[All4Sky]

Well I've done it. I got myself into some trouble by forgetting to upgrade the firmware on a iMac G3 400Mhz (DV?) before installing OS X.

Here's what I did:

I inserted the Tiger install DVD and proceeded to boot from it. It showed the grey apple for awhile, with the rotating indicator on the bottom. This was then followed by the "NO" symbol (the type of symbol found on no smoking signs). Well after seeing this, I powered down. But after I tried to power up, all I get is the green power light. No screen, and I don't hear the startup chime either. I tried hooking up an external monitor, and all the monitor shows is a blank white screen.

I've read the the other stories about people being able to hook up other monitors to install OS 9.1 to upgrade the firmware, but I don't think this iMac is even booting up. I hear no HD noise or CD activity, just the green light.

Any ideas? Thanks for your time.

[Ozzpot]

I have never heard of this. I put Tiger on my iMacDV (G3) 400 with no problems. I didn't realise there were firmware issues.

If this really is an iMac DV (i.e has a slot-loading DVD drive), it will also have a firewire port. Therefore you should be able to use it in Target disk mode (if you have another Mac with Firewire).

You may be able to do something with it this way. Other than that I can't help I'm afraid. I have little experience or understanding of "Firmware" problems.

[All4Sky]

Thanks for the reply. Yes it is a slot loading 400mhz iMac. I tried starting it in Target mode but it seems like the keyboard does not respond. I don't hear the startup chime, and I can hear the hard drive starting to spin, but it gets quiet. The external monitor gets a signal but it's just a white screen. Everything was working just fine before inserting the Tiger DVD. I hope I can pull this thing from the dead. Is it possible for a Tiger dvd boot to leave permanent damage? Thanks again.

[All4Sky]

I think I'm actually getting somewhere now. I was reading a site about the "blank screen" problem after attempting an OS X install without updating the firmware first. I guess the problem I am having (the iMac not booting up at all) has to do with the pram being reset after the "blank screen" has hit. I know I did not reset my pram after that, but I did find out that the pram battery was dead, which probably emulates reseting the pram anyways. Well the site explains how to get around this issue by opening the imac up, disconnecting the internal vga cable, and using a patch ribbon cable to connect only a few contacts. This is to "trick" the iMac into starting up, so you can then use an external monitor to install os 9.1 and update the firmware. I tried this procedure this morning and was happy to get the iMac to boot up again (the video looks pretty bad on the external monitor, but it's legible enough to work on it). Now I just need to find a working os 9.1 cd!

[galarneau]

I had the same exact problem you did... and fixed it the weay you did as well.

Good thing I still had that quadra 840av in the basement to grab the floppy cable from.

Tiger runs really well on my DV/400... well, better than Panther did.

[All4Sky]

Originally Posted by galarneau

I had the same exact problem you did... and fixed it the weay you did as well.

Good thing I still had that quadra 840av in the basement to grab the floppy cable from.

Tiger runs really well on my DV/400... well, better than Panther did.

Great to hear you got it working. Since I am new to Macs, I did not have any old Mac equipment laying around. I actually modified a PC floppy ribbon cable (counted the pins and cut off the rest of the plastic connector) to pretend to be an old Mac floppy cable! I've located a Mac OS 9.1 CD to buy, hopefully I will get it in the mail tomorrow afternoon, so I can get this bad boy back up and running.

[All4Sky]

Just ressurected the iMac from the dead! After I got the OS 9.1 CD from Big Mac, I was able to use an external monitor (after that internal monitor connector hack) to update the firmware. After that, I installed a HD with Tiger installed, as well as 512mb of Ram, and now it runs perfectly fine! My son is now glued to the iMac!

[kick52]

id love to do that to my mac. havent got the money, though.

[Engstfeld@charter.net]

I'm having the same problem. Except I was able to get the monitor back by reseating the RAM chips. But I'm in a bind because I don't have OS 9. Anyone know where to get it cheap? What do I need to do once I have a copy. I suppose boot from it and then run the disk utility? HELP!

[All4Sky]

Originally Posted by Engstfeld@charter.net

I'm having the same problem. Except I was able to get the monitor back by reseating the RAM chips. But I'm in a bind because I don't have OS 9. Anyone know where to get it cheap? What do I need to do once I have a copy. I suppose boot from it and then run the disk utility? HELP!

Since the video was really hard to read on the external monitor, I actually installed OS 9 on a Hard drive in a Powermac G4, downloaded the update utility, put the updater icon in an easy place to find on the desktop (right in the middle by itself), then transplanted that hard disk in the iMac so I would only have to boot up once and run the utility. I would have hated to try to install os 9.1 on that terrible display! Sure enough after the firmware update, I installed a hard drive that had a fresh install of Tiger on it and it worked just fine. But now I think the flyback transformer is going bad, the iMac would power down without warning, and now it won't power on at all (just a power button blink and screen crackle). Good luck!

[finboy]

Originally Posted by Engstfeld@charter.net

I'm having the same problem. Except I was able to get the monitor back by reseating the RAM chips. But I'm in a bind because I don't have OS 9. Anyone know where to get it cheap? What do I need to do once I have a copy. I suppose boot from it and then run the disk utility? HELP!

macsales.com

[Engstfeld@charter.net]

I got it to go. I had to install OS 9 and then do the firmware update I'd gotten from http://docs.info.apple.com/article.h...=75130#English