im getting the dreaded 4 beep bad boot rom message emac 1ghz

Hi djl200987 , and welcome to Apple Discussions.

from
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1547

4 beeps = no good boot images in the boot ROM (and/or bad sys config block)

Try starting up in safe mode. Link is below.
Starting up in Safe Mode

Hi there,

eMacs should be ok with tiger without any
firmware updates:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1395

I guess you could try some error checking
on your HD and maybe permissions too
while you're booted up in safe mode.

-chops

Hi djl,

Perhaps I should have given you this link as well
What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode? (Mac OS X)
Apart from other things it is a quick way of doing the equivalent of Disk Repair, something that may correct your ROM chip setting.

As it has started OK, that theory is looking good.
Now see if it restarts normally thereafter.
I agree with Chopsuey about Tiger not needing firmware updating, eMacs are fine re; firmware.

(Chops: he has already done a disk check from the Safeboot, but thanks for your input. It is welcome)

Hope you are happy on your return from Cancun and your eMac also.

Hey,

I thought those 500 gig SATA drives won't work in an eMac.
How'd they get them in there?

Ok well there are IDE drives that big but hard to find, so I read.

-chops

Message was edited by: Chopsuey

Ok.

Seems the Powermac G4 guys are doing 500 gigs and it works for them.

This page I found seems to be informative:
http://lowendmac.com/macdan/05/1024.html

-chops

Message was edited by: Chopsuey

I have the exact same problem. And problem is, I can't get it to boot to get to the "safemode". I get the 4 beeps then it sits there and the light blinks on and off.

Could this be the battery as I read somewhere?

This is my moms computer and I don't have the specifics on what year exactly. I can tell you it's one of the first ones and I believe it to be 700 mhz. The copyright on the computer says 2003.

It used to boot a month ago. Although you had to do it a few times to get it to boot. It would do the beeping and then after a while I got the good tone. It would eventually. But not no more. Last thing I did to it was start up in target mode and ran both Disk Utilities and Disk Warrior 4 on it. DW 4 found no problems. Neither did the Disk Utility. Although it did fix some permissions.

Any ideas guys? Thank you in advance.

Replaced battery. That did nothing.

Any other ideas? Thank you in advance.

Hey Bob,
This is from the service manual for the 700 - 800 .
BTW, post the info that's printed on the back of the optical drive door. It's the original specs on the eMac as it left the factory.
"Verify the battery is good before replacing modules. A drained battery may be indicative of a crashed Power Management Unit. Does the battery measure at least +3.5v? If not, replace the battery and reset the PMU."
Then about the PMU:
"The PMU (Power Management Unit) is a micro controller chip that controls all power functions for the computer. The PMU is a computer within a computer. It has memory, software, firmware, I/O, two crystals, and a CPU. Its function is to:
• Tell the computer to turn on, turn off, sleep, wake, idle, etc.
• Manage system resets from various commands.
• Maintain parameter RAM (PRAM).
• Manage the real-time clock.
Important: The PMU is very sensitive and touching the circuitry on the logic board can cause the PMU to crash. If the PMU crashes, the battery life goes from about five years to about two days if the PMU is not reset. Refer to the next topic, “Resetting the PMU on the Logic Board” for the
procedure."
and
"Many system problems can be resolved by resetting the PMU chip. The PMU reset button is located behind the user access door, refer to the graphic below."
it's next to the battery
"Unplug all cables, except the power cord, from the computer.
5 Touch a metal surface inside the computer. Then unplug the power cord.This helps protect the
computer from damage caused by electrostatic discharge. Important: To avoid electrostatic
discharge, always ground yourself by touching metal before you touch any parts or install components
inside the computer. To avoid generating static electricity, do not walk around the room until you have
finished the procedure and closed the computer.
6 Press the PMU reset button (shown below) once and then proceed to step 7. Do NOT press the
PMU reset button a second time because it could crash the PMU chip.
7 WAIT ten seconds before connecting the power cord and powering the computer on. If the
computer powers on, go to the next step. If the computer does not power on, there is something
else wrong with the computer, refer to the symptom/cure, “No Power” in this chapter."
Richard

Did you ever find a solution to this problem? I've run into 6 at one of the schools in my district with this issue. 3 of them were solved by swapping the RAM (each has 2 sticks of 256 MB) to the other slot in the machine (This probably just reseated the RAM, so it was not necessary to switch slots) and resetting the PMU. The other 3 were not fixed by doing this. Turns out, they each had a bad stick of RAM. As soon as I replaced the bad stick and reset the PRAM, the machines booted up fine.