imac G3 Bondi Blue installing error

Question

imac G3 Bondi Blue installing error

Hello everyone,

I have a iMac G3 Bondi blue rev.A and I recently replaced the P-Ram battery. When i turned it on it came up with the finder logo with the ? mark. I knew that i needed to reinstall my os. I have tried Mac os 10.0 10.2 and 10.3 and i have tried the original Mac os 8 restore disks and nothing has happened. every thing but Mac os 10.3 has failed. After waiting a while to get to the install screen, it will show the mac in a folder that has been riped. And when i tried 10.3 it loaded to the install screen but when i tried to click continue nothing would happen. i`m not sure if its the optical drive, hard drive, or not enough ram.

iMac, Mac OS 8.6 or Earlier, iMac G3 Bondi Blue

Posted on Jan 26, 2014 3:13 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

K Shaffer

Level 8

35,350 points

Jan 26, 2014 3:54 PM in response to AppleJohn8945

Hard to say what component may have failed or is a contributor to the symptom you face.

What OS X version had successfully been run in the computer prior to the battery replacement? With OS X 10.3.9 being the last or most recent supported, there should be no problem loading the original OS 8.1 CD for Rev A, or OS 8.5 for Rev B; depending on the exact iMac hardware build model you have.

Both the hard disk drive and optical drive share the same cable or internal connections.

{Had the iMac Firmware Update 1.2 been installed so OS X would

function correctly and not cause any issue or hardware damage?}

If you have any known-good parts, the hard disk drive may be part of the problem. Also, maybe a loose connection to the drives (incl optical drive) could also make trouble. To be able to swap out parts can be one way to attempt to troubleshoot the issue. After replacement of the PRAM battery, a reset is often required. Then if you can access the boot OS, other items in control panels also set again.

Maximum Memory	384 MB (Actual - Revision A) 512 MB (Actual - Revision B) 128 MB (Apple - Revision A) 256 MB (Apple - Revision B)
Memory Slots	2 - PC66 144 pin SO-DIMM

{from Mactracker.ca -- the RAM specs and capacities for the RevA and RevB bondi blue iMac G3}

Are any of your other OS install discs from another Mac build model? What of them are retail discs?

Hopefully you can get it to go again.

Good luck & happy computing! 🙂

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Answer 2

Jan 26, 2014 3:59 PM in response to K Shaffer

I have been able to successfully run mac os 8.1 mac os 9.2 mac os 10.2 and mac os 10.3. and I have updated the firmware to 1.2. All the disks i have used except the 8.1 disks have all been retail. I have some extra parts (hard drives, optical drives, ram, ext) so i could try to replace the hard drive. Thanks for your advice 🙂

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Answer 3

Jan 26, 2014 8:40 PM in response to K Shaffer

I just got done replaceing the Hard drive and i was able to click and get the instlation prosess going. But when i get done formatting the 40GB WD drive that i had Mac OS 10.3`s installer wouldn`t let me install on the partition because it was past the 8GB limit. So i reformatted the drive so it had 2 partitions. one as misc and one as Macintosh HD but when i tried to install on Macintosh HD partition that is 4.6 GB its still coming up with the same meassage "You CAnnot install Mac OS X on this volume. This destination is not within the first 8GB of the Hard Disk." I`m not sure why if its the hard drive of how its partitioned.

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Answer 4

rccharles

Level 6

12,985 points

Jan 27, 2014 10:38 AM in response to AppleJohn8945

It needs to be the first partition. The partition needs to be in the first 8gig on the hd. There are small hidden partitoins. 7.5gig is the typical size.

Robert

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