Author Topic: can OS9 go on a G3 powerbook? alternately can OS7 go on a G3 powerbook?  (Read 4292 times)

Offline part12studios

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I recently got my hands on a black g3 powerbook.  It has 8.5 on it now but wondered about putting 9.2.2 on it.

https://apple-history.com/pg3s    I don't know the EXACT model, but it's definitely like the black mac in the picture here and G3 with 128mb ram.  I think the base models had 64mb. 

I'm looking to see about maxing it out.  192mb max.. kinda odd..  would it be that it came with 64mb built in and two 64mb slots.. or maybe 1 128mb slot option?   i haven't opened it up yet and like to inquire before i dive into something blindly. 

inversely I noticed that it came with a 7.5 OS disk and 8.x disks..  from what i read the g3 powerboks came with 8.1 and above..  could i put 7.5 on a g3 or would that be like trying to put OS9 on a G5?  just can't go back?

I have asked the seller why the disk was in there.

Thanks,
Caleb
« Last Edit: June 26, 2020, 01:17:31 PM by part12studios »

Offline refinery

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Those machines can go all the way up to 10.2.8 and as low as 8.0.
192mb was the maximum Apple called "supported" but you could go up to 512mb.
got my mind on my scsi and my scsi on my mind

Offline part12studios

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Awesome thanks, I lost this thread but wanted to get caught up.  I still have it and will be exploring some stuff with it.  i can't imagine how slow it might run under any version of OSX, so I'll probably stick with the 8.5 it has and stick with that. 

Offline teroyk

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Awesome thanks, I lost this thread but wanted to get caught up.  I still have it and will be exploring some stuff with it.  i can't imagine how slow it might run under any version of OSX, so I'll probably stick with the 8.5 it has and stick with that.

8.5 is bad version between 8.1 and 8.6. You should upgrade or downgrade. If you make 3 partitions on disks then you can even triple boot to 8.1, 8.6 and 9.2.2. But remember some powerbooks have 8 GB boot limits, but total HD size can be about 128 GB.

Some Powerbook G3 RAM limit is actually 1024 MB, but there might be one problem, I writed about this here : http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,5581.msg41561.html#msg41561

Offline part12studios

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Good to know about 8.5    I will look into upgrading it..   i'm glad there would be no problem putting 9.22 on it..   assuming that OS would work well with it.   I don't think i'd be upgrading the ram on it unless the ram is fairly common.  it might be.  i haven't looked into it yet.