Help! iMac G3 Indigo crt will not boot

Hello,
I'm an A+ PC technician and I'm trying to get an G3 iMac Indigo back up and running for a friend. I own a G4 Mac Pro so I'm somewhat familiar with Mac hardware and OSX and System 9.
Here's what I've done so far to get this little machine going again and it symptoms presented when I received it:
1. The system when powered up would chime once and boot to a smiley Mac then do nothing else.
2. When alternately booting using the option key to get to the drive option screen it would only show the HD and no CDROM drive. No other key combination would change this (CMD-OPT-P-R zapping the PROM) or booting into Open Firmware and reset-all.
3. I purchased a retail copy of System 9.0.4 that is bootable (I checked it in my G4 system) and held down the "C" key to boot from the CDROM-No go-as well as the Option key-no CDROM displayed.
4. I removed the HD, changed the jumper to slave and installed the HD in my G4 Mac and checked the drive integrity via OSX Hard Drive utility and the HD was repaired. The HD had a version of System 9 installed. Once the HD was reinstalled the G3 would still not boot.
5. I again removed the HD and again installed the disk as slave in my G4. I did a clean install of System 9.0.4 to the drive and removed the drive from the G4 and reinstalled the disk into the G3. Still no boot and now the G3 iMac displays the dreaded flashing ? mark folder after booting. The Option key also shows no drives attached now. No HD or CD.
6. I purchased a used replacement CDROM drive and installed it in the system-still no boot, no drives attached, nothing changed via zapping the PROM.
7. I changed the jumper settings in the G3 to master for the CDROM drive on the new CDROM and Slave for the HD. Still no boot,no drives displayed, zapping the PROM-no change.
8. Today I changed the PROM battery by exchanging the PROM batteries from my G4 system to the G3 and there was still no change. The old battery from the G3 is fine since my G4 system rebooted with it installed. I have also reset the PMU switch after the battery install.
I've probably done more harm to this system than was necessary by my trouble shooting actions. The HD was probably bootable before I did the clean reformat and install of System 9.0.4. but I'm not certain.
Tell me if I've overlooked something or done something wrong along the line.
Thank you for any assistance this community can give.
Kurt Klatt

rccharles wrote:
kurtklatt wrote:
Hello,
I'm an A+ PC technician and I'm trying to get an G3 iMac Indigo back up and running for a friend. I own a G4 Mac Pro so I'm somewhat familiar with Mac hardware and OSX and System 9.
Here's what I've done so far to get this little machine going again and it symptoms presented when I received it:
1. The system when powered up would chime once and boot to a smiley Mac then do nothing else.
seeing the smiley Mac means that you have a classic version of Mac OS installed on the hard drive.
2. When alternately booting using the option key to get to the drive option screen it would only show the HD and no CDROM drive. No other key combination would change this (CMD-OPT-P-R zapping the PROM) or booting into Open Firmware and reset-all.
you need to have a bootable CD in the drive for you to see the CD in a drive. Mac OS X works with media not devices.
I have a bootable System 9.0.4 CD.
only show the HD
So, Mac OS is showing a bootable partition, not a hard drive.
3. I purchased a retail copy of System 9.0.4 that is bootable (I checked it in my G4 system) and held down the "C" key to boot from the CDROM-No go-as well as the Option key-no CDROM displayed.
See Richard's second paragraph having to boot up from the original cd to get cd reader to work again.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5966197#5966197
I'll try disconnecting the HD and leaving the CD drive connected to see if this works however it should be set as master on the cable.
4. I removed the HD, changed the jumper to slave and installed the HD in my G4 Mac and checked the drive integrity via OSX Hard Drive utility and the HD was repaired. The HD had a version of System 9 installed. Once the HD was reinstalled the G3 would still not boot.
Did you set the harddrive to master? Master is a must. Cable select doesn't work. You need to set the hard drive to master mode. There is usually a label on the hard drive that tells you what jumpers you need to set. If you are not sure, give us the name and model number of the hard drive and usually someone will be able to tell you how to set that drive.
Did you check all of the cables? Put everything back and verify that all works.
The HD is set to Master and the CD is set to slave with the correct jumper settings and the cable is attached.
5. I again removed the HD and again installed the disk as slave in my G4. I did a clean install of System 9.0.4 to the drive and removed the drive from the G4 and reinstalled the disk into the G3. Still no boot and now the G3 iMac displays the dreaded flashing ? mark folder after booting. The Option key also shows no drives attached now. No HD or CD.
I suggest that you reformat the drive then re-installed your software.
When I did the clean install of MacOS 9 it was after a reformat and reinstall of the OS.
6. I purchased a used replacement CDROM drive and installed it in the system-still no boot, no drives attached, nothing changed via zapping the PROM.
7. I changed the jumper settings in the G3 to master for the CDROM drive on the new CDROM and Slave for the HD. Still no boot,no drives displayed, zapping the PROM-no change.
8. Today I changed the PROM battery by exchanging the PROM batteries from my G4 system to the G3 and there was still no change. The old battery from the G3 is fine since my G4 system rebooted with it installed. I have also reset the PMU switch after the battery install.
I've probably done more harm to this system than was necessary by my trouble shooting actions. The HD was probably bootable before I did the clean reformat and install of System 9.0.4. but I'm not certain.
Tell me if I've overlooked something or done something wrong along the line.
Do you have firewire? You can use target disk mode. Some people have claimed success when installing through target disk mode. Use your g4 to load the software onto the target disk.
Firewire is not an option with this G3 iMac. The Indigo G3 doesn't have Firewire installed.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58583

