iMac G3 slot loading PRAM reset

Question

Level 1

6 points

iMac G3 slot loading PRAM reset

I have an old slot loading iMac G3 400 hz. I just installed 1 Gig of RAM I had laying around, and I also disconnected the drives. (I bought the thing used for $10, and it says on the bottom that it should have a 10 gig HD, but the properties says 6 gig, so I wanted to see what the drive actually said on it. It apparently has been opened up before) I'm kind of a tinkerer.

The PRAM battery was dead and the time showed a date in 1969. I replaced the battery, pushed the pram rest button and restarted it.

It seems to be going through some sort of reload of the whole computer which is taking a very long time. I can hear the hard drive chatter very repetitiously and then the DVD drive went through some kind of reset, spinning up and making strange noises. It took forever after turning it on and earring the startup tone for the desk top to show up and now for ANY app to start as well. What's happening and is this normal?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.7)

Posted on Jun 7, 2011 5:44 PM

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Answer 1

Jeff

Level 6

12,316 points

Jun 7, 2011 10:20 PM in response to winndl

I have (3) iMac 400 MHz G3 slot-loaders and none shipped with a 6 GB hard drive. The original drive must have been replaced with a smaller capacity one. The delay and strange noises may be telling you that the drive is failing and that the computer is alternately attempting to boot from the optical drive. Out of curiosity, do you know if one or more disks is/are inserted/jammed in the optical drive? You should consider replacing the hard drive with a newer/larger one (max. 128 GBs recognition), but you'll need a universal/retail OS installer disk for the version you choose to run. Before doing so, you should check the iMac's firmware version using the System Profiler. It should have been updated to 4.1.9, if it has been running Jaguar or newer.

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Answer 2

winndl Author

Level 1

6 points

Jun 7, 2011 11:11 PM in response to Jeff

Thats the conclusion I've come to as well. I'm pretty sure the HD is bad, but now I can't get the DVD to work right either. It doesn't have any disks jammed in it, but I've tried to put in the eMac software install and restore disk that used to install 10.3.3 and the drive just makes a bunch of growling noises. Same thing when I try to boot it from the DVD drive. I ordered a 80g HD last week, but it hasn't delivered yet.

It was working fine, until I upgraded the RAM and took the drive tray out and put it back in. I've double and triple checked the connections. They're all fine. And then I replaced the battery and reset.

Could BOTH drives gone belly up at the same time, or did I do something?

I'm pretty sure the firmware needs to be upgraded, but it WAS working fine.

And I don't have an OS9 disk to install in order to upgrade the firmware.

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Answer 3

Jeff

Level 6

12,316 points

Jun 8, 2011 8:10 AM in response to winndl

Is the hard drive's configuration jumper installed for "master" or "master w/slave," and not "single" or "cable select?" If that's correctly configured, perhaps the special ribbon cable that feeds the HDD and optical drive was marginally damaged by the previous owner during the hard drive downgrade. When disconnecting the drives, your manipulation of the cable may have worsened an existing short in it, causing the current problems. On the other hand, it's possible that both drives could coincidentally/concurrently go bad, given their ages. Running OS X (10.2.x ->) without upgrading the firmware could cause the display to go black, so if this wasn't a problem, it may have been updated by the previous owner.

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Answer 4

winndl Author

Level 1

6 points

Jun 8, 2011 9:38 AM in response to Jeff

I didn't change anything physically, and everything was working when I installed the Panther disk originally.

I'll try to find a OS9 disc and update the firmware, and if need be, find another dvd drive and/or ribbon.

Thanks for the help.

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Answer 5

rccharles

Level 6

13,037 points

Jun 8, 2011 1:57 PM in response to winndl

Open Firmware, boot into Open Firmware.

Power on your iMac while holding down command+option+o+f

The first output line contains the firmware level. Mine reads:

Apple PowerMac4,1 4.1.9f1 BootRom built on 09/14/01 at 13.18.04

On my machine, I have 4.1.9f1.

What firmware do you need?

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86117

For a slot loading iMac, this article indicates that you need to be running 9.1 or later version of Mac OS Classic.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75130

"The iMac Firmware Update 4.1.9 will only run on iMac computers with lot-loading CD or DVD drives running Mac OS 9.1 or later from a local drive. If you are using Mac OS X you must boot from a local Mac OS 9.1 or later writeable partition (not a CD, or network disk) prior to following the update instructions."

You can download the Mac OS 9 updates from the Apple site.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1387?viewlocale=en_US

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Answer 6

winndl Author

Level 1

6 points

Jun 9, 2011 3:02 PM in response to rccharles

It appears that both the HD and the DVD drive went belly up at the same time. I installed an old 120 gig HD out of an external drive I had laying around, and loaded 10.4.3 with no problem from an external DVD drive. A replacement slot load DVD drive arrived today (off of eBay) and is installed and works great as well.

When the OS 9 disc, that I ordered arrives, I'll update the firmware, but everything looks to be working just fine.

Thanks for all the info and help.

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