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Mac G3 help

M

myjaja

Diamond Member
I just got a mac G3. It has a 350 mhz processor and 320 mb of ram. It also came with mac os 9. I want to install mac osx 10.3 on it. But when I put the first cd in, it said to restart the computer. But when it restarts, it loads up to os 9. It skips the osx installation. So it doesn't load up from the cd. I tryed to update the firmware, but it was already up to date. I also tryed a different hard drive without a os. I'm new to mac. So I really need help on this. Thanks
 
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Press and hold the C key down after you push the power button.
Click to expand...

I know teh meow. I tried helping him last night. I thought his firmware may not have been up to date, but it is.

He is running OS 9.0 I think the issue is that he needs to install OS 9.1 or higher to be able to boot off the cd. Because you cannot use 9.0 for classic, you need at least 9.1

I will check it out sometime this week though.
 
Originally posted by: Lucifer
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Press and hold the C key down after you push the power button.
Click to expand...

I know teh meow. I tried helping him last night. I thought his firmware may not have been up to date, but it is.

He is running OS 9.0 I think the issue is that he needs to install OS 9.1 or higher to be able to boot off the cd. Because you cannot use 9.0 for classic, you need at least 9.1

I will check it out sometime this week though.
Click to expand...

😕
 
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Originally posted by: Lucifer
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Press and hold the C key down after you push the power button.
Click to expand...

I know teh meow. I tried helping him last night. I thought his firmware may not have been up to date, but it is.

He is running OS 9.0 I think the issue is that he needs to install OS 9.1 or higher to be able to boot off the cd. Because you cannot use 9.0 for classic, you need at least 9.1

I will check it out sometime this week though.
Click to expand...

😕
Click to expand...

I talked to him via AIM.
 
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Originally posted by: Lucifer
I talked to him via AIM.
Click to expand...

I was more confused by the idea that the OS controlled the firmware. 😛
Click to expand...

LOL

On the old G3 and G4 macs, if you did not apply the firmware update prior to installing OS X, it can cause some issues to where the Mac wont boot up. I thought that since the firmware "may" have not been up to date, it wouldnt boot from the cd.
 
Although it wouldn't solve your problem, you should get to Mac OS 9.2.2 (at least 9.1) before upgrading to OS X anyway.
 
You can hold the Option key down to get to the bootmenu. Hopefully your bootable cd will show up there.

The only other problem I think of is having to hold down the C key throughout the entire boot process.

I see no reason to upgrade your install of OS9 considering you can install OS X by blowing away the hard drive and starting fresh... unless you really need OS9... *shudders*
 
Originally posted by: Lucifer
He tried holding down the c key. He said it doesnt work. Goes straight to booting up into OS 9.
Click to expand...

It's kinda tricky. You gotta do it at the right time. The option key may be easier.

He's got to hold it from pretty much right after hitting the power button until he at least hears the apple chime.
 
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Originally posted by: Lucifer
He tried holding down the c key. He said it doesnt work. Goes straight to booting up into OS 9.
Click to expand...

It's kinda tricky. You gotta do it at the right time. The option key may be easier.

He's got to hold it from pretty much right after hitting the power button until he at least hears the apple chime.
Click to expand...

Ill tell him to hit the c key immediatly. Also, if that doesnt work, i'll tell him to try the option key. I'll keep you updated.
 
Originally posted by: Lucifer
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Originally posted by: Lucifer
He tried holding down the c key. He said it doesnt work. Goes straight to booting up into OS 9.
Click to expand...

It's kinda tricky. You gotta do it at the right time. The option key may be easier.

He's got to hold it from pretty much right after hitting the power button until he at least hears the apple chime.
Click to expand...

Ill tell him to hit the c key immediatly. Also, if that doesnt work, i'll tell him to try the option key. I'll keep you updated.
Click to expand...

Like I said, it can be tricky. I generally have to try it a couple of times to get it to work.😱
 
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Originally posted by: Lucifer
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Originally posted by: Lucifer
He tried holding down the c key. He said it doesnt work. Goes straight to booting up into OS 9.
Click to expand...

