iMac G3 won't boot to Mac OS 9 CD

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Level 1

20 points

iMac G3 won't boot to Mac OS 9 CD

My iMac G3 (slot-loading) has no OS on it right now and I'm trying to install Mac OS 9 from a Mac OS 9 retail CD I have. It's a full install CD, not an upgrade. So I power it on and it shows the question mark because it has no OS on it so I put in the Mac OS 9 CD and within a few seconds it spits the CD right back out and it will not boot to the CD. It has absolutely no scratches on it and I did a "repair disk" on disk utility on my other intel-based mac and it says the CD "appears to be ok" so why isn't it working?

1.66 Ghz Intel Core Duo Mac Mini & iMac G3, Mac OS X (10.5.3)

Posted on Jun 18, 2008 6:04 PM

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Answer 1

Jun 18, 2008 7:37 PM in response to Jrtechn

Which model is it specifically? This may help.

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/index-imac.html

The problem may be the version of the Mac OS 9 installation CD. If the version of Mac OS 9 is earlier than the OS originally installed on the iMac, it will not work. Mac's generally can boot the OS it shipped with or later, but not earlier. The EveryMac specs page has info about the +shipped with+ OS.

Also, if the disc is for a specific model Mac that is not your iMac, it may not work. The universal retail Mac OS 9 full installation disc is white with a big orange 9. Model-specific discs are often grey.

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Answer 2

Jrtechn Author

Level 1

20 points

Jun 18, 2008 8:45 PM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

Yeah it's the slot-loading bondi blue iMac G3. It has a 400 Mhz PowerPC G3 processor. I also tried a Mac OS 9.2.1 full install CD I bought recently and it just ejected it within 3 seconds. I also installed 10.4 Tiger on it and tried to do it from there and it ejected the Mac OS 9.2.1 CD before it even mounted. It originally had Mac OS 9.0 on it but neither 9.0 or 9.2 will work.

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Answer 3

Jun 18, 2008 9:18 PM in response to Jrtechn

If you have Tiger on it, and the CD will not mount to the Mac OS X desktop, it it possible that the CDROM drive is faulty. I think you are saying it does not work with two different CDROMs (9.0 or 9.2), so it's not the CDROM. Even if it does not boot the iMac for some reason, it should still appear on the desktop when you are booted into Tiger.

You can try resetting the PRAM, but I don't think it will have impact on your issue.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379

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Answer 4

spudnuty

Level 5

7,116 points

Jun 18, 2008 9:30 PM in response to Jrtechn

JR,

I also installed 10.4 Tiger on it and tried to do it from there and it ejected the Mac OS 9.2.1 CD before it even mounted.

So it read the Tiger installer and installed on that machine? But now it won't read a OS 9 disk?
I had this problem with a bunch of 400s after I installed 10.3.9 and they wouldn't read the 9 installer until I booted from a 8.6 original iMac installer for that machine. After that they worked fine. This after I bought 4 replacement optical drives thinking they were all bad.
I've since circumvented this problem by using a FireWire optical drive.
Richard

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Answer 5

Jrtechn Author

Level 1

20 points

Jun 19, 2008 8:36 AM in response to spudnuty

Firewire optical drive? that's kind of out of my budget. I also tried using a Mac OS 8.6 install CD and it ejects it every time. I guess I'll have to buy a Mac OS 9 CD. ughhh

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Answer 6

Jun 19, 2008 8:45 AM in response to Jrtechn

Wait... If you had (or have) Tiger installed, and you were not able to mount the CDs to the Mac OS X desktop, I would suspect that the drive is faulty. As I said already, not being able to boot from a particular CD is one thing; not being able to mount a good CD (any CD) while already booted is a probably a different problem.

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Answer 7

Jrtechn Author

Level 1

20 points

Jun 19, 2008 8:51 AM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

but it will work with every other CD I used that drive to install Tiger on it. So I guess my CD(s) are faulty.

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Answer 8

Jun 19, 2008 8:54 AM in response to Jrtechn

That's true, if you recently used the drive to install Tiger. Is your Tiger disc a DVD? Maybe it has problems only with CDs, although that would be a odd problem to have...

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Answer 9

Jrtechn Author

Level 1

20 points

Jun 19, 2008 8:58 AM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

yes it is a DVD. It's strange because I've tried other CDs and they work fine.

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Answer 10

Jun 28, 2008 9:10 AM in response to Jrtechn

Here's a link to a page where you can download firmware updaters for the Matshita SR-8184 slot loading DVD-ROM drive: http://lasvegas.rpc1.org/SR8184AX32.sit. If you can get Classic Installed via a official Mac OS 9 CD-ROM than this flasher will flash your drive to RPC1 while booted into Mac OS 9. Good luck!

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Answer 11

Jrtechn Author

Level 1

20 points

Jul 1, 2008 8:03 PM in response to Craigwd_2000

I successfully got Mac OS 9.2.2 on it but every time I put it the Mac OS 9 CD it still ejects it right away. I tried installing that firmware update while running in OS 9 and I just got an error message saying it wasn't the right firmware. I checked the optical drive and I'm sure it's a matshita but it's a DVD-ROM slot-loading drive. Where can I get the right one?

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Answer 12

Jrtechn Author

Level 1

20 points

Jul 2, 2008 9:13 AM in response to Jrtechn

firmware...

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Answer 13

Jul 6, 2008 8:17 AM in response to Jrtechn

Is it a Matshita SR-8184 or a Matshita SR-8184-B? If it's the Matshita SR-8184-B there's a different firmware update available for that drive to make it RPC1 too.

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Answer 14

Jrtechn Author

Level 1

20 points

Jul 6, 2008 9:49 AM in response to Craigwd_2000

it's the SR-8184-B. Where can I get it?

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Answer 15

Jul 7, 2008 7:39 AM in response to Jrtechn

The main forum.rpc1.org server seems to be down at the moment. I'm going to keep monitoring their site & I'll post the link here if it comes back up & becomes available again.

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