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OSX won't install on QS 800
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Forum Regular
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Japan
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Here is a perculiar problem. ANyone have any tips or suggestions? The QS 800 (no L3 cache model) at work refuses to let me install OS X on it. I get an error at the end of the 1st CD, saying "an error has occured try installing again." The machine has a CD-RW drive so I can't use a later DVD install disk. The CDs I am using have been used to install the system on an older G4 tower (Sawtooth) successfully. The machine has an nVidia 4MX 32MB RAM video card that has known issues with older versions of OSX but if I remember right, it is possible to see enough to get the system updated. It has one 256MB and one 512MB ram chip for a total of 768MB. OS 9.2.2 runs stable (well mostly), and the machine has one 120MB Hitach IDE drive installed in the factory location hooked to the onboard IDE controller. THe machine has an ATA 66 IDE interface card installed with nothing connected. I can not try reformatting the drive cause it has over 35GB of important data on it.
Any ideas?
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
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Not sure why it's not letting you install, but if you've still got access to that sawtooth machine that it does work on, why not whip the hard drive out of your QS and put it into the sawtooth computer until you get it fully installed?
I pulled this trick for a different machine model and it worked brilliantly.
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Senior User
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: UK
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Try what Geobunny said.
But before you install OS X, put in drive in the Sawtooth and backup those 35GB of important data. If your hard drive went bad (which it may have done already) you would have lost the data. Once it's backed up you can do whatever you need to in order to install OS X on that disk.
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Forum Regular
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Japan
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Thanks for the response guyss, it is appreciated. However, the problematic machine belongs to the company and the Sawtooth is mine, can't go switching parts around, much as I7d like to, and the data is company stuff too. The boss screams when money is lost but he still takes no precautions with the computers 'cause he really doesn't understand how easy it is too lose data. The only real solution possible is to get OS X installed without swapping drives. Or if I can convince them that it is necessary to "backup" then reformat the drive and try again.
My main question is; can the video card be the source of the error? RAM is also possible.
(maybe sunspots?)
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Mac Elite
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Vancouver
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I was going to suggest that; I think that was a workaround for the G5s (or was it Powerbooks?) which was to remove non-stock RAM when doing an install and then adding it back in.
Good luck.
Originally posted by David Lee:
Thanks for the response guyss, it is appreciated. However, the problematic machine belongs to the company and the Sawtooth is mine, can't go switching parts around, much as I7d like to, and the data is company stuff too. The boss screams when money is lost but he still takes no precautions with the computers 'cause he really doesn't understand how easy it is too lose data. The only real solution possible is to get OS X installed without swapping drives. Or if I can convince them that it is necessary to "backup" then reformat the drive and try again.
My main question is; can the video card be the source of the error? RAM is also possible.
(maybe sunspots?)
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Asheville, NC
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Offline
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Originally posted by legacyb4:
I was going to suggest that; I think that was a workaround for the G5s (or was it Powerbooks?) which was to remove non-stock RAM when doing an install and then adding it back in.
Good luck.
If you have to remove the RAM to get the OS to install, you really shouldn't be putting it back in.
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ACSA 10.4/10.3, ACTC 10.3, ACHDS 10.3
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Dec 2000
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My first guess would be the hard drive.
But regardless of whether it's what's causing this problem or not, and regardless of whether you're going to reformat it or not, you need to back that stuff up.
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Forum Regular
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Japan
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I finally convinced the boss to purchase another internal HD and back up that data. It took me half a day to install the disk and get the data backed up but that is done now! The original problem of an error on install from the 10.3 Panther CDs was solved by switching the video card for an older Rage Pro, which works fine with 2D apps. I also tried pulling the memory chips one by one but that has no effect at all. Definitely video card related. Rather stange but true. OS X runs fine now and rather "zippy" for an 800GHz machine with no backside cache.. The new drive I installed was a Seagate with an 8 MB cache. Seems to be just the thing, q uietand speedy but of course I have no time to benchmark it. (Sorry about that) Anyway, thanks to all who responded, the Mac community is really something, a big bad bunch of brothers in arms.
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