Speed up the iMac g3
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- Author: nick
- Difficulty: Moderate
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Have a slow iMac G3? Upgrade it and you will have a computer that runs better then it did when it was bought new!
The G3 used here had the following specs before upgrade: 128MB memory, 40GB HDD, 10.2.9
After upgrade: 768MB, 100GB HDD, 10.4.11
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Edit Step 1
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Hard Drive, Memory, and CD Drive
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Before the upgrade, determain if you own a slot loading machine; or a tray loading machine. This is determained bases on how you insert discs. If you push button on the front and a tray slides out, it's a tray loader. If you slip discs through a slot, then you have a slot loading machine. Tray loaders were made around 1999 - 2000 era This article focuses on a slot loading iMac
These iMacs use PC100/133 memory, not DDR memory as pictured.
These slot-loaders can take up to 1GB of memory while the tray-loading models take 256MB officially (can be pushed to 512MB unofficially, but Apple does not support this).
Edit Step 2 ¶
Layout to your side a coin of any size and a flat head screwdriver. Then spread out a large soft cloth. Turn thr computer over on it's screen so the screen is on the cloth.
Look for a round circle on the underside of the computer. Put your coin or screwdriver in there and rotate it to the unlock sign, counter-clockwise. The door will be latched, opening downwards.
The candy bar shapped things is your memory, also known as RAM. Locate the tabs on the edges of the RAM, and push them outwards of the RAM. Pull the old RAM away. You can skip his step of you are using this old RAM and just adding to the other slot.
Install the new memory by aligning the guides in the computer's memory slot against the notch in the memory board. Then push! They should automatically engage so don't push too hard. You'll hear a click and know you got it
Its better to install RAM in equal pairs. These are the suggested memory combos: 2x 256MB or 2x 512MB.
Edit Step 3 ¶
This is entirely optional, but while you have the computer open, you might as well upgrade the hard drive. I suggest this because some G3 systems came with 4GB or 10GB drives, which are tiny by today's standards.
iMacs of this era have smaller, and sometimes slower, hard drives by today's standards. You can upgrade your HDD (Hard Drive) while your computer is open so you can store more images, music, and movies.
These iMacs have a 128GB HDD cap. This cap means that if you install a 160GB harddrive, the system will only see the first 128GB so 32GB will never be used. These iMacs use PATA (IDE) hard drives, which have the wide connectors.
We're writing how to upgrade the hard drive right now!
Picture citation: http://www.qsl.net/g3pto/HARDRIVE.jpg
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