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Octo · Jun 15, 2002, 11:39 AM

I friend of mine gave me his iMac DV SE, that he needed to have reloaded with software. He had installed Netscape, along with the AOL extentions and things went down hill.

I wanted to backup the existing data before I reload MacOS 9.2, but the iMac can't see my external firewire/usb enclosure. So I tried updating the firmware. I run the program, power off, hit the programmers button and then the power switch. When the tone starts I release the programmers button, to hear the boot chime a few seconds later.

I eventually said screw it and tried to reinstall os 9.1 with out a back up and the installer engine crashed.

Any suggestions?

D'Espice · Jun 15, 2002, 01:18 PM

AFAIK, you'll have to upgrade the firmware on all Classic iMacs to be able to run OS 9. I might be mistaken though.
One thing you could try is to zap the PRAM.

Octo · Jun 15, 2002, 07:21 PM

I've further found out that I can't write to the HD. I've tried formatting it under OS9 and OSX, but everytime I reboot everything remains. Any ideas of what I could use to reformat the HD and reinstall an the OS.

Thanks

vmarks · Jun 16, 2002, 06:07 AM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by D'Espice:
AFAIK, you'll have to upgrade the firmware on all Classic iMacs to be able to run OS 9. I might be mistaken though.
One thing you could try is to zap the PRAM.<hr /></blockquote>This is mistaken.

You only need to update the firmware on iMac 233-333 to get it to run 9.1 and newer. 9.0x works fine with the factory firmware.

the iMac DV SE in question here, is a 400mhz machine and should need the firmware update to run X, but should run 9.04 and 9.1 fine.

here's my recommendation:

Boot into open firmware, either by holding the programmers switch down at boot time, or by holding command, option, O, and F down at boot time.

once there, type

reset-nvram

press return

and

reset-all

press return.

it will reboot, and then you should try installing 9.1.
on the 9.2 cd, there are firmware updates. the firmware level this machine need is 2.4 or a similar number.

Octo · Jun 16, 2002, 11:04 AM

This thing is really starting to **** me off. I just tried reset-nvram and reset-all. I still can't write to the hard drive.

I've tried modifing the HD under OS9.1, OSX, and using a LinuxPPC boot disk. Nothing will modifiy the disk. Most applications give me a clean output as if it was writing to the HD, but when I reboot everything comes back.

I'm about to rip the HD out and plug it into peecee and format it, before I put it back into the iMac.

Does anybody know if the lower plastic housing on an iMac DV swings forward and releases or are there release I have to pop with a screwdriver first?

Steve aka Octo

RBattin · Jun 17, 2002, 01:15 AM

After removing the screws the bottom housing has two tabs that are a tight fit connection on the front. Don't pivot it too far or you'll break them. A slight tap on the sides or to the left and right of the CD slot will release it.

vmarks · Jun 17, 2002, 02:57 AM

before you yank the hard drive out, when you boot off the os 9 cd, there are some utilities in drive setup. if you initialize the drive (same as formatting for PC terms) it should really get it.

Octo · Jun 17, 2002, 12:49 PM

I have now ripped the HD out. I put in an old HD (150MB) that I had and it formatted fine, and I was able to update the firmware. I then put the 13GB HD back in and it was still frozen. I booted from an OS9.1 install disk and tried to initialize the disk and it didn't report any errors, said everything was fine, but nothing changed on the HD. I'm going to try and format it in a windows machine and then it goes off for replacement.

dmbImac · Jul 25, 2002, 06:24 AM

I too have an 13gb hard drive, when I try to install OSX(10.1.3) the install stops with an hard drive error message, yet I can find nothing wrong with the hard drive, I loaded 9.2.1 on one of it's two partitions with no problem. Whatever you decide on your situation may be the same choices for me.