Power Mac G4 (sawtooth) AGP - Firmware and other issues

Hello,
So I was given an older Power Mac G4 AGP which I've been using while my Power Book G4 gets a logic board replacement but I've been having some issues with the AGP unit. How do you check to see what version of the firmware you have? I read a firmware update but it requires OS 9 to launch and I don't know if I need this or not. The other issue has been when I tried to run Firefox after successfully installing it. Firefox doesn't launch, it just opens and then closes. When I use Safari, the browser will work for about a few minutes but then it will freeze and I need to force quit it. I am running 10.4.11 and I was thinking of installing 10.5.6 but I'm not sure if this is possible with the Sawtooth. Do I need to upgrade the processor? Any advice or help is appreciated.

Hi, veesh678 -
Early models of the G4 (AGP) models came with OS 8.6; later models came with an installer for a model-specific version of OS 9.0.4. The latter disk will have a blue-gray label, be named "Power Mac G4" with a subtitle "Software Install", and has a part number of 691-2657-A (the part number will be in fine print on the right-hand side of the label).
Non-current firmware will not preclude the machine from booting to that CD; a retail OS 9.0.4 Install CD (white label, gold 9, no model named) probably will not work, although a retail OS 9.1 or 9.2.1 Install CD should work fine.
The current firmware version for the G4 (AGP) model is v. 4.2.8, which can be downloaded from this article -
Article #120068 - G4 Firmware Update 4.2.8
Note that to install that version the machine must be booted to OS 9.1 or OS 9.2.x from its hard drive, and the firmware update must be run from the same hard drive.
Before installing firmware update v. 4.2.8, download and run DIMM First Aid (it's a free download) to verify the compliance of the RAM in the machine.

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