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CaseMauder · Mar 16, 2005, 03:08 PM

Hello,

I have Mac OS 9.2.1 and Mac OS 10.2 install disks, a PowerBook
G3 Lombard 400, 256ram, 6gig Harddrive, DVD/ZIP, and a PC geek's
lack of experience on Mac's. It's running
OS 9.2.1 and that seems ok for Web, e-mail, MP3's, DVD movies,
Adobe Photo Delux, and File shareing on my home network.

It's not fast, but not too slow with 9.2.1 on it, and I love it.

Something like an older PC laptop, with windows 98SE on it, works fine, as it is.
I would never put windows XP on older hardware.
I know XP might run, but it needs a lot of hardware.

If I move to OS X I can't play DVD-Movies on it(Lombard Not Suported)
but thats the only downside so far,and I can live with that.

So I'm asking any Lombard 400 owner's to share what they think
about OS X on a Lombard. Pro and Con

jamil5454 · Mar 16, 2005, 03:14 PM

If you put OS X on it you'll mainly just be able to use it as a server, unless you up the RAM and slap in a new hard disk.

If you keep OS 9 you'll be able to actually use your computer for things.

Personally, I would put a new hard disk in it and install OS X as a file/web/ftp/iTunes server.

finboy · Mar 16, 2005, 03:32 PM

Originally posted by jamil5454:

Personally, I would put a new hard disk in it and install OS X as a file/web/ftp/iTunes server.

If you do, make separate partitions for OS X and OS 9.

I'm sure that OS X will run butt-slow on it, unless you max the RAM.

SEkker · Mar 16, 2005, 06:31 PM

I had the same question, and I resolved this by testing a 5400 rpm HD in a 256 MB RAM Lombard.

Under OS9, the Lombard is perfectly fine.

Under OS X, the Lombard (even with 256M RAM) is surprisingly perfectly fine with one exception -- the DVD reader no longer works.

The big issue (besides DVD reading) is lack of FW. I have an older newer tech FW PCMCIA card, and I cannot seem to get it to work with the Lombard in OS X. I'm not sure a FW card would work with iTunes, but I was hoping to give it a try.

It's a great machine, with a few limitations over the slightly newer Pismo. Running OSX is not the deal breaker, at least for me.

CaseMauder · Mar 16, 2005, 07:35 PM

I understood the DVD would not play movies because OS X has no
drivers for the hardware decoder, but that the Lombard DVD reader
would read data DVD's? Thats a must for me because of a DVD burner
on my network.

I was also thinking of a 7200 Harddrive since I use it on it's power cord,
but was worried about heat from the fast Harddrive?

The 256ram I would leave as it is.

SEkker · Mar 16, 2005, 10:08 PM

7200 rpm HDs do not generate more heat than these older drives. That is not an issue.

I suspect that if your DVD drive can read your DVD-R-burned discs, then you do not have the original OEM Apple drive. Even the DVD drive in the newer Pismos could not read DVD-R-based discs. But that you can check in OS9.

CaseMauder · Mar 16, 2005, 11:18 PM

Originally posted by SEkker:
7200 rpm HDs do not generate more heat than these older drives. That is not an issue.

I suspect that if your DVD drive can read your DVD-R-burned discs, then you do not have the original OEM Apple drive. Even the DVD drive in the newer Pismos could not read DVD-R-based discs. But that you can check in OS9.

Thanks for the info,

I just checked the DVD drive on the OS 9.2.1
The inside of the DVD drive said it was an apple product and it fits
the style of the Lombard.

The DVD drive played a DVD movie that I had copied onto a Maxell 4x 4.7gig,
single side DVD-R. No trouble reading and copying data off a 8x Fuji DVD-R.
Both were burned useing a NEC-3500A 16x Burner on a win xp pro machine.

amazing · Mar 17, 2005, 10:37 PM

I've got Panther and OS 9 (on separate internal HDs) in a beige G3 266 mhz. I prefer using Panther on it since it's surprisingly spry on broadband, but I do have 384 MB of RAM on it.

I think the real roadblock will be the 256 MB of RAM. Mactracker says that the Lombard will take 512 MB of RAM even though Apple says it tops out at 384 MB.

If you run across a good deal on a larger HD, that's the way I'd go, ie max RAM and larger HD. Barring that, I'd stay with OS 9. You'd be totally comfortable with 6 GB in OS 9, but that isn't big enough to partition and have anything useful left over for stuff like tunes or photos... But it is big enough in OS 9 for some iTunes, and 256 MB RAM is totally adequate for most uses.

finboy · Mar 20, 2005, 04:32 PM

Originally posted by SEkker:
Even the DVD drive in the newer Pismos could not read DVD-R-based discs. But that you can check in OS9.

I never had any trouble reading DVD-R disks in my Pismo. The LG drive was crappy, but at least it would do that. I burn DVD-R using a Sony external Firewire drive all the time, and the old drive would read them. Maybe it was a software issue.