It's kinda tricky. You gotta do it at the right time. The option key may be easier.

He's got to hold it from pretty much right after hitting the power button until he at least hears the apple chime.
Click to expand...

Ill tell him to hit the c key immediatly. Also, if that doesnt work, i'll tell him to try the option key. I'll keep you updated.
Click to expand...

Like I said, it can be tricky. I generally have to try it a couple of times to get it to work.😱
Click to expand...

lol. 🙂

I just talked to him right now on the phone. He said that neither the c key or option key worked. He said it shows the flashing folder with the question mark for a few seconds, then goes straight to booting to OS 9.

This is very odd. Never heard of something like this. 😕
 
Originally posted by: Lucifer
lol. 🙂

I just talked to him right now on the phone. He said that neither the c key or option key worked. He said it shows the flashing folder with the question mark for a few seconds, then goes straight to booting to OS 9.

This is very odd. Never heard of something like this. 😕
Click to expand...

Neither have I... Maybe he should try to keep holding it down while the folder is flashing... 😕

Which Mac G3 does he have? An old biege one or the Blue & White?
 
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Originally posted by: Lucifer
lol. 🙂

I just talked to him right now on the phone. He said that neither the c key or option key worked. He said it shows the flashing folder with the question mark for a few seconds, then goes straight to booting to OS 9.

This is very odd. Never heard of something like this. 😕
Click to expand...

Neither have I... Maybe he should try to keep holding it down while the folder is flashing... 😕

Which Mac G3 does he have? An old biege one or the Blue & White?
Click to expand...

Blue and white. 350mhz. I went through the process of telling him what to do. He said he continued to hold the c key and option key down, but same thing happens. The flashing folder with the question mark comes up, then goes straight to booting into OS 9.
 
Saw this on another site:
Restart the Mac while holding down the Apple Key to the
left of the spacebar and also the Alt (option) key and also
hold down "p"& "r" keep them held down untill you hear
the startup tone 3 times at least and then release if it still
wont boot from the cd, then try restarting the mac while
holding down the ALT (option) key this will give you a
boot screen and will eventually show you the drives it can
boot from, it should list the Mac HD and the CD click on
the CD and then Click the forward arrow. if it still wont
boot you'll need to take it to an apple repair specalist
Click to expand...
 
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Saw this on another site:
Restart the Mac while holding down the Apple Key to the
left of the spacebar and also the Alt (option) key and also
hold down "p"& "r" keep them held down untill you hear
the startup tone 3 times at least and then release if it still
wont boot from the cd, then try restarting the mac while
holding down the ALT (option) key this will give you a
boot screen and will eventually show you the drives it can
boot from, it should list the Mac HD and the CD click on
the CD and then Click the forward arrow. if it still wont
boot you'll need to take it to an apple repair specalist
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Bah, he said it didnt work. 🙁 Something is really up. Looks like I'll pick it up from his house sometime during the weekend to work on it.

🙁
 
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Originally posted by: Lucifer
He tried holding down the c key. He said it doesnt work. Goes straight to booting up into OS 9.
Click to expand...

It's kinda tricky. You gotta do it at the right time. The option key may be easier.

He's got to hold it from pretty much right after hitting the power button until he at least hears the apple chime.
Click to expand...

Heh, it gets even trickier. I was trying to boot from a hard drive eraser that ran off of a bootable OS X CD. I would hold down the C key until I heard the chime and saw the OS X gray apple with rotating circle thingy screen and I would let go. Every time I did that it would give me a kernel panic and give me a prompt with a ton of errors.

I thought there was something wrong with the CD and spent hours trying to figure out what was wrong with it.

Turns out the cd was fine. I had to hold down the C key all the way through the boot sequence up until the desktop was finally displayed. Absolutely ridiculous.
 
I think I know what the issue may be. I don't think he has the original Apple cd rom drive in his G3. You cannot boot off of a cd with any other drive that is not an Apple bootable drive. If this is the case, I might just remove the dvd rom drive from my G4 temporarily, install it in the G3, and install Panther from there. Hopefully, this will work.

Will keep you updated.
 
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