Crazy Commie
Level 1
(8 points)
Q: Blank Grey Screen of Death
Got a rev. B iMac G3 recently, updated the firmware once so I could try OS9, and two days in the HDD makes that clank of death and locks up hard
Wonderful.
So I order some ram from OWC (2 x 256MB)
A 128GB SSD from them (highly disappointed since they include an adapter + SSD and it's not just an IDE SSD or made to be more integrated. Overpriced for what it is),
and a new PRAM battery
Repinned a new Cooler Master 92mm fan to replace the old one (works beautifully)
Starts up and...grey screen. No folder, nothing.
Try resetting NVRAM with Command Option P R and it did it once successfully, but no change in results.
Try Open Firmware with Command Option O F and it'll start up but the CRT stays off and power light stays orange.
Tried NVRAM later on and it doesn't even want to do that trick anymore, have to do it the other more involved ways. Still no result changes
Tried holding Option while booting, nothing. Tried holding C while booting, nothing. Tried holding O while booting since I heard some Macs bring up the boot manager with that instead, nothing.
Tried 2 other keyboards, nothing.
I've even tried 2 other slim CD/DVD internal drives just in case I somehow fried the original 24x CD drive, nothing. External drive isn't working either.
Recognizes all the drives and keyboards, powers them on and the drives try seeking, still no results.
Gonna try different HDDs and resetting the ram, replacing it with the original ram, etc later on, but was hoping someone had a miracle answer for this one. Hope I didn't somehow fry the logic board or screw it up somehow.
I was hoping to keep this one near stock (unless I found one of those Harmoni 600mhz cards by some miracle) and have another slightly less desirable iMac G3 as my project to gut it out and replace the internals with a far more modern Mac (Apple would be cool with that right? Wouldn't be a Hackintosh I'd think)
iMac, Mac OS 8.6 or Earlier
Kenichi Watanabe
Level 8
(38,166 points)
If there is no OS installed on the new drive, it won't start up (except from the optical drive with a Mac OS installation disc). Startup Manager is accessed by holding down the Option key during startup, not the O key; I don't remember if the tray-loader iMac G3 had Startup Manager.
I think you changed too many things at the same time, so it's difficult to find the change that caused the problem. Try putting the original RAM back, until you get it working. Some of those original iMacs do not work with the (unofficial) max RAM of "2 x 256MB." Put the original optical drive back, if it was working before. If you have a standard IDE hard drive that is less than 128GB, it would be a good idea to install it to rule out an incompatibility with the SSD + adapter.
What Mac OS installation disc are you using in the optical drive for startup?
NOTE: Once you are able to start up from a Mac OS installation disc, the tray-loader iMac G3 requires the startup disc on the internal drive to be on the first 8GB of drive space. Due to the older IDE controller used in these iMacs, only the first 8GB of drive space can be accessed during the startup sequence. After startup (when the full OS takes over), the iMac can access up to 128GB. You need to partition drives larger than 8GB so that the first partition fits within the first 8GB of drive space. A safe size for the first partition is about 7.5GB, with the 2nd partition taking up the rest of the drive space.
