Ramón G Castañeda

Q: MDD DP G4 elusive diagnosis - freezes during boot up.  Tired… HELP!

After not using my Dual Bootable  DP 1.25 GHz MDD G4 for a couple of months, it's now freezing during the boot process.

 

What's weird is that it boots in Target Mode just fine, and when connected in this mode to my G5 Quad, it actually boots the G5 Quad in Target Mode just fine!    The G4 drive shows in fact as the boot drive on the G5 Quad's monitors.

 

I was able to boot off a retail Tiger 10.4.6 disk, so I did an erase and install of a fresh Tiger OS 10.4.6, which I promptly updated to 10.4.11.  After trying and failing umpteen times to boot off the HD, even in safe mode, I ended up being utterly unable to get either of the Super Drives to open normally, so I had to resort to the straightened paper clip trick to retrieve the install DVD.

 

Now even the paper clip fails to open either of the optical drives.

 

I have twice wiped the HD from the G5 Quad after booting up in Target Mode, and installed fresh copies of Tiger 10.4.11 as described, with the Tiger install DVD in the SuperDrive of the G5 Quad.

 

Since in Target Mode the G5 Quad boots just fine of the G4 HD, I think I can rule out the Hard Drive.

 

I think I can rule out the battery too, as it boots fine in Target Mode and in the regular boot process it sometimes gets as far as playing the OS fresh install music after going through the registration process.

 

I do have the original install disks with AHT 2.0.2 that came with the G4, but I can't get the optical drives open to insert the disk in either one of them.

 

I'm thinking it could be bad RAM, but why would the optical drives be stuck, both of them??!

 

I'd be most grateful for any tips as to what to try next.

PowerMac, Mac OS X (10.4.11), 2.5G5Quad,16GB,7800GTX 512MB, Tiger

Posted on Sep 2, 2012 9:28 AM

Close

Q: MDD DP G4 elusive diagnosis - freezes during boot up.  Tired… HELP!

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

Previous Page 2
  • by japamac,Helpful

    japamac japamac Sep 3, 2012 5:24 AM in response to Ramón G Castañeda
    Level 7 (24,390 points)
    Sep 3, 2012 5:24 AM in response to Ramón G Castañeda

    I'm not even sure I understand the first instruction to "jump all hard drives Cable Select and place the intended Master on the end connector of each IDE ribbon (each bus)."

    There are three ATA buses in the MDD. Two are used for hard drives, one for optical drives.

    The ATA/66 (front) and the ATA/100 (rear) buses are used for hard drives. Hard drives need to have jumpers placed on them to make the drives Cable Select.

     

    True to the name of the jumped mode of the drive, the drive which is desired to be the Master or the main boot drive must be placed on the end connector of the IDE ribbon. This drive is then designated as Master due to its position on the cable, while the drive on the middle connector is designated as Slave due to its position; thus Cable Select.

     

    The jumpers and position are important to allow the machine to find the proper boot source.

     

    Many IDE drives have a label on them showing the pin/jumper position for Master/Slave/Cable Select.

    Others can be found on the net:

    Jumper Settings (PDF)  - Western Digital

    Basic jumper settings for Seagate Barracuda ATA Hard Drives

    Basic jumper settings for Maxtor ATA Hard Drives

    Simple Installation Guide Hitachi Deskstar

  • by Ramón G Castañeda,

    Ramón G Castañeda Ramón G Castañeda Sep 3, 2012 3:02 PM in response to japamac
    Level 4 (1,468 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 3, 2012 3:02 PM in response to japamac

    Thank you so much for elaborating, japamac.

     

    Now I begin to understand that I screwed up big time when I simply pulled out the two front drives, including the larger drive that was the boot drive , and did nothing in regard to cables, position, jumpers or anything else, simply installing the OS in one of the two read rives (not even knowing which one, and leaving the front bay empty and the cables loose (I think; it's been a while now). 

     

    I will try to digest your explanation and figure out where and how the two remaining drives (front or rear?) should end up, where the jumpers belong and which should be the masters.

     

    I'm pretty sure I'll be back here with more questions.

     

    Hope that will be to solve my issue in the end, 'cause I'm not inclined to mess with the re-seating of the CPU.

     

    Thanks a bunch.

Previous Page 2