[mr breaker]

I have a G4 500mhz machine running OS 9.2.

I have the Panther install CD's and after I insert disc 1, I click the restart button, but the machine just boots up into OS 9.


I tried putting the same install CD in my PB and the machine restarts from the CD correctly.


I have erased the G4 and reformatted with a fresh copy of OS 9, but it still will not work (it does boot of the OS 9 CD without a problem). Does anyone have any suggestions? Has anyone heard of this problem before?

[Laurence]

I know this sounds ridiculous, but are you sure you don't have the DVD install of Panther? If it is really a CD then it sounds like it could be a track alignment issue. make a .cdr image of the install disc and burn a copy of it using disc utility and try booting from that. It would be ideal to burn the image using the drive that you want to boot off of. If that works then you probably need to clean or replace the CD drive in that computer.

[tooki]

That's all unnecessary.

Just boot from the CD by holding down the C key on startup.

tooki

[mr breaker]

thanks for the replies...


tooki...I have tried holding down the c key at startup, but it will not boot up from the disc. It just boots back into OS 9.


Any suggestions?

[Laurence]

Hold down option on startup. Does the CD show up in the list of bootable volumes?

[Mr. Blur]

Originally posted by mr breaker:
I have the Panther install CD's

are these "retail" cd's, upgrade cd's, or something else (ie: copies).

[mr breaker]

They are all retail CDs....note I tested them on my PB and they were ok there




The CD does not show up as an a possible startup disc while holding the option button

[Powaqqatsi]

Then do what Laurence said.

[mr breaker]

Originally posted by mr breaker:
The CD does not show up as an a possible startup disc while holding the option button

Anyone have any theories why it won't recognize the panther cd? The machine does boot fine off the OS 9 disc.

[OptimusG4]

Try and see if there are any firmware upgrades for your machine. There should be something on the CD or Apple's support site.

[Laurence]

Try resetting the PRAM. (hold down command-option-P-R on boot) If that doesn't fix it then do a full reset from the open firmware prompt (hold down command-option-O-F) on boot)

To reset from the OF prompt type the following...

reset-nvram
reset-all

This will reboot the machine. Then hold down option and see if the CD is recognized. If that doesn't work then I would do what I said originally and make a duplicate of the CD and try booting from that.

Is this the stock drive that came with the computer? Do you have another optical drive you can swap it with?

[mr breaker]

Thanks, I do have an external CD-RW, I will try booting from that.

(I have already tried doing the full reset)