Similar Messages

My early Intel iMac running Snow Leopard will not boot past the apple logo. I have tried holding the c key and inserting the install disk, but nothing. What do I try next?

My early Intel iMac running Snow Leopard will not boot past the apple logo. I have tried holding the c key and inserting the install disk, but nothing. What do I try next?

I have tried resetting PRAM and all other items listed in the Apple support site. This happened after an update to iTunes was added. Also this is happening to other people. Please help.

My home imac has crashed and will not boot up.

Hi
My home imac has crashed and will not boot up and I'm not sure where to start.
It wouldn't shut down properly so I turned off the power, and now it won't go beyond the apple logo and timeer when I try to restart it.
It is an imac (4 years old), Intel, running OS X, not sure which version, but probably the latest.
Thanks
Carol

I would first reset the SMC:
Shut down and unplug the Mac.
Keep the Mac unplugged for at least fifteen seconds.
Plug the Mac back in and do not turn it back on for at least five seconds.
Press the power button to turn the Mac back on.
Then I would reset the PRAM by rebooting the iMac while simultaneously holding the Command-Option-P-R keys until the machine restarts a second time.
Let us know if these two procedures don't solve the problems.
Hope this helps

Imac 2001 B crashed; will not boot up. stops and alternate with ? mark.

Client will upgrade to imac Flat panel 06/05/06. Old system will not boot-up would like to copy apps from old system to new system(HD to HD). How would I resolve this problem?

hi there --
this article provides troubleshooting steps
specifically for a flashing question mark. hope it
helps you on your way.
B)http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58042

Imac intel circa 2005 will not boot

I was woundering if anybody might point me in the direction of resolution to this problem. My intel circa 2005 iMac will not boot - OS Tiger - get a blue screen. Funny thing is that when I reinstall OS the computer works alright for a day or two then crashes when I open a programme such as iPhoto. I then reboot and get the blue screen of death again. I have done this several times. The reinstall works again only for a day or two then back to square one. I have clean installed reformated the hard drive etc all the resets etc. I have also run the hardware test extended and this said all was ok. Ran disk utility and seemed to write 'zero' alright on the whole disk. My gut feeling is the hard drive is on the way out but the ability to write zeros to the whole disk has stopped me from replacing this. Has anybody experienced this before and found a fix without buying a new iMac?

