Pismo G3 rebuild

[RoadNeug]

I am looking for a good info so that I may scrub the disk in my G3 and start over. I am upgraded to 9.2.2 but am will to start over with the disks (which I have) that came with the computer. I have reformatted and reinstalled Windows in many computers but am new to Macs.

The G3 in question has had too many hands into it and is filled with junk, orphaned files and messed up extension files.

Any help would be appreciated.

Then I want to figure out how to get this beast to talk with the other computers in my home wireless network...share the printer, etc...

[gortonsfi]

Well if you're wanting to scrap the installation the actual procedure will be pretty easy. Just stick the Install disk in and it will direct you to what kind of installation you want to do. If you decide to reformat Mac OS will make it fairly simple and comparable to Windows XP installations. Though it will go faster in my experience.

If you decide to reformat the drive you will lose all the software on the computer. Apple considers Mac OS 9 a dead operating system. They no longer support it so you may have trouble locating replacement software once it is gone.

[RoadNeug]

Well if you're wanting to scrap the installation the actual procedure will be pretty easy. Just stick the Install disk in and it will direct you to what kind of installation you want to do. If you decide to reformat Mac OS will make it fairly simple and comparable to Windows XP installations. Though it will go faster in my experience.

If you decide to reformat the drive you will lose all the software on the computer. Apple considers Mac OS 9 a dead operating system. They no longer support it so you may have trouble locating replacement software once it is gone.

Okay, great... I have noticed that 9.2.2, etc. is treated like the cousin nobody wants to talk about.

So here is the situation: I have a Pismo G3 that is in great shape and I would love to be able to give it to my wife so that she can do Emails, etc. How tough is it to upgrade this little beast and what OS would you recommend that I put into this thing?

It has 128MB RAM but would love to tinker here and put some muscle into this thing.

I am all ears for any ideas. I am a PC guy who is willing to use this machine to do some Mac-instein type of learning.

[gortonsfi]

Hehehe, yeah, OS 9 is like that :o

I love Pismos! They are a snap to upgrade too! If you want a modern operating system, your Pismo will support all the way up through OS 10.4. Upgrading to OS X would give you a much wider range of new applications to use, though it won't be as snappy as OS 9 on your older machine. If your hard drive is big enough you could keep OS 9 and switch between the two if you think you'd want to tinker around the two.

As I said, Pismos are a joy to upgrade. If you put a newer OS in you'll want more than 128 MB of ram, especially on a machine with a slower processor. You don't want to slow it down more by constantly using your page file.

The Ram modules live under the keyboard. Beyond that is more steps than I care to try and remember. This should have all the steps, including pictures. http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/PowerBookG3_FirewireSettingUp.PDF

The Pismo is very versatile. You can add an Airport Card for wifi, a larger hard drive, more ram, even upgrade the processor to a G4 500 MHz or a G3 900 MHz, last time I checked.