[Microns]

There appear to be several threads here and elsewhere that reduce to an inability to restart or shutdown from the finder after a computer that has not been running MacOS X is updated to system X. None of these threads, however, has a solution and I need one!

The system that I'm having trouble with is a Powermac G3 Blue & White. The system had been running system 9.2.2 until recently when I updated it to system 10.2.3. Immediately after this if the computer is booted in 9.2.2 it will not restart or shutdown from the finder.

The box is as delivered by Apple (no mods). One drive (unchanged) so no master slave issues (see older posts here (by Sweet1) and elsewhere). No changes in RAM. Have reformatted and reinstalled system 9.2.2. Reset-nvram, reset-all. Zapped pram from cold boot. Done the vodoo hand wave (i.e. hardware shutdown, unplug computer, hold down cuda on logic board for 10 secs, pushed power-on switch 3 times, removed battery and allowed to sit for 30 min) all to no avail.

My conclusion - system 10.2.3 has installed new hard disk drivers that are not removed by disk reformat and OS re-install and no longer allow MacOS 9.2.2 to write to the disk at shutdown.

How to test - low level format of drive or swap drive for a known good (no system 10) drive. Unfortunately I have no disk tools for IDE drives (got to love scsi) and no known good spare IDE drive to swap.

Obvious flaws in logic/knowledge? How to test without formatting software or known good spare?

TIA!

[Pilotkev]

Originally posted by Microns:
[B
The system that I'm having trouble with is a Powermac G3 Blue & White. The system had been running system 9.2.2 until recently when I updated it to system 10.2.3. Immediately after this if the computer is booted in 9.2.2 it will not restart or shutdown from the finder.
[/B]

It's a shot in the dark, but, have you tried to "overclock" the CPU? If so, some of the jumpers could be intermittently losing contact. That will lock up the computer.
I learned this one the hard way (ugh).

Just a thought.
Kevin

[reader50]

This happened on my OS 9 install (separate partition). I do not remember letting X do any driver updates. The 9 Finder would allow a shut down, but not a restart, restart command would hang the system somewhere late in the shutdown process.

I cleaned out assorted preferences, looked for locked files (like shutdown check), updated drivers from 9. Upgraded to 9.2.3. Nothing seemed to fix it. The only unusual thing about my system is that I skipped the RAM-killer firmware update. But I had no problems rebooting before.

Eventually, the problem went away. I cannot tell you what caused it, or what the solution was. Rather than wipe the HD and reinstall everything, I had been setting the startup disk as needed, then shutting down from the Special menu. Immediately restart into the desired partition.

Note: in my case, if I used the Startup Disk CP to choose another partition, then hit Restart, the choice of another partition did not take. The system apparently hung before that change could be saved. A shut down did save the change in boot partition.

[Microns]

Good thought, thanks.

Unfortunately I forgot to put that in my list of things I've already tried. I've also removed and re-installed the CPU card, something I saw mentioned a couple of other places as a possible remedy.

Originally posted by Pilotkev:
It's a shot in the dark, but, have you tried to "overclock" the CPU? If so, some of the jumpers could be intermittently losing contact. That will lock up the computer.
I learned this one the hard way (ugh).

Just a thought.
Kevin

[Microns]

Interesting, sounds similar except for the disk partitions and the part about "Shutdown" working and "Restart" not. On my system neither one works.

Any pref/locked files on my system were erased (true?) during the reformat and re-install so that's not it.

I have not messed with the firmware. But, since you mention it, I will check and see if it needs one.

Still looking for a known good IDE drive to swap with.

Ayone know where to find a detailed description of the shutdown/restart sequences?

Originally posted by reader50:
This happened on my OS 9 install (separate partition). I do not remember letting X do any driver updates. The 9 Finder would allow a shut down, but not a restart, restart command would hang the system somewhere late in the shutdown process.

I cleaned out assorted preferences, looked for locked files (like shutdown check), updated drivers from 9. Upgraded to 9.2.3. Nothing seemed to fix it. The only unusual thing about my system is that I skipped the RAM-killer firmware update. But I had no problems rebooting before.

Eventually, the problem went away. I cannot tell you what caused it, or what the solution was. Rather than wipe the HD and reinstall everything, I had been setting the startup disk as needed, then shutting down from the Special menu. Immediately restart into the desired partition.

Note: in my case, if I used the Startup Disk CP to choose another partition, then hit Restart, the choice of another partition did not take. The system apparently hung before that change could be saved. A shut down did save the change in boot partition.