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Chris_Granger

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Imac 350mhz slot loading wont run OS X

I have an iMac 350 slot loading machine that is specified to run OSX. It has 128mb RAM and plenty HD space and latest firmware. It currently has no problems with doing anything and is running OS 9.2.2 with no issues.   When attempts to install / run OS X (any version including Panther) it crashes horribly. I have had the RAM and the Hard Drive tested and apparently have been told by an Apple Dealer that the mother board / processor is stuffed and that is why it can't run OS X. They say OS 9 and below are not so finicky and will run fine even though the motherboard is not good but with OS X it will have problems if there is an issue with this. Does this sound correct and/or has anyone else had similar problems?  Any comments welcomed?
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weed
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Sounds fishy. OS X is picky about ram, but if the motherboard is shot NOTHING should run well. In any case, OS X on a G3 350, with 128mb ram is going to be pitifully, horribly, and unusably slow. Definitely NOT worth installing on that machine.
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Chris_Granger

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i don't care about speed - it should still agree to run - i need verification of motherboard integrity...

...sounded fishy to me also...
At what point does OS X to refuse to run? During the install?

128 MB of ram is totally inadequate for OS X. You will HAVE to install more if you want to actually use any apps.
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the_argon

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try to get atleast 192 MB RAM - il'd say, you even better stuff the machine up to the max, which is 512 RAM. Once you did that, i bet your iMac is going to work fine with OSX
"stuff the machine up to the max, which is 512 RAM."

A common misconception. iMac's are known to take upto 1GB of RAM.

http://www.appletalk.com.au/forums/index.php?showtopic=376&view=findpost&p=3657
I forgot to install a firmware upgrade on my Dad's iMac of the same vintage.  It basically killed the motherboard.  There was probably a way to resurect it, but I was on vacation at the time and didn't want to spend my entire vacation working on computers.  I ended up taking it to the nearest Mac service center and layed out a few hundred $$$ to replace the motherboard on this old iMac.  I should have asked them to keep the old one so that I could upgrade my old Rev A iMac 233.  So, have you updated the firmware for this computer?
You need to repartition the hard drive with the first partition of only 8 GB. OS X will not work in the iMacs unless you do this. On the 1st install CD in the READ ME is the lowdown on this. I had a horrible time installing on a 266 iMac until I found this out. It is kind of a pain, but it does work. For some reason OS X won't work with some older Macs unless installed in the first 8GB of the drive. All this does is leave you with two hard drives one 8GB and the other the rest of your hard drive. If you boot up with the first CD and go into the "Disk Utilities" (under the blue apple I believe) you can do it from there. The amount of RAM you have is fine, so you shouldn't have any problems. I just put Jaguar on a 300 MHz iBook and it runs like a top. Hope this helps!
Thanks for the info MrClean, very handy stuff - whish I had some points left to give you  :-)
No problem, didn't know if you had got it working yet or not. ;)