Ok. This is the strangest thing I have ever seen in 13 years of using a Mac. I needed the internet config extension in order to run a program I just downloaded, and I had thrown it away for some reason. For some reason just installing the internet access part of the system folder didn't help, so I reinstalled my whole system (OS 9.0). I restarted my computer, and instead of the happy mac folder, I had a blinking question mark folder. The weird part is that in the upper left corner of the screen, I had text that said

Apple iMac Open Firmware 3.0.f2 built on 04/23/99 at 14:31:03
Copyright 1994-1999 Apple Computer, Inc.
All Rights reserved
ok
0 >

There was a cursor after the command prompt where anything I typed went. I found that I could boot up with the iMac CD, and so I did a clean reinstall with system 8.5. This made the problem worse. Where before I got a blinking question mark and the apple firmware command prompt, now the blinking question mark was gone, and all I saw was a very light grey screen with the open firmware prompt. At this point I was in totally new territory, so I dragged my old Powercomputing clone out of the closet and got on the apple site. Any help would be appreciated.

Things I have tried:

Running the Mac Firmware 1.2 upgrade-
It says my firmware is already up to date and won't do an upgrade.

Typing mac-boot at the command prompt-
I read an old post where somone said this could help. When I do it all I get is "DEFAULT CATCH!, code=300 at %SRR0: ff8oc67c %SRR1: 0000b030 ok"

Zapping the PRAM-
This got the blinking question mark screen back, but it still won't load and I still get the firmware command prompt. NOTE: The happy mac OS folder does stay for a sec when I am starting up. It looks like it is trying to load somthing, but then it goes into firmware.

Running Disk first-aid-
It says my harddrive is fine

Help me!

I had the same problem. This happened to me with my iMac right after I installed a MRJ update from the Software Update control panel. To fix the problem, I just removed the files that got installed. This probably wont help you.

[oscar]

I think zapping the pram might work,, but you gotta do it more then once. Hold down the keys to zap pram (command option p r) and let it reboot a few times, never letting go. I had to do this a lot when I installed linuxppc (before bootx). So unless the firmware is bad (corrupt?), it should whip out everything.
Also, I dont know what mac you have (Original imac?) But most newer machines have something on the motherbaord called a cuda button. If you need to know where this is, lemme know, and i can email you a pdf that explains the process.

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-See Yea!

[This message has been edited by oscar (edited 03-06-2000).]