BOOT ROM VERSION ISSUES WITH MINI MAC POWERPC G4 (1.2)

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BOOT ROM VERSION ISSUES WITH MINI MAC POWERPC G4 (1.2)

HI,

I AM HAVING SOME BOOT PROBLEMS ON REBUILDING MY MAC MINI. WHENEVER I PUT IN A BRAND NEW COPY OF EITHER PANTHER OR TIGER THE BOOT SCREEN WITH THE APPLE LOGO CRASHES AND FUNNY GRAPHICS APPEARS, RESULTING IN A FORCED REBOOT AND USING F12 TO EJECT THE CD. THE MAC MINI IS FINE BOOTING OFF OF ITS OWN MANUFACTURE CD, WHICH IS A COPY OF PANTHER, BUT WON'T UPGRADE WITH ANY TIGER DISKS. I HAVE EVEN MANAGED TO CHANGE THE DISKS WITH SOMEBODY ELSE WHO WAS SUCCESSFUL IN UPGRADING TO TIGER.
I HAVE LOOKED ON THE INTERNET AND OTHER PEOPLE HAVE EXPERIENCED THE SAME PROBLEM. THEY MENTIONED THAT I SHOULD CHANGE/UPDATE MY BOOT ROM VERSION FROM 4.8.9F1 TO 4.9.8F4.

DOES ANYBODY KNOW WHERE I CAN GET THIS BOOT ROM UPDATE? I HAVE LOOKED ON APPLE DOWNLOADS, BUT NOTHING APPEARS TO HELP. ANY OTHER SUGGESTIONS APPREACIATED.

MANY THANKS

SUPERHEROTIMO

Mac Mini Powermac 10,1, Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Posted on Jul 18, 2006 11:17 AM

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Answer 1

Jul 18, 2006 1:26 PM in response to Superhertimo

Welcome to the Apple Discussions!

First, a word of etiquette, writing your post in ALL CAPS is considered the same thing as yelling. Please don't use ALL CAPS when writing your messages. 🙂

Exactly which Mac mini do you have? Is it a G4 Mac mini running at 1.2, 1.3, 1.4 or 1.5GHz? (If it came with Panther install disks, it couldn't be an Intel Mac mini.) Which version of Mac OS X came with your Mac mini? Some of the earlier Mac minis shipped with Mac OS X 10.3.7 and will not startup from any earlier version (most of the retail copies of Panther are 10.3.0 or 10.3.4). If it's a Mac mini that shipped later, it would have come with Mac OS X 10.4.2 and, again, won't startup from any earlier version (most retail copies of Tiger were 10.4.0 but now have 10.4.4). Trying to startup from a disk that's the wrong version will usually cause a "kernel panic" and force you to restart.

So, if your Mac mini shipped with Mac OS X 10.3.7, you should be able to use any retail copy of Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) to update your computer. However, you won't be able to update to 10.4 from the install disk that came with another Mac. You will need to buy a retail copy of your own.

There are no firmware updates available to download to upgrade the "Boot ROM" on your G4 Mac mini, so that option is really not available.

-Doug

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Answer 2

Superhertimo Author

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Jul 23, 2006 3:52 AM in response to Douglas McLaughlin

Sorry for the caps, did not realise it had a meaning towards yelling.

My mac mini has the follwing specification:

Machine Name: Mac mini
Machine Model: PowerMac10,1
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (1.2)
Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 1.42 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory: 1 GB
Bus Speed: 167 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.8.9f1

It came with Pather install disks and is version 10.3. I have a frsh full retail copy of Panther though, but it won't start up from the disk. I also have retial copies of jaguar and tiger, but they still will not boot up to reinstall. I'm a little stuck and can only use the mac mini disk. It won't let me use the full copy to upgrade from the panther mac mini disk.

ny suggestions of fixes?

Mant thanks

superherotimo

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Answer 3

Jul 23, 2006 4:33 AM in response to Superhertimo

It came with Pather install disks and is version 10.3. I have a frsh full retail
copy of Panther though, but it won't start up from the disk.
I also have retial copies of jaguar and tiger, but they still will not boot up to reinstall.

I can provide a possible answer to your issues with Panther and Jaguar. I'm not sure why Tiger is not working.

Macs will only let you install a version of OSX that is the same or greater then what was included with your mac. For instance, say that your install disk had 10.3.5 but the retail version of panther was only 10.3.2 well then it won't install because its earlier. The same goes for Jaguar, since your mac had Panther on it, Jaguar won't install.

What is the error message you're incurring when trying to install Tiger?

Because Tiger isn't loading perhaps your having an issue with your optical drive.

MIke

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