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storer · Jun 4, 2004, 07:08 PM

My G3 iMac will not boot from CD. This is a serious problem, because if something goes wrong, I can't run disk doctor. An error occured and the Apple Reseller booted it from Norton and fixed it. He was quite rude and refused to tell me how he did this! I have a Slot Loading 500mhz 40gb HD model, and I have no idea what's going on! I have done what you are supposed to do, and held down the c key when you start up, but no luck as yet.

Detrius · 11:15 AM

Originally posted by storer:
My G3 iMac will not boot from CD. This is a serious problem, because if something goes wrong, I can't run disk doctor. An error occured and the Apple Reseller booted it from Norton and fixed it. He was quite rude and refused to tell me how he did this! I have a Slot Loading 500mhz 40gb HD model, and I have no idea what's going on! I have done what you are supposed to do, and held down the c key when you start up, but no luck as yet.

The possibilities are as follows:

- hold down the option key when you turn the machine on. Select the CD from the list.
- Select the CD in the startup disk control panel
- figure out the specific open firmware command to boot from that specific device (it's not 'boot cd' because that's what holding down the 'c' key does).

Anyway, make sure that on the iMac you have firmware 4.1.9f. You can find this in the Apple System Profiler. It's the Boot ROM version. If not, you should upgrade the firmware. You will need OS 9.1 installed to do this.

storer · 02:31 AM

Originally posted by Detrius:
Anyway, the possibilities are as follows:

- hold down the option key when you turn the machine on. Select the CD from the list.
- Select the CD in the startup disk control panel
- figure out the specific open firmware command to boot from that specific device (it's not 'boot cd' because that's what holding down the 'c' key does).

Anyway, make sure that on the iMac you have firmware 4.1.9f. You can find this in the Apple System Profiler. It's the Boot ROM version. If not, you should upgrade the firmware. You will need OS 9.1 installed to do this.

How would you find the firmware command?
I did the firmware update a while ago. I have tried the option key and it comes up with a screen where you choose the startup device, but it doesn't give you a choice! There is only the hard drive. You can choose the CD in the startup controls, but it doesnt work either. I have never opened up this machine and it belonged to the Apple Reseller themselves before I purchased it, so I doubt they would have mucked around in it.
AND, something else. This computer has a 40 gb HD. isnt this unusual for this model of machine? Apple still sells machines with HDs of that size.

Detrius · Jun 5, 2004, 11:21 AM

Originally posted by storer:
How would you find the firmware command?
I did the firmware update a while ago. I have tried the option key and it comes up with a screen where you choose the startup device, but it doesn't give you a choice! There is only the hard drive. You can choose the CD in the startup controls, but it doesnt work either. I have never opened up this machine and it belonged to the Apple Reseller themselves before I purchased it, so I doubt they would have mucked around in it.
AND, something else. This computer has a 40 gb HD. isnt this unusual for this model of machine? Apple still sells machines with HDs of that size.

If the other two options don't work, it's not likely doing the open firmware command by hand is going to make a difference.

My suspicion from the beginning has been that the optical drive has been upgraded to a model that's not specifically compatible with the Mac.

If you can give me the serial number of your machine, I can tell you how it came from the factory (unless it was custom built). Then you can compare this to what you actually have and what you have done with it to see what is different.

If the logic board has not been changed, the serial number will show up in the Apple System Profiler. Otherwise, it's on the bottom of the iMac.

storer · Jun 5, 2004, 07:38 PM

Originally posted by Detrius:
If the other two options don't work, it's not likely doing the open firmware command by hand is going to make a difference.

My suspicion from the beginning has been that the optical drive has been upgraded to a model that's not specifically compatible with the Mac.

If you can give me the serial number of your machine, I can tell you how it came from the factory (unless it was custom built). Then you can compare this to what you actually have and what you have done with it to see what is different.

If the logic board has not been changed, the serial number will show up in the Apple System Profiler. Otherwise, it's on the bottom of the iMac.

