Power Mac G4 cannot boot from CD

Your Mac will only be able to boot from a disc (CD/DVD) that is either a "Full Retail" disc issued AFTER your Mac was released, or a Mac-specific disc for your Mac (not for a different Mac, which will contain different drivers and omit some drivers you need to boot).

"Full Retail" OS 9 discs are white with a large yellow-gold 9. But some of these are not appropriate for your Mac depending on exactly which Mac you have. What speed CPU do you have? single or dual?

"Full Retail" for Mac OS X 10.2 jaguar are white with a large X with jaguar fur. 10.3 and later are black with various large silver-white X in several variations.

"Mac specific" discs are orange, blue-gray, or gray, and mention which Macs they are intended for. There are also "Update", "Not-for-Resale", and "Drop in" discs which are for specific narrow purposes.

Welcome to Apple Discussions!

Also depending on the age of the QuickSilver, some were less than 867 Mhz, which meant they couldn't take 10.5, and could only take 10.4.6 retail or earlier.

Also if the clock battery hasn't been replaced in more than 4 years, it can affect booting as well.

The iMac G3 Firewire models can only take up to 10.4.6 retail, and not 10.5 or later. Furthermore, some did not come with a DVD drive, and needed an external Firewire DVD drive to load 10.4.0 or later retail. The iMac G3s without Firewire can only take up to 10.3.5 retail.

10.5.6 retail can be updated to 10.5.8 via Apple's support website.

10.4.6 retail can be updated to 10.4.11 via Apple's support website.

10.3.5 retail can be updated to 10.3.9 via Apple's support website.

So the first question, identify your iMac G3, and identify your QuickSilver's age:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58669
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58207
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=42739

Hi rapheek, and a warm welcome to the forums & Macdom! 🙂

Great help here so far!

It may help to Post the exact wording & numbers on the Disc you're trying to boot from.

Did you set the Jumpers correctly on the Hard Drive)s)?