[G4] new owner of old G4 with some questions.

[Philip J Robar]

On Apr 28, 2006, at 10:16 PM, Jono Carnie wrote:

> Hi All,
> I'm the proud ower of a somewhat older G4.  From reading I gather  
> it's a G4 Yikes!
>
> 350Mhz, PCI ATI 128 Rage, horizontal audio ports etc.
>
> I've got some really newbit questions I'm hopig someone can help me  
> with.
>
> 1. How do I actually get 'into' the firmware? I've read
>     by holding down Control (the apple key??) with Option
>     and "o" and "f" should do it on boot up chime.
>     This on my machine just seems to be ignored.
>
> 2. What other key combinations exist?

A little searching on the net or of Apple's Knowledge Base should  
find this.


> 3. Is it true that I can only boot off a apple branded rom?

No.


>     I've got a 24x CD in the G4, and wish to upgrade to a DVD.
>     Do I HAVE to get an apple one or will any generic brand do?
>    AND still let me use a boot disk in it?

(The following applies to DVD writers. Just about any DVD-ROM should  
do anything you want.) It depends. You can do anything except use  
Apple's DVD apps. There were some hacks around this, but Apple  
suppressed them. Each release of OS X has gotten better at supporting  
non-Apple drives and there is PatchBurn for most of those that  
aren't. One option is to buy a pioneer DVD. If installed internally a  
Pioneer will usually be seen as an Apple Superdrive.


> 4. RAM. The G4 has 256MB of PC100 ram in a 64MB - 128MB - 64MB slots.
>     Can I place a PC133 stick of 128MB ram in the G4 and have it  
> run at 100Mhz?
>     Alternatively I could get two 256MB PC133 sticks of ram and  
> just use them.
>     The question is will the G4 Yikes! let me use PC133 ram?

Yes.


Phil
--
"We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal  
opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it."
  -- Edward R. Murrow