How much OS X and apps can I delete?

If the disc is booting from the external optical drive, then that's a good thing.

Is the Leopard disc a retail disc with a Black X with a multi colored star background or a gray colored disc?

I do not know why your eMac is going into open firmware mode. This should not be happening.

If the leopard disc is a retail install disc, you should be able to start it from the holding down the C key after the start up chime, the Finder on disc will start with an X. on the screen that says to restart your Mac. You click to restart on the disc, then the disc should boot again the OS X installer where you should just be able to begin the install and follow along the link I sent you.

If the disc/s you have are grey colored discs, then these will not work.

Grey colored discs are Mac computer specific and are designed to work with those specific Mac models.

They do not work across all Mac years and models.

In case you do not have the actual retail discs, this is what you actually need.

http://www.amazon.com/Apple-Version-10-5-6-Leopard-VERSION/dp/B000FK88JK/ref=sr_ 1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1391665527&sr=8-

2&keywords=OS+X+10.5+Leopard

OR This

http://www.amazon.com/Apple-10-5-4-Leopard-Full-Install/dp/B0055OG7RQ/ref=sr_1_1 8?ie=UTF8&qid=1391665755&sr=8-18&keywords=OS+X+10.5+Leopard

Avoid buying open box OS software as the discs maybe damaged.

Okay,

i know what these discs are. You called Apple and ask for a replacement install disc and they sent you thosd discs.

I have a set of those type of discs for my iMac as I bought my iMac used and it came with no install discs, either.

There is nothing you can do about the firmware.

Firmware is the basic software routines that are burned into a system ROM chip, that is on your eMac's logic board, that is responsible for basic startup routines necessary to help boot your eMac.

When your eMac chimes (this is, also, part of the system firmware) there are a series of commands and routines that are going on to get your Mac started and booted to your eMac's operating system.

This is Firmware in a nutshell. It is needed and there is nothing that is wrong with this.

This eMac is old, when you opened up the RAM access area and installed the new RAM, did you notice a small half-height AA battery behind or above or below the two RAM slots?

This half-height AA battery is called a PRAM battery. PRAM stand for ParameterRAM.

This battery is responsible for keeping all of the user settings and preferences for different things you setup up on your Mac when your operating system is running (things like setting the date and time, desktop screen savers or pictures, how your system is generally setup, etc.).

If this is the original battery or it only has been replaced once, the PRAM battery only lasts, at best, 5-7 years.

I am thinking that you are having these difficulties because this battery is probably dead or almost dead.

When this battery dies, all sorts of weird system anomalies can happen.

I would like to elimate all hardware issues.

I need you to replace this battery.

Radio Shack has these batteries, but they charge way too much for them (over $20 dollars).

OWC has these batteries for $4.00, but you will have to wait a few days to get this

Here is a link to OWC and the PRAM battery that your eMac uses.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/BAA36VPRAM/

RobbieDH wrote:

Hey Allan,

... First off, I googled how to install it. went to a site, I don't recall now, downloaded something to help install it. Tried to install and realized it's a DVD and I don't have a DVD drive. So I deleted to program I installed. ...

Pity. I suspect that this could be the nub of your 'restart' problem. One needs to be careful when deleting software because deleting the app itself may leave behind ancilliary software in odd places that will need to be de-installed too.

It's a shame that you didn't record what that software was so that someone can assist. Software like 'CleanMyMac', and others like it, delete your apps for you and also seek out and destroy their ancilliary files too. They still produce versions for older Macs. You just need to ask for the older Tiger/Leopard version when ordering. Might be worth a try, if you can still boot-up normally to use your eMac.

Rack your brains or 'google' again to see if you can remember / find that software again.

I'm aware that possibly you used the apps own "Uninstaller" to de-install that programme. However I think this unlikely as you have experienced these problems only after de-installation.

Is there something wrong with your eMac's built-in DVD drive?

Here's something else that no one appears to have suggested already. It's booting into 'Safe Mode'.

Instead of holding down the 'C' key, hold down the Cmd + 'Shift' keys on performing a restart. Hold them when you hear the chime, then continue to hold them until you see the spinning gear wheel on your screen. When you see the spinning gear wheel it will be safe to let go of the keys. There will now be an extended period of time whilst you eMac clears out loads of junk, mostly cache files, and replaces them. Corrupted cache files also can cause odd results. Eventually you will get the Log In screen once more. The words Safe Boot will be in red somewhere on your screen - I forget where exactly - it has changed position in later Mac OS releases.

No need to log in now. Just restart normally. See how it goes.

Play around for a while and make sure all is okay before worrying about installing any other version of Mac OS.

Still think all of the OP's issues are from a dying or dead PRAM battery.

A dead PRAM battery can cause all sorts of flaky computer behavior.