Hello, have you blown the dust out lately? Let it cool for an hour & see if you can get these...
Get Temperature Monitor to see if it's heat related...
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/12381/temperature-monitor
iStat Menus...
http://bjango.com/mac/istatmenus/
And/or iStat Pro...
http://www.islayer.com/apps/istatpro/

IMAC 21.5 " allinone will not boot after OS re-installed

Had to erase HD and re-install Snow Leopard from installation disc. It completed OK but sys will not boot, tone sounds and Apple logo comes up and 'wheel' is spinning, but that's it. Waited for over half hour before shutting down. Thanks for any help anyone can provide.

Try a safe boot by holding the Shift key down between the startup tone and logo.
If succesful, go to System Preferences > Startup disk > select your HD and restart.

IMac modell 8.1. will not boot, screen issues

Hi!
My iMac 24" modell 8.1. (IC2D - 2,8 GHz) will not boot from install disc OS X 10.6. When I turn the machin on I hear the sound ok, then the grey screen appear with the black apple logo and the spinning wheel starts up. Then nothing happens. I hear that the superdrive is spinning up with the install disc, but nothing happens on the screen.
The screen has much flickering/distortion, so I removed the LCD display and checked all the three cables between screen and logic board to see that they are secured.
I have installed an 2 TB HD in this iMac formatted in Mac OS X extended journaled. The 4 LED lights on the bottom of the logic board are on and green. Remember back with my PM G5 that I had to push a cuda button, is there any such button on this iMac?
Any suggestions?

Eric Ross wrote:
You need to start the iMac with the original DVD that came your with your computer. Then run disk utility to repair your hard drive and premissions. http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1417
No, you want to run DU from whatever version is on the boot volume. The original version it shipped with was 10.5, but if it's now 10.6, he wants to use a 10.6 disc to repair with.
For the video symptoms, I would run the Hardware Test, in extended from the 10.5 disc, if it will boot to that.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1509
And Roam's suggestion to try a Safe Boot is a must.
EDIT: Permissions Repair should be done -- and I don't think this is appropriate to do now, anyway -- from the normal boot volume, not from the DVD. And, certainly not from the original disc.
Message was edited by: WZZZ

Please help! MBP 15" 2011 will not boot at all

Hi,
My 15 inch early (May) mbp 2011 will not start up. Here is what I have observed so far:
1) When power button is pushed (without MagSafe attached) hard drive will spin up and about after 3-5 seconds it will turn off (hard drive spins Down, no further boot process) No chime, no led indicator light in front.
2) When power button is pushed (with MagSafe attached) hard drive spins up, keeps spinning, but no further boot process. Just black screen and spinning hard drive.
3) When attempting SMC reset, fans turn to high, and screen remains black, still no boot)
4) Since mbp fails before booting, PRAM/NRAM resetting is not a possibility. (Tried)
5) I have also removed the battery cable from the logic board, and tried resetting without any luck.
6) I entered CD into optical drive - it "ate" it, but will not eject now. (Tried holding eject/left mouse/control e etc) still nothing.
7) After letting mbp rest for 1 day, it booted fine like nothing happend, worked fine for 1 day, then next morning back to square one. Now 5 days later still nothing.
If anybody has any ideas what could be wrong, or have possible solutions, please don't hesitate.
Thanks in advance, Oliver

Hey there Oliverkehn,
It sounds like your computer is not booting up at all at this point, even after some very thorough troubleshooting you've already done. From the following article, I would use these steps that I don't mention as having been tried just yet:
Troubleshooting: My computer won't turn on
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1367
Note: See Apple Portables: Troubleshooting MagSafe adapters for further troubleshooting with MagSafe adapters.
Disconnect all accessories that are plugged in to the computer, such as a printer, hub, or other mobile device.
If your Mac supports user-installable memory, solid state drive, or hard drive, and you recently installed any of these, make sure they are installed correctly and are compatible with your computer. If possible, reinstall the original memory or drive into the computer to find out if the behavior persists afterwards.
MacBook Pro: How to remove or install memory
MacBook: How to remove or install memory
Mac Pro: How to remove or install memory
Mac mini: How to remove or install memory
iMac (27-inch, Late 2012): Installing or replacing memory
iMac: How to remove or install memory
If you are still unable to start up your computer after trying each of these steps, visit an Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider (AASP) for further diagnosis. If you plan to visit an Apple Retail Store, make a reservation at the Genius Bar using http://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/ (available in some countries only).Note: Diagnostic fees may apply for issues not covered under warranty or the AppleCare Protection Plan (APP).
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Regards,
Sterling

HELP!!! MBA will not boot. It's in a constant "reboot loop!"

