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kinik · Jul 4, 2005, 11:34 AM

i have bought 2 parts to upgrade my imac G3 400mhz, but none of them work.

i bought a western digital 120GB 8mbbuffer HDD, believe the model number is WD1200JB Caviar SE. and i bought 2 stick of ram, brand name is micron. each of them are 512mb PC133.
it took me no time to take the cover off the imac, removed the HDD, put new one in and installed the ram, everything fits just right. when i boot it up, it WONT START!! just gave me a few beeps from the speaker. then i thought the ram could be the problem, so i took them out, got the old ones back in...now it will boot up, and start loading my tiger, but things didn't go any further, it cannot detect my HDD. in the section where it tell me to choose destination to install to, it wont show up my new HDD.....can anyone please help? are the parts i bought suitable for my imac?

i bought 2x512 mb ram becoz i read about it that my imac will able to take up to 1gb.

doucy2 · Jul 4, 2005, 11:38 AM

imac g3 cant hold 1g
only g4 or higher

Krusty · Jul 4, 2005, 04:27 PM

Originally Posted by doucy2

imac g3 cant hold 1g
only g4 or higher

That's actually not true. The DV series (slot loading 350-700mhz) CAN hold 1gb (2 x 512).
Here's a 512 module for sale at crucial.com However, YOU SHOULD by from a vendor who specifically states that their PC-133 works in iMacs. With Apple, there are typically restrictions on the chip confgurations (on the board) that they will support ... so its important to get this type ... not any old off-the-shelf PC-133 will work.

Also (to the original poster), 120gb is the max hard drive supported in iMacs like yours (I have a 120gb seagate in my DV 450 right now). Did you set the jumpers on your 120gb properly ? Most come with a set of pins on the back and a plastic jumper that must be positioned correctly so that your hard drive knows whether to be "Master", "Slave", or "Cable Select". You need to make sure the jumper settings are properly set to "Master" to act as the main drive on your iMac. Many bare hard drives come set in one of the other positions from the factory ... make sure you have it set right. Also, you will NOT be able to install Tiger on the hard drive ... until you reformat it in HFS+ or UFS which you have to do from Disk Utility. Most drives are pre-formatted for use in PCs, you HAVE to reformat it !!

kinik · Jul 5, 2005, 12:48 AM

i have tried formating my HDD in the disk utility, but as soon as i click on disk utility, the mac frozes, what went wrong?? i have set the HDD jumper to single or master, instead of master w/slave. i have tried everything, but it still wont go. i have put new ram aside for a refund as i have tested them, the imac couldn't see their existence.

hudson1 · Jul 5, 2005, 04:34 AM

How are trying to boot the iMac? Did you special order the Tiger CD set to replace the DVD? Do you have Firewire (iMac DV edition)? Firewire is supposedly a minimum requirement for Tiger.

kinik · Jul 5, 2005, 05:41 AM

yes i have 2 built in firewire port in my imac, and have DVD slot loading drive.

hudson1 · Jul 5, 2005, 07:15 AM

Originally Posted by kinik

yes i have 2 built in firewire port in my imac, and have DVD slot loading drive.

I take it that you (or someone else) put the DVD drive in??? I don't think any G3 iMac was built by Apple with a DVD drive. If the Tiger DVD won't sucsuccessfully boot the iMac (or does it?) then what OS X disc has worked to boot the iMac in the past? Can you use that to at least get the HDD formatted before you attempt the Tiger install?

Will C · Jul 5, 2005, 07:59 AM

Originally Posted by hudson1

I take it that you (or someone else) put the DVD drive in??? I don't think any G3 iMac was built by Apple with a DVD drive.

Actually from the DV models on, the G3 iMacs had DVD-ROM drives - mine did and I think others did as well IIRC.

Will

kinik · Jul 5, 2005, 11:30 AM

what i heard was most imac DV came with dvd roms. i got the tiger boot up the imac, but it will not go any further as soon as i clicked on disk utility.

Krusty · Jul 5, 2005, 12:01 PM

Yes, the early G3 iMacs came with DVD-rom drives. The low-end, entry level models came with CD-rom only and then in later years they came with CD-RW drives that did not have DVD capability. So, as out of sorts as it seems, the technology progression was CD-Rom-->DVD-Rom--->CD-RW ... later machines actually couldn't play DVDs where as earlier ones could. Both of the DV iMacs I had came with DVD drives stock (and, of course, firewire, 100bt, and even a slot for an airport card .. which is why those little wonders are still such viable machines today .. they have all the right connections to play nice with more modern hardware).

kinik · Jul 5, 2005, 12:17 PM

oh..is it airport card capable too??

but first i need to get my ram and HDD sort it out first. do you all know what kind of ram you are using for your imac G3 DV? e.g. brand, model etc.

kick52 · Jul 5, 2005, 01:06 PM

when you say the mac freezes, does the mouse stop moving? if it doesnt, it is a crash. you should try leaving it for a while.

hudson1 · Jul 5, 2005, 01:26 PM

Are you going straight from OS 9 to Tiger or do you have another OS X CD version? Even if it's just an OS 9 CD, I would first try formatting the new drive by booting from that old CD.

