Slow Powermac G4

MichaelMcD96

Hi,

I was recently given a Powermac G4 by a friend and I was wondering if anyone knows any tips of how I can speed it up without spending any money on RAM upgrades etc...

I am running OS X 4.11 and using the TenFourFox browser, are there any better browsers which are compatible?

Thanks,

Michael

almillar

I haven't heard of TenFourFox. You haven't mentioned the speed of the processor or the size of the memory, but OSX does love RAM, and I wouldn't like to be running it on less than 1GB.
If Flash or something is running slowly for you you may be out of luck, it really makes processors work hard.
Without spending money, I'd reinstall OSX clean again, instead of carrying all the junk of your friend's around. Hopefully he gave you the OSX disc.
Or see if you can find a OSX.5 disc - this is the last version that G4s can run, if I remember right it's a good bit better than X.4.

MichaelMcD96

almillar wrote: »

I haven't heard of TenFourFox. You haven't mentioned the speed of the processor or the size of the memory, but OSX does love RAM, and I wouldn't like to be running it on less than 1GB.
If Flash or something is running slowly for you you may be out of luck, it really makes processors work hard.
Without spending money, I'd reinstall OSX clean again, instead of carrying all the junk of your friend's around. Hopefully he gave you the OSX disc.
Or see if you can find a OSX.5 disc - this is the last version that G4s can run, if I remember right it's a good bit better than X.4.

I reinstalled OS X via terminal because he never gave me the disk... Oh and the processor speed is 667 MHz and 1 MB L3 cache It has a memory of 256 MB SDRAM Many thanks, Michael

almillar

Memory. Pure and simple. Should be cheap to max it out - check the Crucial website to see what it can take (then goto eBay to check prices!). Don't expect a 667MHz computer to be a flying machine though!

Arfa__

Yep, you need to shove as much ram in there as you can. It's pretty old now, so I bet the memory will be pennies on ebay. Don't buy it new, as it's so old, that only specialist places will stock it and charge daft money.

Browser wise I was using Camino on my old G4, which ran pretty well, definitely faster than Safari. For word processing, Bean was pretty good too. Ultimately, you've got some old kit there that's less well spec'd than many entry level smart phones these days!