[HARPER]

On the process of trying to install a new hard drive on a iMAC G3, I get the following error message on boot up. It's the first thing that shows up on the desplay.

[FONT=courier new]
BOOTr, unknow word
Failed to boot
Apple iMac Open Fireware 3.0.f3 built on 12/02/98 at 10:25:41
Copyright 1994-1998 Apple Computer Inc
All Rights Reserved
ok
0 > _

[/FONT]

At first I thought that it was not dedecting the new hard drive (Seagate 40Gb @ 7200 RPM), but when I installed the orginal drive (Western Digital 6Gb) back the, the same above error message continued to show.

The orginal Western Digital 6Gb still has a working copy of OS8.6 on it.

What is going on with this iMAC?
How do I go about fixing it?

Also how does one go about upgrading the firm were? Will I be needing a USB Floppy Drive for this.

And finally, did there any way that I can check where or not a hard drive is MASTER or SLAVE with out having to manually open up the iMAC and physically looking at it.

[HARPER]

GOOD NEWS
I took the (what I think) is the BIOS battery out for about a 30 minutes. And after that I was able to get this Mac to boot up again.

And then after that, I installed the Seagate 40Gb Hard Drive (as a MASTER), and the OS X set up CD is detecting the new drive.


Now some one was telling the that I might have to update the firmware on this computer. How do I got about doing this ?

BTW, i am still leaving the OS8.6 intact on the other drive until I am satified that I got OS.X installed and working.

[tooki]

In a G3 iMac, the firmware is updated using Mac OS 8 or 9. You should be able to download the firmware updater from Apple's support site.

Is it a tray-loading or slot-loading iMac? In the former, Mac OS X must be installed in a partition that is completely contained within the first 8GB of the disk.

Macs don't have a PC-style BIOS. But the backup battery, which we usually call the PRAM battery, does back up the PRAM (parameter RAM) or NVRAM (non-volatile RAM) when there is no power. The PRAM used to be used to store all sorts of settings, but Mac OS X only really uses it to store boot parameters like the selected startup disk.

Sometimes, the PRAM or NVRAM may get corrupted, and resetting it fixes the problem. PRAM/NVRAM is reset by holding down command-option-P-R on startup, until the startup chime has been heard three times. Removing the battery has the same effect.

tooki

[Krusty]

Here is a description of what the firmware updater is. Scroll up to download it. Unfortunately, it states that you must be running OS 9.1 to run it .... hmmmm. It is critical that you run this updater before installing OS X. I can't remember how to check your boot-ROM version in OS 8.6 .. but if you can read the help files and figure out how to check your boot-ROM, you should be looking for version 4.1.9f1. If the version you are running is lower than that, you WILL have to update it before installing OS X .. it is not installable from within OS X. Early version of OS X came with an OS 9 CD as well so you could upgrade to 9 first. I don't believe Panther comes with OS 9 anymore.

Best of luck

[edit]
I just re-read your first post. Judging from the date of your firmware (1998) and the size of your drive, it looks like you are running a tray loading iMac, correct ?? If so, forget what I posted ... the firmware updater is for slot-loaders only.

[HARPER]

Originally posted by tooki:
Is it a tray-loading or slot-loading iMac?

It's a TRAY LOADING.

Originally posted by tooki:
In the former, Mac OS X must be installed in a partition that is completely contained within the first 8GB of the disk.

That is where I had a another problem yesterday. I managed to get up to setting up my 8Gb Partition. But OSX would not let me install. The partition is 8Gb, but it a MAC JOURNALIZE Partition. I noticed that there was another 2 type of partitions avalable (MAC and UNIX).
I've currently set up 3 partitions. The first one is an 8Gb MAC JOURNALIZE Partition, and OSX is not letting me install on that partition.

Originally posted by tooki:
Macs don't have a PC-style BIOS. But the backup battery, which we usually call the PRAM battery, does back up the PRAM (parameter RAM) or NVRAM (non-volatile RAM) when there is no power. The PRAM used to be used to store all sorts of settings, but Mac OS X only really uses it to store boot parameters like the selected startup disk.

Sometimes, the PRAM or NVRAM may get corrupted, and resetting it fixes the problem. PRAM/NVRAM is reset by holding down command-option-P-R on startup, until the startup chime has been heard three times. Removing the battery has the same effect.

Well the Mac did it's little trick again yesterday with showing the above error message, so I just took out the battery again as soon as I walked into the office again. But I will keep that command-option-P-R trick in mind for next time.

THX tooki!

Originally posted by Krusty:
Here is a description of what the firmware updater is. Scroll up to download it. Unfortunately, it states that you must be running OS 9.1 to run it .... hmmmm. It is critical that you run this updater before installing OS X. I can't remember how to check your boot-ROM version in OS 8.6 .. but if you can read the help files and figure out how to check your boot-ROM, you should be looking for version 4.1.9f1. If the version you are running is lower than that, you WILL have to update it before installing OS X .. it is not installable from within OS X. Early version of OS X came with an OS 9 CD as well so you could upgrade to 9 first. I don't believe Panther comes with OS 9 anymore.

Best of luck

OUCH!
The up hill battle continues on this iMAC.

From the sounds of it, it does sound that i would be a wise thing to 1. at least get the old Mac OS 8.6 Hard drive installed back in there.
2. Some how work out how to get the firmware updated
3. Then worry about installing OSX.

So right now, I need to work out how I get a TRAY LOADING GREEN AND WHITE iMAC WITH 0S.8.6 FIRMWARE UPGRADED. What is the best way for me to do that?

[edit]Just 2 more things?
What is the latest version of the firmware?
And where is the Updata for it? [/edit]


I do appoligise if I sound too n00bish. It's my first time with doing this sort of stuff on as Mac. I normally work on PC.
I am mainly do this so I can get some experience of Macitosh Hardware.

Thanks for the help thus far.