Hi,
I have not blogged for over a year but discovered something yesterday from a YouTube video that helped me get Skype working on my G3 iBook Clamshell and my old Power Pc iMac.
If you still have a Power Mac you will know that first Skype stopped the capability to video call using Skype and have recently retired it all together on Power PC Macs.
I found this out the hard way. I usually Skype my friend in Canada on my Intel Mac which is set up in my living room. I have an old Power PC iMac upstairs in the spare room which I can transfer to if my wife is watching TV and my conversation on Skype is disturbing her viewing.
Earlier this year I was surprised to find that video calls on my Power Mac was no longer possible when using Skype. This wasn't too much of a problem because the video is not essential during a call.
Last night when I swapped to the Power Mac, halfway through a video call on my Intel iMac, I launched Skype and a message came up saying that Skype couldn't connect to the server. I looked into this on Google and found out that Skype had been retired for power PC Macs. This was going to cause me problems so I went on YouTube to get some advice to see if this problem had a fix. Within five minutes I had found an easy to follow video that helped me get Skype working, not only on my Power PC iMac but also on my ibook Clamshell G3.
Below is the link to this video on Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5Pmf0wxUe8
Below are the steps that are explained in the video.
1. The simple trick is to click on the Skype application in your application folder while holding down the control key. This will open a pop up menu.
2. When The Menu opens choose 'Show Package Contents'.
3. A folder will open with a folder called contents in it.
4. Open the folder called contents.
5. Inside double click on info.plist. to open it (If it doesn't open but gives you the option what to open it with choose text edit or something similar)
6. Once this file is open scroll down the list of text. Scroll through this text to find and replace three sets of numbers which relate to the version number of Skype you are using, probably 2.8.0.866 or an earlier version number if you are using a G3 Mac. To help you find these, the word 'string' appears at the start of these lines with the numbers.
7. All you have to do is highlight and replace the three version numbers in the text with a later Skype version number that works with Intel macs. I pasted the number 6.15.0.334 over the three numbers in the text and then saved it. You can probably past a later version in but I have not tried it yet.
8. Once the three numbers have been replaced, quit and relaunch Skype. It will launch as if it has been launched for the first time. Accept terms and conditions and then sign in. Skype will now launch and connect to the sever because the server is tricked into thinking that you are using a supported version of Skype and thus must be using a supported Intel Mac.
Once you get Skype working (speech only, video not supported) you will feel so good that you have tricked the server and are back using Skype on yourPower PC.
Good luck and thanks to Channel48 for posting the video on Youtube.
Please let me know if this method gets your Skype working again.
