Mac OS 9 won't start - Epson Launcher ?

Question

Hi, I just found an old but in good shape iMac G3 (350 Mhz) and I want to use it for many small projects. But, on the first boot, I found that it won't be possible to use it right now.
The boot seems to be ok, but went arriving in Finder, the cursor stays on hold and nothing happends. When I try to Force Quit something I don't really know, the dialog stated EPSON Launcher as the actual application. But Quit just freeze everything.
Also, on another boot (without touching any button), after a long period of time (maybe 10 minutes), I am getting an error about a network manager ("recherche du serveur gestionnaire macintosh" in french, which is "looking for macintosh manager server" in english).
Anyone had an idea ?

Answer 1

Hi, CCBC -
Welcome to Apple's Discussions.
Re, Epson Launcher, that may be scanner software. Software of that kind often can cause problems; sometimes it is a matter of the software not being able to find the hardware it supports, and locking up the machine in the process.
To address that, try booting with Extensions Off - restart or boot, immediately press the Shift key, keep that key held down until the desktop has fully loaded. Doing this will eliminate any conflict from extensions and startup items. Then do three things -
1) Take a look in the Startup Items folder (in System Folder). Remove anything that you don't want to be initiated during startup, particularly anything (like an alias)to Epson software or for a scanner or printer.
2) Take a look in the Extensions folder (in Syatem Folder). Remove any extensions having to do with an Epson scanner, and, if you do not have it connected to an Epson pronter, anything to do with one of those.
3) Take a look in the Control Strip Modules folder (in Syatem Folder). Remove anything to do with an Epson scanner or printer.
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Re the network manager error, while booted with Extensions Off take a look in the Servers folder (in System Folder). Remove the aliases to any servers not available. If you do not have the machine networked to other computers, you probably do not need to have anything in that folder. Doing so should clear that issue.
Another possibiity, especially if an icon for a large globe of the world appears during the booting process - the machine is looking for a network server from which to boot (instead of using the internal hard drive as the boot volume). To clear that, reset PRAM -
Article #HT1379 - How to Reset PRAM and NVRAM
Then, on that startup open the Startup Disk control panel and set the internal hard drive as the boot volume. Then shut down (don't use restart - some items are saved to PRAM only on shut down) and re-boot to verify.