[doody]

Got clamshell g3 300 mhz 96 megs ram, ibook from family that seemed to work fine until i messed it up. Sorry but im mostly pc person and guess i thought i could add software like im used to on pc's . Anyway it has operating system 9.2 installed (original was 8.6 i believe) and was missing a lot or programs ( like a similar windows wordpad ) - ( my daughter was meant to use it typing stuff up and printing at university ) . anyway i didnt get very far. ended up trying to reinstalling 9.2 op system programs but it wouldn't read the disc so i tried installing the original operating system 8.6. and it installed ok or so i thought. Now when i boot up it displays operating system 8.6 and when it gets to desktop ( last screen) it goes blank after couple secs and shuts off. If i boot with extensions disabled, or with 8.6 restore or softeware or 9.2 copy cd it does boot of cd but still won't boot properly. was wondering if it was a conflict somewhere or something, but obviously u dont have same control panel options on mac so im stuck. i would like to do a clean install or something less drastic if possible . but obviously it wont let me . Hope someone can help me get it working again.

[radarbob]

It's too hard to tell what's going on and to guide you properly. Do you have an AC adapter? is it working? Are you unplugging it and then the computer shuts down? is your battery shot? Is an install disk scratched or just got a smudge maybe?

It's been years since I installed OS 9.2, but I think Apple changed the Hard drive format about the time OS 9 came out and I want to remember that OS 9 gave you the option of reformatting the drive to the new format. IF you did that, then I believe you cannot go back and install OS 8.6 any more. The new format is a good thing. If you can get OS 9 to install, install it again and tell it to reformat the disk. Sorry, I don't remember exactly how to do it. Just click on various buttons presented during the install and look for it. Of couse this should be somewhere at the beginning of the process, before files are being loaded to the disk.

Sounds like the CD reader is working, but dirty, smudged, or scratched CDs can prevent files from being read from the disk.

It doesn't hurt to reinstall the OS although it is almost never necessary on Macintosh (once things are working in the first place, I mean), unlike PCs. Since 1988 I've never HAD to do it on any of my macintoshes.

As you see the various screens during OS install keep an eye out for buttons like "customize.." or something like that. You'll see that several optional programs are being installed, including Appleworks, which is a decent word processor.

And there is a "notepad" like program called "simpleText" that gets installed also. simpleText gets installed no matter what.

Somewhere on these customizing screens you can select what languages you want. By unchecking everything but what you want (English, maybe?) you'll save almost 100MB of disk space on the install.

[doody]

ac adaptor is working. i put in a new battery a week before the prob started. it was ok until i decided to add some missing software. it was given to me the laptop, with os 9.2 installed but disc i assume it was installed from ( only got one 9.2 disc ) is a copy someone made so i dont know much about what is one it other than someone wrote 9.2 on it. anyway it worked fine after i replaced the dead battery but it was missing SIMPLETEXT program or any other similar program. I also have original orange colored os 8.6 discs ( software install and restore) If i try booting up with the 8.6 discs i get cd in background screen and then it all goes black and shuts off. if i try booting with the 9.2 os disc cd drive does a lot of messing about but not a lot else. once it got to cd screen but just took forever ( had white screen with nothing there and eventually it shut down like 20 minutes later. need to know how to get to point where i can format and install the necessary software. as it stands im in the dark . it almost sounds like a conflict or somthing but what might it be. and how do i resolve it?

[radarbob]

OS 9 comes on more than one disk. I don't know how one can get a full / clean install without all the disks.

Bad CD drive? Clean the little lite bulb in it with a clean, soft cloth. That's all I can suggest. The only other thing is, if possible, find another mac and see if it can read the disks. If it can, then soundls like it's a CD drive problem.