Thanks a heap.
P12120T5-MDH-ff09
( i think those are zeros. they look like it!)
the machine id is 406
Thanks again

storer · Jun 7, 2004, 01:19 AM

i appreciate you help!

storer · Jun 10, 2004, 06:06 AM

Ok, Update time. I went to the apple discussions forums and the guy is helpful- but i'm confused!

I checked the systemk profiler and it says that the CD drive Vendor is LG. Driver 1.4.7
Would this have come with the iMac, or do you think your suspicsion is true and it has been updated? And if so, what do I do? Would I need to reinstall the OS: i can't do that though, because I can't boot from anything but the hard drive. So I am in a bit of a fix. I will need to boot from CD at some stage, and I refuse to pay $77 to do so at the mercy of an evil Apple Reseller. I am guessing that he wouldn't tell me so that I couldn't ever fix anything myself if it went wrong.

storer · Jun 18, 2004, 05:11 AM

Update again:
I reset the NVRAM. Does anyone else have any more suggestions. I would appreciate it so much. I have run out of ideas..? do ypu think the firmware thing might be worth a try?

macaddict0001 · Jun 19, 2004, 06:31 PM

Originally posted by storer:
Update again:
I reset the NVRAM. Does anyone else have any more suggestions. I would appreciate it so much. I have run out of ideas..? do ypu think the firmware thing might be worth a try?

Is this the same reseller that sold you the mac if so go have a talk with them or you could buy norton utilities for under 100 dollars and if you don't know how to fix it you can call their support number.(seems like you don't want to buy from that reseller and if they treat you that way you shouldn't) Do they sell PC's and Macs Or just Macs because if they sell pc's then lets just say there are reasons we call some PC users trolls

storer · Jun 19, 2004, 06:59 PM

Originally posted by macaddict0001:
Is this the same reseller that sold you the mac if so go have a talk with them or you could buy norton utilities for under 100 dollars and if you don't know how to fix it you can call their support number.(seems like you don't want to buy from that reseller and if they treat you that way you shouldn't) Do they sell PC's and Macs Or just Macs because if they sell pc's then lets just say there are reasons we call some PC users trolls

They sell both... so trolls they are. For those who don't know, I am in Australia. Macs are both expensive and scarce. So we have one Apple Reseller in a little country town I live in. In the middle of the so called "outback." But that doesn't mean people don't use them. I have done a bit of a search around the net: I am not the only one who has encountered this. Apple Discussions has the thread "Is it the CDROM" at the moment, and that is the same. Could it be a model problem? Should I replace the CDRom Drive or not? Would I be able to boot from an external USB/Firewire CDRW? And does anyone else know any little troubleshooting things I could do to help. I need this fixed...! Thanks in advance!

Sod Off Sadr · Jun 20, 2004, 12:59 AM

the imac g3 has only usb 1, so booting from it is not advisable even if it'd recognize an external CD drive.

Booting from an external firewire CD drive or hard drive is possible. Hold down the option key at startup for options.

Detrius · Jun 20, 2004, 09:17 AM

iMac (Summer 2001)
iMac500/IN/128/20/CD/ULTRA/56K/FW/VG

That's the info that comes up on your iMac. You do have FireWire. As long as you have the latest firmware, you should be able to boot from FireWire devices just fine. The latest version of the firmware is 4.1.9f and you need to be booted into 9.1 or 9.2 to install it.

Macs can't yet boot from USB... no reason to since FireWire 400 is faster than even USB 2.0 (which is theoretically 480Mbps).

Unfortunately, the photo of the drive that came with your machine doesn't have a visible logo on it (other than the Apple logo), so I can't tell if LG is the standard. If you can figure out a model number on the drive, you can check on http://www.xlr8yourmac.com to see the experience other people are having with the drive. My LG drive is a GSA-4040B. It's not officially supported, but I have it working just fine. Your LG drive may give you a completely different experience.

storer · Jul 27, 2004, 11:58 PM

Originally posted by Detrius:
iMac (Summer 2001)
iMac500/IN/128/20/CD/ULTRA/56K/FW/VG

That's the info that comes up on your iMac. You do have FireWire. As long as you have the latest firmware, you should be able to boot from FireWire devices just fine. The latest version of the firmware is 4.1.9f and you need to be booted into 9.1 or 9.2 to install it.

