drive, my image files are on external FW800 drives. I think this helps keep things flowi smoothly. I also try to keep the use of too many other apps to a minimum when I am working a high volume shoot in LR, like a large event or wedding ... this keeps as many resources available to LR as possible.
On the other hand, PSCS5 64 bit on 10.6 flies compared to PSCS3 on 10.4.

I've a ten year-old iMac, with Mac OS X version 10.5.8

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Problem is iTunes, reinstalled recently as 10.6.3; saying needs QuickTime 7.5.5 or higher.

the iTunes 10.6.3 was installed a few days ago by the same tech person selling me the computer about two years ago, when the OS was reinstalled including iTunes. I've not been able to make iTunes work since the computer was returned.
The tech person is busy and will get back to me eventually, so I'm trying to see if I can do anything by myself. This shouldn't of happened, though everyone makes mistakes; is what I'm guessing?

What are the best ways to keep my 4 year old iMac going?

I want to put off having to buy a new desktop iMac as long as possible so, while I'm using my 4+ years old iMac, what are the things I should (or should NOT) do to look after it? I know that temperature and humidity must be avoided but here in England (UK) it rarely gets too hot, so what else I should be aware of? Any advice would be much appreciated.

See:
Mac Maintenance Quick Assist,
Mac OS X speed FAQ,
Speeding up Macs,
How to Speed up Macs, ,
Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance,
Essential Mac Maintenance: Get set up,
Essential Mac Maintenance: Rev up your routines,
Maintaining OS X,
Five Mac maintenance myths and
Myths of required versus not required maintenance for Mac OS X for information.

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What's the best way to transfer everything from my 5-year-old iMac to my 1-year-old iMac?
I'm doing role reversal with these two. The newer imac is becoming our business computer, the older one will be our personal computer from now on until it gives out. For the record, I have Carbonite on the business unit. Should be a no-brainer, right? (Which is precisely why I'm asking!)
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Thanks. I stumbled across migration assistant later that afternoon in a google search. Just finished using it today to do the deed. Appreciate your quick response!

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