‘In the previous episode I was longing for the Heady days of Windows 8 and wishing I had a Desktop machine.’
Fast forward to this year, I was considering digging out the iMac G4 to use for some basic computing as a desktop machine. The issue is it had been retired due to a power fault that I hadn’t managed to trace and I really don’t want to have to pay for someone else to do being such an old computer. I do also have an original iMac in working condition that I strangely have to turn into a cat bed (that’s another story). As much as that would fulfill the needs I want it’s footprint on my desk is a big negative. At times I would be wanting to use the Toshiba laptop on my desk for heavy lifting such as video editing.
The day was a beautiful day the sun was shining, the birds were singing (except the seagulls they were just squawking). I had popped into town to run an errand and as is my habit I pop into the charity shops to see what DVD/Blu-rays or books they have. I entered one and walked past the clothes into one of the back rooms and I saw a glint of white, could that be? I got a little closer and by ‘Holy Zarquon’s singing fish’ it was an iMac in all it’s white glory.
As someone who had been out of the Mac world for a long time and the only thing I noticed about Macs now was how many kidneys you need to sell to buy one, I really wasn’t clear about the model of this iMac. I had a suspicion it was a G5 but wasn’t sure whether it would be running Power PC or intel chips (that’s actually quite important).
There was no keyboard, or even a power cord and just a sticker stating the it was £10 and need updating (see photos), I was intrigued. I tried to contact my Wife to bounce the idea off just to make sure I wasn’t just buying some useless junk, I couldn’t get hold of her so I had to make an executive decision and for £10 it was worth a risk.
I then had to walk through town lugging this rather heavy iMac. On returning home I was greeted as normal by an over enthusiastic Labrador and a Golden Retriever who would rather be snoozing. I sheepishly announced my purchase to my wife who luckily agreed with my logic (Phew!).
It had no Keyboard or mouse but I have actually have an Apple Keyboard and mighty mouse that I have been using on my Windows 10 laptop (when its set up on the desk) for years. The first question was would it power up. In a stroke of luck the power cord was a standard one (what I call a Kettle lead) and not one of the strange ones that the G4 used. I plugged it in and hit the power button and then heard the glorious sounds of the Apple chimes and watched in awe as it booted in the OS.
‘In the next exciting episode we discover whether those glorious chimes were real or just some fantasy’