Macs can't yet boot from USB... no reason to since FireWire 400 is faster than even USB 2.0 (which is theoretically 480Mbps).

Unfortunately, the photo of the drive that came with your machine doesn't have a visible logo on it (other than the Apple logo), so I can't tell if LG is the standard. If you can figure out a model number on the drive, you can check on http://www.xlr8yourmac.com to see the experience other people are having with the drive. My LG drive is a GSA-4040B. It's not officially supported, but I have it working just fine. Your LG drive may give you a completely different experience.

Would the 20 part stand for the hard drive? Because this has a 40 GB hard drive. Could the hard drive have been replaced, and could that have something to do with it?

storer · Sep 2, 2004, 07:51 AM

Hey,

In a way, I am bumping this thread. I really need to find out the solution to this problem through any means possible!
http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...hreadid=226670
I would love to upgrade, and can't wait for OSX, so please please, anyone here who has ANY suggestions please, please help me, I would really appreciate it. If anyone knows, I would like help finding the Firmware command and trying this.

Thanks so much and apologies for bumping,
Storer

tooki · Sep 2, 2004, 09:17 AM

Originally posted by Detrius:
Macs can't yet boot from USB... no reason to since FireWire 400 is faster than even USB 2.0 (which is theoretically 480Mbps).

You're wrong, they definitely can. Any Mac with AGP graphics can boot from USB and FireWire. Booting Mac OS X from a USB 1 disk is definitely a trial in patience, but it does work. Booting OS 9 from USB 1 (say, from a thumb drive) is surprisingly speedy.

tooki

storer · Sep 2, 2004, 09:22 AM

Ok then, thanks tooki! Now that we know what, then how do I format my thumb drive with OS 9 to attempt it!

macaddict0001 · Sep 2, 2004, 08:17 PM

well I have an Imac 450 dv+ with original drive dvd-rom and it is matshita.

Eriamjh · Sep 3, 2004, 07:21 AM

You haven't said if you are trying to boot to the original CD or if it is OS9 or OSX. Try it with a full retail 9.1 disk and the latest panther. It's not likely that the Apple Reseller did anything special when he booted it with Norton. He probably had the right OS on the CD.

storer · Sep 3, 2004, 07:24 AM

Originally posted by Eriamjh:
You haven't said if you are trying to boot to the original CD or if it is OS9 or OSX. Try it with a full retail 9.1 disk and the latest panther. It's not likely that the Apple Reseller did anything special when he booted it with Norton. He probably had the right OS on the CD.

Its the OS 9 disk that came with the iMac when I bought it second hand. It has the iMac logo on it. It has 9.1 on it, and my mac has 9.2 installed. I don't have OSX installed. Just out of curiosity, if anyone knows, when did iMacs begin shipping with X? Maybe I was given the wrong cds.

Eriamjh · Sep 3, 2004, 02:16 PM

Did you reset the CUDA switch on the mobo? Did you reset all ram in open firmware (command-option-O-F, reset-nvram, reset-all)?

I'm not aware that the firmware update disables booting the original CD, but it's possible. Can you get your hands on a panther or Jaguar CD and try booting that?

Have you tried inserting the CD after a normal boot, selecting the CD as a boot device, then restarting?

Detrius · Sep 3, 2004, 03:38 PM

Originally posted by tooki:
You're wrong, they definitely can. Any Mac with AGP graphics can boot from USB and FireWire. Booting Mac OS X from a USB 1 disk is definitely a trial in patience, but it does work. Booting OS 9 from USB 1 (say, from a thumb drive) is surprisingly speedy.

tooki

Actually, I was just reading through this and was going to correct myself. I've never read anything about it, but I was fiddling around with a customer's machine that had an external USB hard drive w/a backup of her system and it booted! I was shocked! I don't know off the top of my head which iMacs/laptops this would or would not include, though. It really did take a long time, though.

Detrius · Sep 3, 2004, 03:46 PM

Originally posted by storer:
Its the OS 9 disk that came with the iMac when I bought it second hand. It has the iMac logo on it. It has 9.1 on it, and my mac has 9.2 installed. I don't have OSX installed. Just out of curiosity, if anyone knows, when did iMacs begin shipping with X? Maybe I was given the wrong cds.

