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Spliff · 04:15 AM

A friend of mine bought OS X "Jaguar" recently and he has tried repeatedly to install it on his iMac DV 500 without success.

The install begins fine but they freezes up solid when the progress bar reads "Processing Base System." And it freezes everytime at that spot.

I thought it might be a defective install CD. So I brought my copy of Jaguar over and tried to install it. Same freeze, same spot.

I have no clue why this is happening. His iMac has the combo CD-ROM/DVD-ROM (non-burning) drive. It was replaced about 6 months ago after the first one died. Could there be something wrong with the laser on the drive that would cause it to lock up the system when reading a CD?

MickS · Jan 14, 2003, 03:39 AM

Have you run the hardware test CD on the machine? That may show a fault.

Spliff · Jan 14, 2003, 03:44 AM

Originally posted by MickS:
Have you run the hardware test CD on the machine? That may show a fault.

All test indicate that the machine is fine. It was just in for a new RGB cable and the tech checked the RAM, the hard drive jumpers, and the power supply and found nothing wrong.

booboo · Jan 14, 2003, 07:56 AM

The only time I had this problem installing Mac OS X (10.1, I think) - and I only remember that it seemed to get stuck about 5/6 of the way through the installation, same place every time - was in my old G4/400.

What I traced it to, eventually - thanks to these forums - was the CD-RW that I'd swapped out for the original DVD-ROM. I can't remember the brand, Replacing the original DVD-ROM allowed the installation to proceed as normal.

I mention this only to confirm your suspicions, that the CD drive could have something to do with it? Perhaps look for a firmware update for it, or try installing from a FireWire drive, if you can borrow one from a friend...

Spliff · Jan 14, 2003, 02:07 PM

I called a few Mac shops around town and spoke to their techs.

One of them suggested that the problem was due to the fact that the drive was partitioned. He said that this was unnecessary and that there have been reports of install problems on partitioned drives. Is this possible?

jbelch3 · Jan 14, 2003, 02:40 PM

Originally posted by Spliff:
I called a few Mac shops around town and spoke to their techs.

One of them suggested that the problem was due to the fact that the drive was partitioned. He said that this was unnecessary and that there have been reports of install problems on partitioned drives. Is this possible?

I don't think partitions would have anything to do with it. I have an iBook and a G4 both with three partitions and have successfully installed OS X numerous times.

Spliff · Jan 14, 2003, 03:05 PM

Okay, I did some experimenting. I yanked out the 512 MB PC 133 DIMM that was in the upper slot and installed the original 128 MB PC 100 DIMM in the lower slot.

This time the install progress much further, but when it was about 3/4 done, it kernel panicked. Below the multi-language instructios to restart was a series of "F's", as in "FF:FF:FF:FF". Is that a meaninful error message or just nonsense?

Next I'm going to put the 128 MB DIMM in the upper slot and see what happens.

Visnaut · Jan 14, 2003, 09:21 PM

OS X is much more picky than OS9 when it comes to RAM.

This happened to me when I upgraded from OS9 to 10.1. For two days, I wrangled with the install disc, never being able to install OSX no matter how many times I reformatted the installation drive.

Then, on a whim, i pulled out all of the third-party RAM that I had purchased, and lo and behold the install went without a hitch. After everything was up and running, I tried putting in the DIMMs one by one to see which one had given me so many problems. And surely enough, after one restart, OSX panicked.

Interestingly enough, OS9 never gave me any problems of the sort with the DIMM in question.

In any case, I'd stick to just using the factory-installed DIMM and going from there.

Spliff · Jan 30, 2003, 08:10 PM

Turns out it was a defective logic board. Probably something wrong with the processor. Apple told the Mac tech to run "looping test" on the board and the results indicated there were problems with it. The board was sent to Apple for further tests.

A new board was installed and OS X installed without a hitch on the system.