Hi! I was having issues with my MBA and it's well known problem with getting a bit hot and shutting down the core etc. One post mentioned coolbook. Several peole gave it the thumbs up so I decided to give it a try. Installed it and was asked to restart. Now my MBA is in a constant reboot loop and will not start-up. it gets as far as the gray screen with the Apple logo and the spinning wheel. Then about a minute or so later it reboots. And this goes on and on forever. The MBA is now insanely hot and I have turned the MBA off not to cause any damage.
I can not boot in safe mode.
Any ideas??
Thanks!!

thanks for the views, but seems nobody wanted to help. cheers for that!
i managed to reboot using the OS X DVD and reinstalling. Now I have an eject symbol in my system bar top right corner and my superdrive will not "eject". this means I can not use the USB for anything else. meanwhile I ejected the OS X DVD from the drive and tried to reinsert it. NADA.
Getting to the point where I am fed up with the MBA. It gets so hot I could fry an egg on it. The system must be running something in the background, becasue even with a new install it still is slow and stutters (and no, I did not start you tube!) either this is from a real crappy batch, or I looked at it the wrong way.
Looks like I am heading back to the MBpro.

My iMac 10.5.8 will not boot or restart, until I power off and on

My iMac will not start up when shut down, or awake from sleep.
To get it to start i must turn off the power, and turn it back on, then it starts up and runs fine.
If i Restart it, it switches off, and will not power back on. The machine still works great but is begining to be a pain in the back-side cycling the power every morning.
I have done an SMC Reset, and that did not change it.
I have also added a new user, and when i logged in as the new user, it did restart a couple of times (cannot remember the exact amount) and then when i switched back to my normal account it restarted fine... i assumed it was fixed... but after that it's gone back to it's old painful self..
Any help would be appreciated, thanks
BG.

I just installed snow leopard yesterday through a disk I brought from apple., I had to keep the mouse moving during installation because every time it started sleeping I would need to cycle power which then restarted install!
I don't think the install fixed it because updating to 10.6.8 required a restart, and it wouldn't restart again. Painful.
The machine runs fine while it's running, never crashes, performance is fine. It is my work one so I won't be on it again till monday. I will try the repair advice then. I just accidentally selected that it solve my problem (on my iPhone trying to scroll up!!) please ignore that

IMac DV G3 400MHz will not boot with OS8.6 or 9.2.2 CD-ROMs

Here is the situation: I have burned copies of the install disks for OS 8.6 and OS 9.2.2 that I wish to install onto our iMac DV. I insert them into the computer while running OS X and it reads it correctly. However, when I attempt to boot from the CD, it skips it and starts booting from the hard drive.
When I am in OS X, I check the Startup Disk preference, and I set it to the CD-ROM, which it detects as containing a system folder. Then when I reboot, it continues to skip the CD and go right to the hard drive.
When the hard drive is formatted and does not contain an OS, and it only has the CD-ROM inside, it gives the Missing System Folder icon upon boot.
The machine has Firmware 4.1.9 and works well in OS X. It is currently formatted with five partitions on a 10GB hard drive, all formatted as Mac OS Extended. All partitions have the OS 9 drivers within. It has a 400MHz G3 with 256MB RAM.
Any thoughts?

While I am working on acquiring a pressed version of OS 9.0 and OS 8.6, I have additional information for you: I am able to boot and install from burned media for OS 10.2, 10.3 and 10.4 on this machine (which is an Orange iMac DV per the above note about the SE version). This tells me the machine can boot from burned media, but not into those OSes.
Another interesting fact: on a hunch, I copied the System Folder from the OS 9 install disk to the root of one of the hard drive's partitions, and then switched the Startup preference to that folder and tried it. It booted far enough into OS 9 to give me a happy Mac icon, then show the Mac OS 9.0 logo, but then popped up a message saying that the media was only able to boot from a removable drive, and that I would have to restart. Predictable, to be sure, but it shows the machine is at least capable of booting to OS9 somehow...