Since it's a Summer 2001 model, it probably came with 10.0.x installed. Also, the 9.1 disk that came with that machine is newer than a retail 9.1 disk. If you were going to get a retail disk, it would have to be 9.2 or later.

I found this to be true with my PMac G4 (Digital Audio). It came with 9.1, but the 9.1 CD that came with OS X 10.0 wouldn't boot the machine--it was the original retail 9.1.

It is possible that it's the wrong iMac 9.1 CD. Do you not have access to any other OS CDs to try? 10.1? 10.2? 10.3? 9.2?

storer · Sep 3, 2004, 07:05 PM

Well thats a bitch, cos it aing go not OS X disk. Thats really shoddy! I am going to buy OS X and see what happens, but thats just not very good of the resellers. They told me they were ALL of the original disks.

storer · Sep 3, 2004, 08:41 PM

Originally posted by Eriamjh:
Did you reset the CUDA switch on the mobo?

No, I haven't done the CUDA switch. Is that hard to get to or will I find it easily?

galarneau · 12:46 PM

Since the reseller was able to boot off the Norton CD, and you can't boot from your CD, I'm thinking that your CD doesn't have the proper system software on it.

Try and find another Mac user with a copy of OS X and see if it can boot from their CD's.

By the way, what town are you in? I spent 3 months in Alice Springs, and I don't think I saw a single Mac there. Actually, I take it back. There is a little computer store across the road from the public library on Todd Mall that was using an old 520 series Performa as a door-stop.

Bastards.

storer · Sep 6, 2004, 06:00 PM

Originally posted by galarneau:
Since the reseller was able to boot off the Norton CD, and you can't boot from your CD, I'm thinking that your CD doesn't have the proper system software on it.

Try and find another Mac user with a copy of OS X and see if it can boot from their CD's.

By the way, what town are you in? I spent 3 months in Alice Springs, and I don't think I saw a single Mac there. Actually, I take it back. There is a little computer store across the road from the public library on Todd Mall that was using an old 520 series Performa as a door-stop.

Bastards.

Mildura, Vic. A volunteer organisation that I work for is getting a new eMac today, and I will see what I can do in the way of OSX disks, though I know I can't install eMac OS on iMac.

galarneau · Sep 6, 2004, 10:26 PM

Originally posted by storer:
Mildura, Vic. A volunteer organisation that I work for is getting a new eMac today, and I will see what I can do in the way of OSX disks, though I know I can't install eMac OS on iMac.

Actually, you can. I used my old iBooks OS X install disks to reinstall OS X on a friends PowerMac G4/400

storer · Sep 7, 2004, 05:26 AM

Originally posted by galarneau:
Actually, you can. I used my old iBooks OS X install disks to reinstall OS X on a friends PowerMac G4/400

i was told it could damage my machine... but may as well try!

galarneau · Sep 7, 2004, 01:10 PM

Originally posted by storer:
i was told it could damage my machine... but may as well try!

What you were told is somewhat true. You need to have the latest firmware for your iMac before installing OS X.

You can download it here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75130

After the firmware is updated, it is safe to install OS X.

storer · Sep 7, 2004, 06:41 PM

Originally posted by galarneau:
What you were told is somewhat true. You need to have the latest firmware for your iMac before installing OS X.

You can download it here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75130

After the firmware is updated, it is safe to install OS X.

hmmm... ill have to wait and see!

macgfx · Sep 8, 2004, 12:24 AM

Apple Menu>Control Panel>StartUp Disk> Choose the OS 9 CD>Restart.

If the OS 9 CD is Mounted on the Desktop ie you can see it and it does not show up as a StartUp Disk then it has the Wrong Mac OS ROM file in the SyStem Folder.

IF you can choose it as the StartUp Disk, but when you reboot it only boots the Hard Drive make sure your PRAM Battery is not dead. If that's OK then..........

Hold............Command(Apple Key)+option+shift+delete.......... at startup.

That is an Apple Keyboard????