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Startup from CD
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: Reading, PA, USA
Status:
Offline
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The newspaper at the school where I teach has two G4s--brand new ones, and both are out of whack. One of them seems to have some sort of hardware problem since it will not start up at all. When the power button's pushed, the light comes on for half a second, then it dies down and nothing else happens. The other one, though, seems to have some sort of OS problem (although it could be hardware too). Here are the symptoms
Starting up from the HD is no problem. However, despite the fact that DFA says there are no problems, I suspect there's a directory issue of some sort because of some strange phenomena that are taking place with Pagemaker.
Anyway, because I think there're directory problems, I bring over my trusty DiskWarrior CD, with 9.04 on it (that's the OS on the HD, by the way), and try to start up from the disk. It won't. If I hold down the C key, the flashing question mark comes up. If I select the CD from the Startup Disk CP, it starts from the HD. If I hold down the option key at startup, only the HD comes up as an option as startup disk.
What makes me wonder if it's a hardware problem is that when I try to start up from the CD, the DVD drive doesn't spin up the disk at all. What makes me think it's an OS problem is that when I start up from the HD, the CD mounts without any problems.
I was in a hurry this afternoon, so I didn't try to zap the PRAM or rebuild the desktop, so I can't report on what that would do. I'll try those things when I get a chance. But if anyone has any suggestions, I'd be grateful.
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And that's true too.--Shakespeare, King Lear
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Forum Regular
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: big round blue place
Status:
Offline
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If these are indeed BRAND NEW G4's, then they should have OS 9.1 on the HD, not 9.0.4. Besides, the new machines wont boot from 9.0.4 since they dont need and cant use the "mac OS ROM enabler" that was included in that version of the OS. That code was just a temporary patch until 9.1 came out. And the DW cd you have will not boot these machines either, since it also has 9.0.4 on it, as you said.
Call Alsoft and get an updated CD, or burn a bootable CD with an OS 9.1 system folder, DFA, and the latest version of DW on it, including the newest DW extension that patched DW so it would run under 9.1.....then try some serious troubleshooting.......
As for the one that will not power up, that does not sound good. Seems like a possible loose power lead somewhere inside. This has been known to happen due to being bounced around during shipping, or just not QA'd very well at the factory. Look around the power supply, HD and mobo connections to be sure the connectors are all tight and fully seated........or it could just be DOA 
HTH 
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You can have me mac when u pry me cold, dead fingas off da mothabowd :eek:
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: Reading, PA, USA
Status:
Offline
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Thanks for the suggestion, but they're brand new in the sense that they were bought in late January. They came with 9.04 installed, not 9.1. So i'm still not sure of what's up. You're probably right about the one that won't start up at all, but I'll leave that issue to the techies to fix .
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And that's true too.--Shakespeare, King Lear
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