Windowssonic
Level 1 (4 points)
Notebooks

Q: Is it possible to boot into the OSX DVD Without a keyboard?

Hi everyone,

Today I found a WORKING 800mhz PowerMac G4 Quicksilver (2002) at my local thrift shop for $15. Hard Drive was skipping and I had a 160GB hard drive laying around, so took the bad hard drive out and now it works, at least it has been. But heres the problem. My USB keyboard (My only one, btw) doesn't work when I start it up so when I press the power button and hit C nothing happend because my USB keyboard isn't working with it for some reason. Is there a way I can boot into the Mac OS X Startup disc to install the OS without a keyboard?

 

Thanks,

Erik

PowerMac, PowerMac G4 'Quicksilver' 800mhz

Posted on May 2, 2015 11:08 AM

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Windowssonic

Q: Is it possible to boot into the OSX DVD Without a keyboard?

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  • by Niel,

    Niel Niel May 2, 2015 11:10 AM in response to Windowssonic
    Level 10 (311,478 points)
    May 2, 2015 11:10 AM in response to Windowssonic

    Insert the DVD, start the computer up, and wait a few minutes; it may locate the DVD.

     

    (126973)

  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua May 2, 2015 11:37 AM in response to Windowssonic
    Level 10 (123,484 points)
    May 2, 2015 11:37 AM in response to Windowssonic

    Hi, might also try this...

     

    reset FW bus, same goes for USB reset...

    Reset the Firewire bus

    If your Firewire or USB isn't recognizing any device.  A solution which has worked for some whose hard drive became invisible in 10.4 was simply to follow these four steps to reset the Firewire/USB bus:

    1. Shut the machine down.

    2. UNPLUG the power lead to the computer and any firewire/USB drive or devices.

    3. leave it for 10 minutes.

    4. Connect back up and reboot.

    http://www.macmaps.com/firewirebug2.html

  • by Allan Jones,

    Allan Jones Allan Jones May 2, 2015 12:29 PM in response to Windowssonic
    Level 8 (35,000 points)
    iPad
    May 2, 2015 12:29 PM in response to Windowssonic

    Some Quicksilvers shipped with a CD-RW drive and cannot read DVDs. There should be a tag somewhere on the case that identifies the various options installed. See if that show anything that looks like an optidcal drive description (CD-RW; Combo; etc)

     

    Also is the DVD a full retail install disk or the gray disk that came with anotehr Mac model? If the latter, it probably won't work regardless of what you do.

     

    I'd also hit the thrift shops again and try to find a working keyboard. They are usually dirt-cheap.

  • by Windowssonic,

    Windowssonic Windowssonic May 3, 2015 8:01 AM in response to Allan Jones
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Notebooks
    May 3, 2015 8:01 AM in response to Allan Jones

    Hi everyone,

    I'm just going to sell it without a operating system. And It was a CD-RW drive. The main reason I bought this desktop was so I could fix it and sell it. I fixed the clicking hard drive, cleaned it, and now it's listed on my eBay page if anyone is interested in a G4.

     

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