My iBook G3 Dual USB "Snow", Mac OS X 10.3.9 installed, doesn't read cd-roms, neither from the internal drive (MATSHITA DVD-ROM) nor from an external USB one. The latter works ok with the same cd-rom on a current laptop. Where should I start checking (I guess software wise)? Thanks in advance.
This could possibly be an operating system issue, but you should try running a hardware test on it to see if there is some other reason the CD-ROM Drive isn't reading any CD-ROM discs. Information on how to preform a hardware test can be found here. I'm not sure if its different for PowerPC machines but try that. Hope this helps.
Sorry for the long wait, my posting limit was up. I would recommend that you image a USB flash drive with the hardware test disc if possible as that is a possible workaround for the disc if you have another mac with a disc drive in it. If you don't then you could search online for a disk image of an Apple Hardware Test Disc, thats what I would recommend. If you don't know how to image a USB flash drive from a disc you should see this article (the imaging part of the article is further down). Hope this helps.
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Read all repliesThis could possibly be an operating system issue, but you should try running a hardware test on it to see if there is some other reason the CD-ROM Drive isn't reading any CD-ROM discs. Information on how to preform a hardware test can be found here. I'm not sure if its different for PowerPC machines but try that. Hope this helps.
Hi Ethan395, thanks a lot for the quick answer!
But from that link:
The iBook Snow is from 2001, and has OS X 10.3.9 installed. Needless to say, I have the original Apple Hardware Test disc, but it doesn't read it...
How should I check the operating system possible issue? Or do anything else?
Thanks again, anyway.
Sorry for the long wait, my posting limit was up. I would recommend that you image a USB flash drive with the hardware test disc if possible as that is a possible workaround for the disc if you have another mac with a disc drive in it. If you don't then you could search online for a disk image of an Apple Hardware Test Disc, thats what I would recommend. If you don't know how to image a USB flash drive from a disc you should see this article (the imaging part of the article is further down). Hope this helps.
Hi Ethan395, thanks again for your time and answer!
So, with a current MacBook I've downloaded the image for that computer from Apple (018-1680-A.dmg for the record) and made a USB flash drive partition of 670Mb, restoring the .dmg image on it with Disk Utility. Then I plugged in the USB drive in the iBook, and went to System Preferences / Startup disc. Once the USB drive system appears (OS 9.2.2 it says), I select it and then click restart. But after confirming "restart" I hear a system sound (like when you can't do something) and nothing happens. I've tried a few times (also after fresh restart), unfortunately with the same result.
What should I do?
Thanks a lot, anyway.
You should consider reinstalling the OS on your iBook (be sure to back up any important information) as that could potentially fix the issue but it could be a hardware issue as well. If you can and know how to work on computers, open up the iBook and verify that the connector between the CD-ROM Drive and the logic board is snug and fit as the issue could also be that the connector isn't in correctly.
Hi again and thank you!
I have no important information there and I'd just love to reinstall the OS, actually that's the main purpose. I can try to open it, I did long time ago, but before that, let me ask two questions:
Thanks again for your time.
Well, if the external drive behaves the same way then I could be wrong about the connection issue thing, I think I am. And for your second question, i'm not 100% sure why your iBook is rejecting your USB Drive, it could be a number of things. And if you need help finding images for OS X 10.0-10.3 I know WinWorldPC has a good collection of images for download. If you don't have any other installation media to use for the installation they have the images as i've personally used their images for lots of things.
Another useful link, thanks a lot. But I don't know how to proceed, as, anyway, even if I create other USB drive partitions with the boot discs of any OS X compatible version, I can't apparently select a different drive to boot from, USB drive or even HDD (I just tried with an old external USB with OS X 10.4 installed on it). If you still have time, I'm wondering:
In any case, thanks a lot again for sharing your knowledge.
I mean, for your first question, i'm not aware of any way to check on the status of the dvd drive, but I do know if you go into disk utility, something like this will show up if the computer does detect a drive. And you could fresh install OS X onto the drive by formatting the iBooks drive and installing OS X onto it again with installation media. If you do have access to installation media you can make into a disc image if it isn't already and flash it to a USB drive, then connect the drive to the iBook and hold down the option/alt key on boot to enter the boot picker, then select you usb drive and proceed with the installation from there, utilities such as terminal, disk utility, and others should be included in the disc image. Let me know if you need any more help.
Thank you once more. Two news: 1. None of the dvd readers (neither the internal nor the external) are showing up in Disk Utility. 2. Rebooting with option pressed it allows me to choose from where to boot (finally!). So after refusing to boot from the Hardware Test partition (restored form an image), I'm now restoring an image of 9.2.1 and will try to reboot from there. Fingers crossed, I'll post how it goes tomorrow.
Thank you.
No problem! It was a pleasure helping you out! Good luck.
Ok. The positive news is that it started to reboot from a partition for the very first time, after selecting it (reboot + option), the negative news is that after a happy mac screen, it gets stuck on that, and after 30 minutes I switched it off (I tried twice). To me it seems to lack some essential pieces of the OS, for some reason. Will try with 10.3 images today. Thanks.
Oh oof, yeah you might need to try with something newer, but I know that the iBook G3 "Snow" is capable of running 9.1 and up so its strange why it wouldn't accept the 9.2 image. Good luck, and let me know if you need any more help.
Ok, another day of testing.
To summarise again: main problem to solve: boot from 1.cd-rom or 2.USB, or 3.hdd
Doesn’t read cd-rom from internal nor from external dvd-reader (tested ok on another computer).
The two dvd readers are not shown in Disk Utility
Reads ok floppies, USB Drives, HDD
Failed to even switch to bootable partitions on USB drive when asked through System Preference/Startup Disc
Rebooting with ‘option’ pressed it allows to select the USB partition.
Rebooting with downloaded OS 9 install disk image, gets stuck on Happy Macintosh screen (no mouse response)
Rebooting with downloaded 10.3 disc, gets kernel panic
Rebooting with original OS 9 install disk image, gets stuck on Happy Macintosh screen (no mouse response)
Rebooting with original Apple Hardware Test image, just returns to the selection of startup discs
Rebooting with original 10.1 image, gets ‘broken system folder’ and spinning coloured wheel (no mouse response)
Rebooting with ‘shift’ pressed it boots after a while in safe mode.
In safe mode I run Disk Utility and verify/Repair privileges on Macintosh HD.
This is the final result:
Determining correct file permissions.
We are using special permissions for the file or directory ./Library/ColorSync/Profiles/Displays. New permissions are 16893
We are using special permissions for the file or directory ./Library/ColorSync/Profiles. New permissions are 16893
We are using special permissions for the file or directory ./System/Library/Filesystems/cd9660.fs/cd9660.util. New permissions are 33261
We are using a special uid for the file or directory ./private/var/at/jobs. New uid is 1
We are using a special uid for the file or directory ./private/var/at/spool. New uid is 1
The one about cd9660.util should be related to the cd-rom.
How can I repair it?
Other suggestions?
Thanks!
From the kernel panic information, it looks to be an issue with loading a driver or kext. "panic(cpu 0): Unable to find driver for this platform: "PowerBook4,1"." I did some other research on cd9660.util and it seems to be a utility for mounting ISO 9660 filesystems into a device's directory hierarchy. If you haven't tried the images for 10.2 or 10.4 then give those a try and see what outcome you get, as far as I know I believe your model of iBook is capable of going all the way up to 10.4. Let me know if you run into any other issues or problems, i'll be happy to help.
Question: iBook G3 Dual USB "Snow", doesn't read cd-roms
