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native boot iMac g4 800 17"

I am trying to boot natively in OS 9 with a g4 800 iMac 17", I used a retail disc to install the system folder and classic into .4.11 and I can select 9.2.2 as a startup disc but the video is all garbled upon boot, classic works fine though. What did I do wrong?

iMac G4 800, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Jul 7, 2010 4:35 AM

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Posted on Jul 7, 2010 5:42 AM

Your iMac came with a special version of OS 9.2.2 pre-installed. You have to use the install discs that came with the iMac to install a bootable OS 9.2.2.

 Cheers, Tom 😉

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4 replies

Jul 7, 2010 5:48 AM in response to Dr. Daniel Jackson

Hi, Dr. Jackson -

I read your other topic on this issue in the iMac G4 forum.

The problem probably stems from your use of a retail OS 9 Install CD. That model iMac G4 came with a model-specific version of OS 9.2.2. I understand you do not have the original disks for that machine.

In order to use a retail disk, I assume you used one for OS 9.2.1 and then updated that to OS 9.2.2.

Your iMac G4 has an NVIDIA Geforce4 MX video card. It is probable that the versions of the NVIDIA drivers provided by the OS 9.2..1 install and the OS 9.2.2 update (v. 2.3 and 2.4, respectively) are not sufficient for that card.

Things you can try to ameliorate that -

• Disable or remove all ATI drivers from the Extensions folder in the OS 9 System Folder. These are unneeded for the NVIDIA card, and may cause a conflict. You can do that while booted to OSX and running Classic.

• You can try updating the NVIDIA drivers to v. 3.0. You can download an update for that here -
Article #120110 - NVIDIA Driver Update 3.0

Although the installer for that update will probably not run under Classic, you can extract the set of drivers manually and install them manually. To do that you will need to also download the utility TomeViewer.

While running Classic, use TomeViewer to extract (expand) the NVIDIA drivers from the Tome in the Installer Files folder inside that update (you will need to mount the update's disk image in order to gain access to its contents).

Then quit Classic, and manually replace the older set of NVIDIA drivers with the newer set. As indicated earlier, these will be in the Extensions folder in the System Folder for OS 9.

Note - I would not throw away the older NVIDIA set of extensions. Just place them in a temp folder somewhere outside the System Folder so that they are available if needed.

Then try a boot into OS 9. If this works, then you can toss the older drivers.

Jul 7, 2010 3:16 PM in response to Dr. Daniel Jackson

As with many things in life the simplest answer was staring at me in the face the whole time, I am not really sure why I didn't think of this before but, I copied the system folder from my iBook G3 (which was painful on USB 1.1) and it booted right up on the iMac G4,

Star Trek Judgement Rites at native speeds with all the voices was worth every penny.

🙂

native boot iMac g4 800 17"

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