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jokersson · Sep 11, 2006, 08:18 AM

I've been trying to get Panther installed on an old iMac G3 400Mhz (slot loading) for quite some time now, with no success. It has sufficient memory (640MB) and a large HDD (60GB), which should be more than enough, even for Tiger.

My problem is that the installation has always (more than 10 times) stalled at the final stages, right while "Processing Mac OS X ~ Running installer script", a minute from completion. I'm at a lost as to what to do, since OS9 is pretty much dead now and Panther should be faster on the iMac than Tiger.

Will C · Sep 11, 2006, 10:07 AM

Are you going from OS9 to Panther - if so you may have a slightly troublesome RAM module. I had the same problem in the same machine - it never caused problems with OS9 but OSX would fail to install fully most times but once installed, OSX would kernal panic when I tried using lots of memory.

I sold the troublesome module to a friend with a PC and he never had any probelms with it - never really made sense to me.

Try installing with just one module installed - preferably the larger one if possible.

Will

P · Sep 11, 2006, 10:17 AM

Also check that the firmware is the latest version. The slotloaders had several firmware updates early on.

Panther, and even Tiger, run fine on a slotloading iMac if you have enough memory (and you do).

Eriamjh · Sep 11, 2006, 12:06 PM

8GB first partition limit for OSX installation. Firmware must be upgraded in OS9 first.

Dave B · Sep 11, 2006, 02:03 PM

Originally Posted by Eriamjh

8GB first partition limit for OSX installation. Firmware must be upgraded in OS9 first.

The 8 GB boot-partition only applies to the Rev A - D tray-loaders, not the later slot-loaders.

Did you update the firmware to 4.1.9 before trying to install?
Here's some info:

iMac (Slot Loading): Install iMac Firmware 4.1.9 Before Mac OS X 10.2 or later

It is possible that the CD is corrupted slightly, or the DVD-ROM is not reading it well.
You might be able to put the CD into a different Mac, start the iMac in Target Mode,
and then choose the iMac as the drive to install Panther. I used this method to install
Tiger onto a 400 Mhz iMac DV with the original 64 MB RAM, while waiting for a 256
chip to arrive. Incidentally, Tiger needs 256 MB to boot, while Panther needs only 128.

Dave B · Sep 11, 2006, 02:16 PM

I just remembered something...

It has been documented that there were problems intalling Panther with more than 128 MB RAM.
On some machines it would work, and on others it wouldn't. I can't remember which of my old
machines had this problem, but I had to remove the extra RAM before Panther would install.
Once installed, I replaced the RAM and all was well. Note that Tiger doesn't have this problem.

jokersson · Sep 11, 2006, 09:48 PM

Yes, the iMac is a slot-loader, which shouldn't require a repartitioning of the drive as suggested.

And I have upgraded the firmware to 4.1.9 when I ran OS9.2 on the iMac before.

As you guys pointed out, I too suspect the problem may have been from the RAM. Right now it has two RAM modules - 128MB that comes with the machine when I bought it, and a newly bought 512MB Apple RAM from Kingston. I've tried installing Panther using the single 128MB RAM, and combined 640MB RAM, with the same result.

Right now the only thing left to try is removing the old 128MB RAM and using the new 512MB RAM in its place. I will post again if/when I'm successful.

gooser · Sep 12, 2006, 12:53 AM

cd's & dvd's read from the inside out. make sure you don't have any fingerprints near the outside edge. some drives are picky. just an idea.

jokersson · Sep 12, 2006, 09:04 AM

Well, the iMac is running with the new 512MB RAM module, and with the same result as before. The installed was just about the finish at 1 minute left when a popup appeared telling me to shut down or restart (in several languages). Attempts to restart produced the same popup window, which is more annoying than before. Any help is appreciated.

Eriamjh · Sep 12, 2006, 10:59 AM

Originally Posted by Dave B

The 8 GB boot-partition only applies to the Rev A - D tray-loaders, not the later slot-loaders.

Sorry. Thanks for the clarification.

P · Sep 12, 2006, 11:47 AM

Does the iMac really support 512 MB RAM modules? I'm sure it might, but I always kept mine at 256 MB in each, knowing that the Blue G3s didn't support more than 128 MBin each slot.

beetleboy · Sep 12, 2006, 12:47 PM

Yes, these iMacs support up to 1 GB of RAM. I have two G3 iMacss that have in excess of 512 MB of RAM. Each machine has a 512 stick with a 128 stick and a 256 stick.

jokersson · Sep 12, 2006, 06:47 PM

The RAMs work fine when I ran OS 9.2 - it recognizes the overall total correctly as 640MB. Another thing I'm left to try is swapping the new RAM in the second slot instead of the first. If that produces the same result, I'm afraid I don't know what else to do other than use OS 9.2 from here on. If anyone has any tips on solving my problems, pls post. Cheers.

jokersson · Sep 13, 2006, 06:39 AM

Still no dice. I've installed OS9.2 instead, just to test it out. While the installation was smooth, it freezes in the middle of downloading the icab browser using the default IE5. This has happened before, when it had the initial 128MB RAM. I'm beginning to suspect that the problem may lay elsewhere, other than the dodgy RAM.

Dave B · Sep 13, 2006, 02:19 PM

Do you have another firewire-equipped Mac that you can use, or can you borrow a laptop to
boot your iMac into target mode as I suggested above? If so, try running the Panther DVD
from the other machine and choose the iMac as the destination drive. Let us know how it goes.

beetleboy · Sep 13, 2006, 03:50 PM

Dave B. has the right idea because that's exactly the way I installed Panther onto my older G3 iMacs. FW Target Mode is an awesome feature and very useful.

jokersson · Sep 14, 2006, 03:31 AM

I tried that a few days ago with a Tiger DVD using my iBook G4 in FW TDM, but again the installer hangs just before it ends. Just like it did with Panther. But the Tiger DVD was the one that came with the iBook, so maybe it wouldn't have worked after all (has something do do with drivers etc.). I'm now waiting for a retail DVD of Tiger to try it out, just to eliminate problems with the discs themselves, rather than the machine.

jokersson · Sep 17, 2006, 06:34 AM

I've since tried installing the Retail version of Tiger, with similar failure. Resetting the PMU switch didn't help, and even running OS9 has not been smooth. I've gotten 10 or so minutes of use before it hangs, irrespective of apps running. Can anyone help in diagnosing what the problem really is. Is it the logic board, the memory, etc?

Sijmen · Oct 20, 2006, 08:51 AM

I'm going to update OS9 to OSX on an iMac 450 G3 DV+ Indigo. I can get a Panther install DVD which I hope to install via my PB onto the iMac. As far as I know, the iMac has only 64mb RAM, so I need to get more, which shouldn't be a problem.
This iMac now has MAC OS ROM N1-4.6.1, I guess that's a later version. I searched for the firmware upgrade to 4.1.9, downloaded it and will be installing it if it's neccesary.

So, if I get it correctly, installing Panther on the iMac via my PB won't create any problems. The iMac will boot once the 128mb RAM has been installed.

Now, I won't have to search for Dutch install CD's.

JKT · Oct 20, 2006, 02:00 PM

You shouldn't need to install via your PB as Panther should install without any problems from the DVD drive in your iMac (assuming it has one - if it doesn't then using your PB will not cause any problems). You will want more than 128MB RAM to run Panther. If you can afford it, get at least a 256MB chip and a 512MB one would be even better.

I suspect that the 4.1.9 firmware update is probably newer than the N1-4.6.1 version, so I would try to update the firmware. It'll tell you if it is needed or not.