Help! 13" macbook pro will not boot. Tried running disk repair from HD recovery, not repairable. Trying to reinstall OSx Lion, says disc is locked. Do I have to erase the drive and lose everything? I also have Bootcamp installed, will boot to Win OK

Tried running disk repair from HD recovery, not repairable. Trying to reinstall OSx Lion, says disc is locked. Do I have to erase the drive and lose everything? I also have Bootcamp installed, will boot to Windows no problem.

Hotrodmkviii,
try rebooting in Recovery mode, but when you reach the Mac OS X Utilities menu, run Terminal (from Utilities in the menu bar) instead. Inside the Terminal window, give it the following command, and then press the Return key:
diskutil list
Please include in your reply the output from that command.

Help! My Mac Pro will not boot up

I knew I shouldn't try to use the Boot Camp on my MP, but I thought it would work.
I have three HD in my MP and followed the instructions for the installtion of WIN XP on Mac drive 3, but when I was faced with the formatting choices in the Win setup I got confused with all the drive letters (I have two CD drives and three HDs), and must have formatted my Mac OS drive and partially drive 3.
My Mac Pro will no longer boot to the Mac OSX, even with the "option" key held down. All I get is a black screen that says: "NTLDR is maissing. (press CRTL-ALT-DEL to reboot).
Is there any hope of a recovery?
Thanks,
Tony

Wow...this is good to know! After many years with PCs I "assumed" that it would name the 1st drive "C" and then each one after that in order.
My problem was that I have three identical drives, all 250 GBs, so it was confusing, but that is exactly what the instructions said. So, with your encouragement and a little bit of faith, I will try this one more time. At least I learned how to recover after deleting my boot drive.
Thanks so much...
Tony
Tony,
If I remember right from my boot camp / xp
installation, boot camp aliases the drives, and when
it tells you to format C: for windows, that's the one
to select from the screen.
I panicked when I saw that, but then I realized that
the C: drive shown on the installation screen was
actually my secondary drive (and that boot camp had
shuffled the drive letters around). If you notice,
C: is actually not the top of the list, and in my
case I had two different drive sizes and so I could
reason that C: matched my secondary drive's size.
In short, pick C: for installation, as the program
says...
I thought for sure it nuked my OSX installation at
first, when it didn't seem that I could boot back to
OSX, but in the Control Panel of Windows (or in your
System Properties on OSX) you'll see an icon called
"Startup Disk" which will also allow you to pick OSX
or Windows and then restart.
Mac Pro 2.66, 3 GB Mac OS X (10.4.8)

IMac. Ppc g5 will not boot up past apple sign

I have the iMac G5 PPC with 10.5.8 leopard running it. I go to turn it on and I get to the apple sign and the cog wheel and the fan kicks into hyper drive and that's it! What do I do?

Have you tried booting from your install disc? Try that and then use
Disk Utility
   1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc that came with your computer, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
   2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
      Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.
   3. Click the First Aid tab.
   4. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
   5. Select your Mac OS X volume.
   6. Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk.
You can also try booting with the option key held down, or boot holding the s key to boot into single use mode.. Last but not least, try booting into safe mode by holding down the shift key at startup.

Imac freezese an now will not boot up

I have a 24in imac late 2006 which has recently been difficult to wake up with screen pixilation etc. Now it just freezes as soon as you touch anything and I cannot even get it to boot up now. Have reset smc and pram and now just have a blank screen. Have read how there is a problem with video card over heating but think it might even be more than that. Have applecare thank goodness.

I had the same thing happen to my 2006 24" iMac - the screen image had a strange grid pattern covering it, and I couldn't get past the grey apple loading screen before what looked like a kernel panic.
I took the mac in for repair at my local Apple-Authorised place, and it turned out to be a defective graphics card causing the problem. It was replaced, and now things seem to be running fine once more.
I suggest getting your mac checked out :o)

Help! iMac G3 Indigo crt will not boot

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for