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PowerMac G3 B&W 350MHz won't boot from CD

So, I bought a PowerMac G3 B&W with 10.4 on it on ebay. It worked great and I had it for less than an hour before I decided to install OS9 on it. I had a version of OS9 that installed in a DMG file for classic. I know that this version of OS9 is functioning because I have it running on my iBook G3. I assumed it would work on my PowerMac because it worked on my iBook. I transferred the file from my iBook to the PowerMac with a USB drive and once once it was on the Powermac, I began to try to install the DMG off of the USB drive. After it decompressed from its .zip format, I began the installer. It took a little while but it installed correctly. I tested out that classic mode started. It loaded and classic mode started correctly. Because it started correctly with classic mode within OSX, I Changed the startup disk to the OS9 one and then restarted the machine. When it began booting back up, it flashed the happy mac face for a half a second and then switched to a flashing floppy disk with a question mark. At this point, I realized that I could not turn off the machine with the power button so in desperation I just unplugged it. I realized later that I could hit the reset button and then immediately hit the power button and it would turn off. After a few restarts trying to get it to work, I broke out my Retail Mac OS 9.0 and Mac OS 10.3 CDs. I tried booting with the OS9 CD first but it didn't work (probably because its not a 9.2 or restore disk) so I popped in the 10.3 disc. After a few tries and restarts, I actually got it to boot from the 10.3 CD. I don't remember how I got it to boot from the CD because I was already giving up hope of it loading at that point. But it loaded and I got into the installer. (Side note, It changed resolution to a lower res at that point and its still at that res). I decided I would go and change the startup disk back to the 10.4 one but once I got to that screen, I (very stupidly, and out of pure curiosity) decided to load back into the broken OS9 system folder. I really should not have done that because I have not been able to load back into the CD since then. Since then, I have tried all of the normal tricks to get it to load from the CD like resetting the PRAM and the NVRAM and and using all the open firmware commands I could find or think of and nothing worked. Whenever I tried to boot from the CD from open firmware using the "boot cd:9,\System\Library\CoreServices\BootX" and the "boot cd:9,\\:tbxi" they would hang for about a minute or two and then read out that "Block0 Read Failed". The closest I got it to booting was when I used the Previous Open Firmware commands but instead of trying to boot from the CD, I tried them from the HDD. I typed in "boot hd:\System\Library\CoreServices\BootX" and it flashed a blue screen with some text and a finder logo for a second then it showed the 10.4 apple logo on the screen but then switched to a circle with a line through it. I don't even think the CD drive is even spinning up because the disk is in the same position as it was when I put it in after I tried loading it. Also the light will steadily flash when I put the disk in and not irregularly like its reading a disc. So thats my issue and I've been trying to fix it for a while and I would really appreciate any help I could get.

Posted on Jun 14, 2015 1:31 PM

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9 replies

Jun 14, 2015 9:30 PM in response to kaz-k

It turns out that my DVD drive seems to be going bad. I disassembled it and cleaned the inside and that seemed to give it at least enough functionality to boot from the cd. I'm still having trouble finishing the installation though. It gets stuck at about 43% of processing base system files. I won't get past that point. I hope I don't have a bad disk.

Jun 15, 2015 1:15 AM in response to SamuelDT

"I know that this version of OS 9 is functioning because I have it running on my iBook G3."


If you transferred the iBook G3's OS 9 software build to the B&W G3, there are undoubtedly some missing critical files that the B&W needs in order to boot from it.


"I tried booting with the OS 9 CD first but it didn't work (probably because its not a 9.2 or restore disk)."


A B&W G3 should boot from OS 8.5.1/8.6 or newer, so it's more likely the missing components that are causing the problems.

Jun 15, 2015 5:27 PM in response to Jeff

I didn't transfer the OS9 build from the iBook to the Powermac, I just used the same source file which installed correctly on the iBook.


The second version of OS9 are on the original 9.0 disks (boxed and everything!). I was never able to boot from it on the iBook and it will not boot in the Powermac either.

PowerMac G3 B&W 350MHz won't boot from CD

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