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Level 2

249 points

Installs hang on G3 B&W

Hi fellow Mac-lovers,

This Smurf was handed down to me. It had very little memory, a 300Mhz CPU, a small hard drive, and was running 10.1. Piece by peace, I mustered a gig of memory, a 40GB HDD, a Radeon 7000 PCI I had lying around, and finally a Sonnet 500MHZ G4 upgrade, and installed Xubuntu Hardy in it.

Everthing was going well, but I wanted to make sure that the Sonnet CPU was what the seller said it was, and I didn't know how to get that information under Xubuntu, so I erased the HDD and installed 9.2.2. Curiously enough, the CPU was listed as a G3 300Mhz.

I decided to install OS X to make sure, but installing Tiger in the HDD and putting it back didn't work; it would stop halfway during booting and hang there forever. Went back to OS 9, worked fine, still detecting the CPU as a 300Mhz.

Then I decided to install Panther. No go. At the end of the installation of CD 1, it just hangs forever. Tried several times, same luck, or lack thereof. The base OS 9 continued to work, and I checked the HDD using the Disk Utility in the install. Everything looks fine.

Frustrated, I tried Erase and Install with Panther, with the same result, the installer hanging and going nowhere. Tried reinstalling Xubuntu, but the installer also hangs now.

I'm at the end of my wit here. What's going on with this Smurf?

Any feedback will be very appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

P.S. It also has a Sonnet Harmoni PCI card that worked very well in Xubuntu, and should work with the Airport Extreme drivers in Panther, if I ever get to install it...

P.P.S. Now even the OS 9 install hangs...

MacBook Pro, eMac, iMac, Gigabit, MDD, Pismo, Mac OS X (10.5.2), Also Tiger (10.4.11) and OS 9.2.2

Posted on Aug 10, 2008 7:59 AM

21 replies

Sep 5, 2008 7:30 PM in response to Jitanjafora

Call me crazy, I am sitting here with a rev 1 PowerMac G3 350 with 256 after about a year, I think I found the problem why it wouldn't install panther, the computer time. If you have the lugery of another G3, put the PowerMacs Hdd in it, install OS 9, and put it back in the powermac.

Sep 6, 2008 6:13 PM in response to mosesdog2

The computer time is calculated by the 'CUDA chip, and is normally maintained by an "always-on" \[when AC power is available] power supply. When power fails, the PRAM/Clock Backup battery is pressed into service to maintain the time and the System Parameters that make boot-up trouble-free.

If the battery is too low, it cannot maintain the Parameters, and corruption can creep in. Loss of proper date & Time, loss of video \[due to loss of stored screen resolution], flashing question mark at boot, and "machine appears dead" are all symptoms that can be caused by a bad battery.

So if your time has gone back to a time before Apple existed, or you are seeing any of the symptoms listed above, it is probably time to replace the battery. After changing the battery, be sure to press the reset button for a quarter minute and then wait at least five seconds before proceeding.

Sep 13, 2008 9:00 AM in response to Jitanjafora

Also, the drive limitations on a Rev. 1 are significant. My Smurf would not work or install anything properly on any drive larger than a 9 GB originally in my old Beige G3. I finally got it to work properly with a modern drive (a 60GB) by tracking down and installing an old Acard 66 IDE controller card.

Paul Riemerman

Sep 23, 2008 7:57 AM in response to Jitanjafora

Read my post on the B&W G3 Rev 1 mobo with Panther:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3841731&#3841731

Put the G3 300 MHz CPU back in. Replace the batttery & do a CUDA reset.

Then:

1. Update the firmware with APPLE's latest firmware. I used 8.6 to install it but I'm told you can use OS 9.

2. Make sure you are using a USB keyboard. Do NOT use an ADB keyboard.

3. Disconect the ethernet cable.

4. Use 1 stick of memory - I used a 256 MB stick.

5. Take ALL cards out except the video card.

6. Connect only ONE hard drive. I use an Apple 12 GB IDE. Do not use a drive larger than 20 GB.

7. Boot from the OS 9 install CD. Format the HD. Now do a fresh clean install of OS 9.

Once you have all this done and OS 9 is stable, now do the Sonnet G4 upgrade.

Once you have the G4 up and running under OS 9, do your OS X upgrade.

Good luck!

Tony

Sep 23, 2008 8:07 AM in response to Tony Oresteen

Also, download the ATI drivers (retail update) for your Radeon 7000 card from here:

http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/mac/macosx10-2x-radeon.html

Use the OS X 10.2 drivers with OS 9.2. They work with OS 9! Ignore any messages and continue with the install. I just did this and now I can get 1024 x 768 under OS 9.

Jitanjafora Author

Level 2

249 points

Oct 9, 2008 4:27 PM in response to Jitanjafora

Hi everyone,

I got tired of dealing with a non-responsive Smurf and just moved on. Today I check the forum, and surprise! Thanks to everybody for the wealth of advice. I will go back and try out all your suggestions, and see if I can get this old blue beast to work.

Thanks again,

Felix

Installs hang on G3 B&W