[MacIdiot]

Hello, all. i really could use some help. i picked up an old imac with mac os9.2. tryin to get my feet wet before i switch to macs from windows. anyway, i had it hooked online and could download fine, up until i read somthing that said clearing the PRAM would help with its 'freezing' problems. yep, i cleared the PRAM and now can not download files. i get an error message from download manager at the bottom of the message it says, 'device or address not found'. please understand i have no idea what i am doing on macs and basically i learn by getting lost and finding my way out. lol. however, i cant find my way out of this one. the other thing is, when i add webpages to my favorites (using IE 5.1 browser) they dont stay. if i close the browser the favorite page is gone. i thought it something in the prefereces but i cant seem to find it. anyway, im an idiot with this stuff and could use any help from you guys you can give me. THANK YOU.

MacIdiot

[chrisuso]

Im not a Mac user yet. I would reformat the harddrive and also upgrade to OS X due. See if your able to upgrade other parts as well. Maybe that can help.

My 2 cents
chris

[jamil5454]

First of all, OS 9.2 isn't the way to learn Macs. If I were you I'd go out and buy OS X, but wait until Tiger is released before you do that (Tiger is next version of OS X). Before you try tunning OS X on that thing, how much RAM does it have? You'll want at least 256mb for the iMac (assuming it's a G3).

[UberWeenie]

Originally posted by MacIdiot:
Hello, all. i really could use some help. i picked up an old imac with mac os9.2. tryin to get my feet wet before i switch to macs from windows.

MacIdiot

As others have said OS 9 isn't the way to learn about Macs as they are today - OS X offers a completely different and better experience. OS 9 soldiered on valiantly for a few years more than it should have, and was IMHO a patched together kludge - memory management in particular was a nightmare.

To get your iMac running I'd do a fresh install of OS 9. If it is 400 Mhz or above the iMac will run OS X pretty well if it has enough RAM. Opinions vary but I'd suggest 384 MB as a practical minimum, but if it has 256 MB it should not perform too badly. If needed you _might_ want to consider RAM expansion, and OS X can be purchased fairly cheaply on Ebay.

But don't put too much money into that old iMac.

[historylme]

Get a cheap copy of Panther or jaguar and start gettying your feet wet.. but like everyone else said here, add the ram first.

Good luck.