[oakye]

Hi all - Google led me here and looks like the responses are great! Hope some pros can help me fix something that my bro messed up this weekend. I'm sure it's not a hardware issue.

What we have:
* iMac DV w/OS9.0.x.
* OS10.x was installed on there, too, by my bro, several mths ago
* This weekend he was not able to toggle from OS10.x to OS9 (?? the story is hazy as I didn't witness this...and as usual, I'm a PC rat, not a Mac pro. he may have bought OS10.3 this weekend and tried to install it)
* He booted up in OS10.x, went to Preferences, changed the OS to OS9 and then upon restarting, the mac was not able to fully boot/it froze.

What do I mean by freeze?
* The chime does occur
* The screen is gray, and the Happy Mac appears. Nothing after that. No HD noises, no changes in icon. I've left it like this for 19 minutes-no changes
* I am able to shutdown by holding the Power button for several seconds
* I am able to boot with the orig OS9.0.x CD

What else did my bro try to do:
* re-install OS9
* restore OS9
* bought OS10.3 from Fry's
* ran disk utilities and there are no hardware issues

So now it comes to my (and your) help...

What I tried:
* I have firmware update 4.x on my PC's CD-R but can't really use it since I can only boot via CD which takes up the slot so I can't load the firmware from another CD
* Booting with OS 9 cd, selecting the startup disk, choosing the one internal HD...(I was not able to drill down here further)
* Boot from OS10.3 cd but was told it needed firmware. I quit the installer and looked at the Startup Disk selector...
* Interestingly, it shows two OS9 folders...identical names...
* Resetting firmware - no changes

Can you help?
* What should I do next? I don't want to re-install OS9 again or restore without getting confirmation from the pros here
* What is the cause of the problem...so he doesn't do it again.

Latest:
* I held down the shift key on rebooting -- nothing changed. I still get the Happy Mac -- and don't hear any hard drive-whirring.

* I'm downloading a 71mb .smi.bin file of OS9.1 to my PC's CD-R...
I'm not going to be able to load this "as is" into the Mac. Any tips on what to do next, since I can only boot up the iMac via the CD drive?

(guess i have to upgrade from 9.0 -> 9.1 -> 9.2.1 -> 9.2.2)

If I use the included 9.0 CD, i won't be able to eject it (i don't think). if i insert & boot with the 9.1 file, the mac's not going to recognize it.

I read in another thread that there was a similar freezing problem -- and this was due to firmware. help!!

(and yes, i bet this is a stumper huh? i try not to troll on these until i'm stumped myself...)

[oakye]

latest update:

* Performed a Clean Install of 9.0.4 - restarted...same behavior.
* Keeping the Shift key down upon booting doesn't do anything either...the booting process doesn't seem to progress far enough so that Extensions aren't even "called up."

Guess I got a real stumper...my fear now is that if I bring this into a shop, they'll go with the easy answer -- "erase the HD." In trying to fix this, I'm also motivated by just learning ... in addition to solving the problem...

[oakye]

Great news - I managed to haul Ruby to the local Apple store (after getting lost in the store's phone system, whose menu directed me to a generic support line).

Anthony at the Genius Bar in SF pulled out an OS9.1 Software Install CD, we booted with that and installed it, and voila. Back to normal.

Then, with the ethernet connection, he was able to download 9.2 & 9.2.2 updaters, and the latest 4.x firmware update. He even took the time to run each one, to make sure nothing bombed, and it all worked great.

We decided that I could, by now, install OSx.3 solo...I haven't dared to do that yet but he's pretty confident it should behave alright.

So no real explanation of what sequence of events caused the Happy Mac but...at least the remedy worked without having to wipe out any info!

p.s. bummer that the pc's cd burning programs can't just burn a cd in "mac format" -- i guess those power pc days are gone, eh? ;-)