4400 halts during bootup asking for updated installer - why?

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Level 1

5 points

4400 halts during bootup asking for updated installer - why?

I'm rebuilding a 4400/200, which shows great promise but halts during boot up with a dialogue asking for an updated installer disk. The only button is "restart".

I want to run the 4400 on OS7.5.3 which it supports so I've installed it on an external scsi HD. It starts to boot, the little happy Mac icon shows then the dreaded dialogue box appears. I've tried to boot from CD (Gen Apple OS7.5.3 CDROM) zapped the PRAM, taken the internal IDE drive out (that has OS9.2 - planning to erase it).
My concern is the 4400 also stops when booting from "Disk Tools 2" on floppy, my other 4400 (OS9.1) works fine from that.

Any ideas why the 4400 should start to boot correctly then throw up the "correct installer disk needed" dialogue?

IIfx Performa200 Classic II Classic SE Plus 512 mad eh?, Mac OS 8.6 or Earlier, Restore and use the olde stuff

Posted on Mar 14, 2011 2:25 AM

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Answer 1

VintageRocks Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 14, 2011 2:38 AM in response to VintageRocks

Just a little more info: the 4400 chimes correctly, access whichever drive I ask it to, access that drive and starts to load, up pops the startup screen and little happy Mac icon.

The dialoge box message is exactly this:
"This startup disk will not work on this Mac model. Use latest installer to update this disk for this model."

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Answer 2

Mar 14, 2011 4:31 AM in response to VintageRocks

Vintage,

The first question is if you have a universal install disk or one that was specific to one model of mac? With older OS installations, you could select universal install. Using an external SCSI hard drive is a good option, just make sure it is universal.

Have you tried starting with the shift key down to skip installing extensions?

Jim

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Answer 3

VintageRocks Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 14, 2011 7:01 AM in response to VintageRocks

Thanks for the comments Jim
I used the minimum universal install from the OS7.5.3 CDROM onto my external scsi HD. I did try the full universal install but that hung for some reason during installing it onto the external disk, so at the moment I don't have access to that.
I don't have a OS9 CDROM, this 4400 is min spec and know OS9 would be slow and always short on memory (I plundered it for my working 4400) hence OS7.

Yes I have tried holding shift down on bootup but alas still the same response from the 4400.

I am wondering if, the system expects to see OS9 and nothing else will do, but I would have thought zapping the PRAM would have cleared that. A mystery.

Any suggestions, pls keep them coming.

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Answer 4

Jeff

Level 6

12,058 points

Mar 14, 2011 8:52 AM in response to VintageRocks

To clarify, a universal install and a Universal/Retail OS 7.5.3 installer disk are not referring to the same thing. Is there a specific Mac model number (Performa or Power Mac) printed on the CD that you're using? If so - and it's not the 4400, that would explain the error message. Your 4400 was unlike most of the Power Macs made at that time, with its ATAPI optical drive bus and use of 3.3-volt EDO memory DIMMs. If you use another Mac's Restore disk (even though it contains the supported OS 7.5.3) for this computer, the software build would likely be missing key components in the System Folder.

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Answer 5

VintageRocks Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 14, 2011 1:23 PM in response to VintageRocks

Thanks for the clues, there may be a simple but yet obvious solution... I'm slightly embarrassed.. ahem... might need System Enabler 827 - any suggestions where I can get this beastie?

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Answer 6

Jeff

Level 6

12,058 points

Mar 14, 2011 9:15 PM in response to VintageRocks

You may be out of luck, because System Enabler 827 is probably only found on the 4400's OS 7.5.3 Restore disk. Because the 4400 had a different architecture from the other Power Macs, OS 7.5's built-in, universal System enabler doesn't fully cover it. OS 7.5.5 and 7.6 aren't supported on the 4400/200, but OS 7.6.1 is, which has a universal enabler. You might want to try eBay for the full-install OS 7.6.1 retail/universal installer disk. I think that there was an OS 7.6.1 Update disk, which merely updated OS 7.6 to 7.6.1. If you're interested, here's the full 7.6.1 installer disk. Otherwise, try to find the 4400 Restore disk.

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