Powermac G4 pci can't get to boot

You hold down the 'C' key down when the Mac first powers up and chimes to start the Mac from a CD/DVD.

To find out what PowerMac model you have look at the back of the Tower.

There should be a plate or sticker that has the year, CPU speed and amount of RAM installed when first purchased.

That'll help all of us here to know where to start helping with your Mac issues.

Is the Jaguar disk a retail disc with white background and furry looking X?

You're going to need either a full retail OS X install disc or a set of system restore discs.

For the restore discs, You need to contact Apple in order to get OS X 10.4 Tiger from Apple, assuming they still have copies.

Apple Store Customer Service at 1-800-676-2775

These discs will be replacement OS install discs. You will need to give the rep your Mac model and serial number and you'll, also, need a credit card as there is a nominal fee of around $18 for processing and shipping of the disc/s.

The serial number should be on the plate or sticker you found all of the other info.

Assuming the optical drive still works in this Mac, those replacement system restore discs should boot up the Mac.

The Power Mac G4 "PCI Graphics" models (400 MHz & 350 MHz) were manufactured in 1999 and shipped with OS 8.6. Their Restore disk (with 8.6), even if available, would serve little purpose at this point. It's not modern enough to familiarize your son with the Mac OS. The PCI Graphics G4s are capable of running OS 10.4.x (Tiger), but the retail/universal installer disk - which is what you'd need to purchase - is typically a DVD disk, not a CD. This wouldn't be considered a "replacement" install disk for that model.

You should be aware of certain limitations for that PowerPC processor-based Mac:

(1) It cannot boot from a USB device. For booting from an external device, you need a FireWire-connected optical or hard drive. Not all FireWire-connected optical drives will boot the computer. Certain brands were more Mac-compatible than others, with Pioneer being at the top of the list.

(2) Model-specific OS X Restore disks for newer Macs won't boot that Mac. It needs the retail versions, which are universal installer disks, designed to install on a number of models. There are no legal, downloadable versions of OS X installer disks, so this isn't the venue to discuss the use of them.

(3) Running a version of OS X, such as Tiger, requires more than 64 MBs of RAM. That model uses PC-100 or PC-133 non-parity, unregistered SDRAM, with a (16-chip) 256 MB DIMM being the largest that can be accommodated in each memory slot. With (4) memory slots, the memory is maxed out at 1 GB. To run Tiger, I'd recommend at least 512 MBs minimally.

(4) That slot below the optical drive is an Iomega Zip 100 drive and not a floppy drive.

(5) If it needs to be replaced, the maximum capacity hard drive that's supported by the onboard ATA controller is 128 GBs. The drive should be configured as "Master," because Cable Select isn't supported. It would need to be formatted as a Mac OS Extended (HFS+) volume, using "Disk Utility" on the OS X installer disk.

I'm assuming that the specs that you listed were printed on the sticker on the back of the computer, so it's possible that some of them have changed with previous upgrades, such as the 30 GB hard drive. At 14 years-old, the PCI Graphics G4s will only provide a dated perspective of Macs in general. If you have to spend another $30-$50+ to upgrade the OS and any hardware components, you will have invested more money than the computer is worth in 2013.

Hi Jeff,

FYI,

So far as I am still aware, Apple has been supplying white OS X replacement OS restore discs for older Mac models, including PowerMacs. I paid for both a set of OS X 10.4 Tiger and OS X 10.5 Leopard replacement discs since I was given a choice, based on my Mac model and serial number, from the Apple sales rep I spoke to.

The discs are all white and have written on them" OS restore OS X 10.4.x OR OS X 10.5.x replacement disc not for sale."

My PowerMac G4 MDD is from 2003, so I am not sure how far back Apple is supplying these discs.

They are NOT the original OS restore discs that were installed on older Macs originally.

These discs are the last versions of OS X that can run on a particular model Mac based on model and serial number.

I, also, have a set of OS white replacement restore discs for my newer 2009, 27 inch screen iMac.

Michel:

Thanks for the info - that's very interesting. Years ago and well before OS X, Apple's Support Related Fulfillment department sold OS installer disks, driver disks, and even (downloadable) system component updates on either CDs or floppy disks for their various products. Some were the original OS installation/restore disks, and some were label color-differentiated from the retail disks to prevent profiteers from buying/re-selling these disks. I haven't ordered any software from them in years, and the fact that this practice isn't well-known may account for the remaining inventory of OS X installer disks for PowerPC Macs. Even if capable of running it, I wonder if the original computer must have shipped with a version of OS X, to qualify for a "replacement" (but up-to-date) OS X disk? Would they sell a Panther or Tiger disk to an owner of a beige G3, when it's not officially supported and would require XPostFacto to install? In some cases, the decision to accommodate the customer's request comes down to the individual answering the call.

This is the actual white replacement disc that Apple sent me for my PowerMac G4 MDD.