Krusty · Jul 5, 2005, 07:34 PM

Originally Posted by kinik

oh..is it airport card capable too??

but first i need to get my ram and HDD sort it out first. do you all know what kind of ram you are using for your imac G3 DV? e.g. brand, model etc.

In my opinion, you need to get sorted out exactly what model of iMac you have as well. 400mhz could be the "high end" DV SE of the first generation of slot loaders (1999) or it could also be a "regular" DV from 2000 (which DOES only have a CD drive) OR it could even be the low end from early 2001. There are so many different possibilities of what you might have, it'd really be helpful if you could checkthis site and let us know which machine we are dealing with here.

Also, I bought my memory orginally from OWC (macsales.com) several years ago but there are many vendors who sell ram that is certified to be the right kind for the iMac G3s. Check out ramseeker.com and choose iMac (350-700mhz) from the drop down in the upper left and it will spit back a number of vendors who make ram specifically for your iMac. I just checked and the ram for your machine is running in the $63 - $90 ranger for a 512mb stick.

Lastly, I would listen to hudson1s advice about trying to boot from and OS 9 CD if you have one around still. There are some issues with firmware updates with these iMacs that must be done before OS X can be installed reliably. So, if you are jumping from 9 to X, it may be REQUIRED that you do a firmware update from within 9 first anyway.

Just let us know the exact model, and what OS you're running now and we should be able to give much more specific advice.

kinik · Jul 5, 2005, 10:00 PM

my imac was made in 1999, its 400mhz with 10gb HDD and originally 64mb ram and upgraded to 256mb ram now. so i guess its the DV version of imac introduced in 1999 and production ended in 2001, and the DVD-rom came as standard. and i have tried playing dvd with it, it has no problem and running smooth. i think if the dvd rom was an replacement, dvd wouldn't play as smooth?
the new HDD is blank, it has nothing in it. it freezes when i try to do a format thru disk utility, so you think if i installing OS9 would help?
after i cilcked on disk utility, the mac has response, even i click continue or back, it will not take me there, and after i clicked around, the imac finally frozed and i had to restart. pain in the

hudson1 · Jul 6, 2005, 07:08 AM

kinik, for people to help you, we really need to start with this basic info....

1) What system disks do you have that will boot the iMac via the optical drive?
2) What system was installed on the computer when it ran correctly?

kinik · Jul 6, 2005, 11:45 AM

1) OS 9
2) OSX tiger
and im using OSX tiger now.

hudson1 · Jul 6, 2005, 05:11 PM

Originally Posted by kinik

1) OS 9
2) OSX tiger
and im using OSX tiger now.

Let me make sure we understand your answer. You had Tiger installed and running on your previous hard drive? You say you're running Tiger now but you have a blank new hard drive. That doesn't make sense unless you're referring to running Tiger from the DVD alone. That can't qualify as "using" Tiger now. Please clarify and we'll go from there.

Will C · Jul 6, 2005, 05:48 PM

Hi Kinik,
Is your firmware up to 4.1.9f?

Also when running OS9, how much memory does the (apple) system profiler show as installed? - I think Tiger will really sturggle even when just running from the DVD if your don't have much RAM.

kinik · Jul 7, 2005, 04:56 AM

im using tiger on my 10gb hdd now, and i bought a 120gb hdd (new blank), to replace the 10gb.
the dvd tiger will not format the new blank hdd becoz as soon as i got to disk utility, it freezes.
shall i try to use the cd version os9 first to format and instll, then use the dvd tiger to install again?

hudson1 · Jul 7, 2005, 06:26 AM

Originally Posted by kinik

im using tiger on my 10gb hdd now, and i bought a 120gb hdd (new blank), to replace the 10gb.
the dvd tiger will not format the new blank hdd becoz as soon as i got to disk utility, it freezes.
shall i try to use the cd version os9 first to format and instll, then use the dvd tiger to install again?

Yes, boot your machine from the OS 9 CD (with the new HDD installed) and then try to format the drive to HFS+. If successful, reboot with the Tiger DVD and see if you can install Tiger onto the new HDD.

kinik · Jul 9, 2005, 04:09 AM

thx everyone for assistant
i have got everything sorted out, got OSX tiger installed.
I had to format my new WD 120gb HDD with my PC, partitioned into 2 equal part. then my mac can see it on installation, and i reformated again with Mac extended journaled (wotever it means...

) now is running smoothly and faster than my previous original apple 10gb HDD.
I have sold my 'incompatible' ram in online auction, and i have took out a 256mb ram and fit into my imac, it worked perfectly fine with one of my 128mb. total 384mb ram, and its obviously smoother. but im still keen on getting 1gb ram soon.

hudson1 · Jul 10, 2005, 12:17 PM

Glad to hear that all's well!