Apple laptop issue - dual focus

DKM · Mar 13, 2012

3/13/12

Hello,

I'm getting back into Apple products, althou I haven't given up on PCs yet. I've picked up a couple of older Apple laptops on a trade. One seems to be working quite well. Getting on the internet w/ airport works, it's just when I try going someplace Safari crashes. A window opens suggesting downloading Safari 5.1 (it does download), but that can't be installed b/c the Bill of Material (another small window opens telling me this) can not be found. Any suggestions on finding Bill of Material & what I should do?

Second part: this is a good site for discussing tech problems, but are there any others internet sites someone can recommend?

Thanks for reading.

DKM

Deleted member 42 · Mar 13, 2012

I'd try going to Preferences and creating a new account with Admin access, and trying that.

Secondly, how are you downloading Safari? Via a Browser or via Software Update?

Thirdly, what OS version are you running?

DKM · Mar 13, 2012

Continued -

I'm downloading thru the Browser & the OS is: 10.3.9

Deleted member 42 · Mar 13, 2012

Safari 5.1 for OS X requires Snow Leopard/10.6.8 as a minumum. You can't run it on 10.3.9

You're running OS X Panther:
http://www.apple.com/support/panther/

Have you tried creating a new User account/User yet? Do this via System Preferences under the Apple menu.

And you might check out About this Mac, and let us know which Mac you have, and how much RAM.

DKM · Mar 14, 2012

Sounds good. I'll check it out. Stay tuned.

DKM · Mar 14, 2012

Continued. This is an iBook w/ a G3 processor. I have 256 MB of Ram. I know, I'm already looking at boosting the memory. Under preferences (admin), there's an old password. Not sure what it is? By changing this, I'm setting up a new user account?

Deleted member 42 · Mar 14, 2012

It's been a looong time since I looked at 10.3, so these steps are very aproximate.

1. Go to System Prefernces
2. You should see something that says Users or Users and Groups; click that.
3. You can create a brand-new User account. On the left you should see, possibly near the bottom, a + sign. That lets you create a New User/new account.
4. Click the + sign. Create a new Account. Give it a distinct name, and a password. Make it an Admin account.

N.B. there should also be a padlock icon; if it is showing a locked, closed padlock, you will need to authenticate as an Admin in order to create a new account.

DKM · Mar 15, 2012

Okay, right now I consider good progress has been made. I'm looking at this process as a fun & interesting challenge.

I went to System Preferences. I didn't find User or User & Group. But I found Accounts Window which appears to be the same or similar. On the left side there's a column for admin. I've already created my own account under: Other Accounts. Thus, now I can log in as admin, or my own Other Account (this is under the house icon at the bottom of the same page). On the bottom, outside this column, there are those + - symbols you talked about. They're just there to create another account, thou.

I can't seem to do anything w/ changing admin.

Other ideas: I can get to the Apple Page. Here, there's an option of downloading Safari 5.1.4 for Lion or 5.1.4 for Snow Leopard.

On another Apple window, there's options for downloading Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Opera as a browser. Maybe I should consider one of these instead?

Feel free to make additional comments.

Chasing the Horizon · Mar 15, 2012

Firefox is better than Safari period, IMO. And it's definitely better on older machines (loads pages faster). The last version of Firefox that I know supports Panther is 2.0.0.20.

I'm not sure what you bought this computer for, but it's too old to really work smoothly on the internet, even if you upgrade the RAM. Because Panther is the latest operating system you can probably run on the old G3 (some later G3s can run Tiger), you're going to be stuck using very old versions of Firefox and its related plug-ins, which often results in scripts refusing to run and some features on websites being disabled. You also may not have the processor power to play streaming video. Though I'm guessing a bit at this, as you didn't say what your processor speed is, and they made a LOT of different iBook G3s. An old iBook of any type is great for writing, though.

Do you have the system password for the computer so that you can access the admin features and install new software? If you don't, that's going to be a problem.

DKM · Mar 17, 2012

Hey all,

Althou I didn't exactly get the problem solved, I consider this a great thread. Admittedly, it's been ages since I've ventured into the Apple field (I still believe in the late Steve Jobs); it's been fun. I learned a few pertinent pts on Apple laptops. I'm glad I've returned. In any future questions, I know what I must add. I know that my iBook G3 is great for texting, a light-weight machine built for writing - that's what I got it for. I do have a PowerBook G4 w/ more computing firepower. Maybe I'll talk about that in my next thread.

Thanks everyone.

DKM

Apple laptop issue - dual focus

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