[MoontaMacman]

Last weekend something "ate" my PowerMac 733 ROM file - either Warcraft 3 or the power failure while I was playing it - either way I got a message saying "The MacOS ROM file is missing or damaged. Please reinstall your Mac OS system software to get a new copy"
Well two days later I am unable to get the installation disc to install- I formatted the drive and started afresh - even borrowed a later disk from a friend - mine were 10.03 and 10.1.2 - hers is 10.1.4 but none of them will let me install - they get a certain distance into the process and then "there were errors installing the software. Could not write file. Please try installing again" - now on my last attempts I am getting "the installer has unexpectedly quit (error 0) Press the Return key to restart" -- none of this helps of course- the drive has been re-formatted numerous times now. (the 10.1.4 got the furthest at first but it too completely fails now)
Strangely enough the OS 9.2 on the second hard drive fires up - so in that sense the computer is still working but I just cannot get OS X to install - I have even read the instructions and tried every variation of the process I could see - all to no avail.

Going slowly madder!!

If the OS 9 side wasn't working I would suspect a hardware failure in the Mac itself - I have searched the Apple Knowledge Base backwards, forwards and sideways but nothing useful came up

Does the word "help" sound too desperate? :-))

any ideas, suggestions very much appreciated

Ron Co (where has the friendly part of Mac use gone?)

[MoontaMacman]

I contacted my dealer's tech today and he advised me to use the RESTORE disc and not the instal ldisc - which I did but this took me back to OS 9.1 then he said I would not be able to use the later discs 10.1.2 ans 10.1.4 as they were for iMac and emac - which I guess makes sense e=xcepts tat in the installer - which I have seen MANY times these last 2-3 days - it says "this system can be installed on - " and it lists a swag of models from G3 to latest G4 models iMacs. emacs , Powerbooks.iBooks ???

OK so I did as told but still I get the process go right through to the "Processing essential software" stssge - about 6 minutes to go - then
either -
"There were errors installing the software --- could not write file OR could not unarchive files"

This is crazy - I tried zapping PRAM (getting desparate) - ran Disk First Aid (no problems on either disk) and Nortons Utilities - interestingly Nortons won't even look at the hard drive I am trying to install on - freshly initialised and blank - I am starting to suspect the drive - but- as I said - why will OS 9 run on it if it is faulty? Crazy and crazier!

Ron

[MoontaMacman]

Slowly coming to the realisation my G4 has major problems - ran the Apple Hardware Test CD - Version 1.1 for Power Macs and it came up with an "Error Detected" for Mass Storage the first time - I restarted, zapped the PRAM and on the second test the MassStorage passed the test but now the Memory shows up an "Error Detected" message - the errors were:
ata1/6/3 HD:2,1 for the Mass Storage error
and error : mem_/2/5 for the Memory test -
the test stops there so I have no results for the Modem and Video board tests - looks like a visit to the city soon.
At present also the DVD player doesn't play and the drive cannot initialise DVD discs - although I have been able to initialise and copy data onto CDs - which test out OK on my iMac so I am in the process of removing and backing up data in case the techs need to do drastic things to my drives - I had already reformatted the drive I was trying to install OS X onto

The DVD player through up an error (-9881) - whatever all these error messages mean :-((
thanks to those who read the preceding

Ron

[MoontaMacman]

I am posting this in the hope that if anyone else has this problem it may be of help -and save them the $99 per hour I am facing-- :-)
it seems that when the power failure corrupted my bios and the message said "Reinstall from your System Disk" - or words to that effect - it should have said -" AND ALSO get all the updates and such for the old OS 9 from the internet"

I finally gave in and sent it to the Tech in Adelaide - nice fellow - and when I rang him he informed me that all was installing sweet as pie - AFTER he updated the OS 9 to the latest - which of course I thought I had but there you go - a simple and expensive mistake on my part - freight costs twice plus labour - think I'll make a note of this one and try to remember it if it happens again.
The real test will be when I get it home and try some of the troublesome software - ah the fun of it all !

At least I tried -about 50 times ! Hate it when these simple things beat me.

Ron

[MoontaMacman]

I was wrong - the tech was premature in his info last post - what he thought was a simple matter of installing earlier OS 9 updates was not so - some how the hard drive itself was corrupted - the procedure he explained to me was this :-
1) he reformatted in UNIX - low level
2) he installed OS X
3) he reformatted in HFS extended
4) he reinstalled OS X
5) did all the updates
charged me for less than two hours which shows he is kind to old folks - still no idea of the cause but at least I seem to be back up and running - he had the machine about 4 work days and on the third day still did not have it sorted so at least it was not an obvious fault I should have been able to remedy - says he kickin himself for lack of tech skills :-)

Hope my last post didn't mislead but I was just passing on what he told me

Ron Co