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B&W G3 Issues

Submitted by Contradude on August 4, 2007 - 12:57am. PowerPC Macs

I'm the (mostly) happy new recipient of a B&W G3 that was in good shape (other than needing to slap some thermal greese on the processor and put the heat sink and clip back on). I went to install 10.2 (because its what was laying around) and it would get fully installed. on reboot it would hang and when I reset it, it was totally fubar'd. as in kernel panic kind of fubar'd. after doing this twice and reformatting twice, I decided that it might be good to try taking baby steps from os 9. I popped my trusted 9.1 cd in, it booted fine and when I clicked on it... it gave me an error about the firmware needing to be upgraded. I tried to run the updater and it says that I need an installed os in order to be able to run that. I no longer have my os 8.1 or 8.5 cd's, since they were no longer of use to me and they've been placed in that black hole known as my garage. Does anyone have any idea where to go from now? as far as getting new firmware installed? and does anyone have any hints for installing os X? the b&w is stock except for the 60 gig oem drive in there. thanks for your time, Chris P.

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protocol6v's picture

Boot back from your OS 9 CD,

Submitted by protocol6v on August 4, 2007 - 3:23am.

Boot back from your OS 9 CD, and go through some of the folders. There should be either A: a folder with all the system files that the installer would copy or B: a folder with a system image in it. Mount the image and copy all the files to your HD. Then go to start up disk and select the internal HD. You should then be able to boot from the HD.

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no dice. I took a shot at it

Submitted by Contradude on August 4, 2007 - 3:55am.

no dice. I took a shot at it and all I see is the individual tomes it's reading from and the system folder it boots from. this is the os9 disc that came with the 10.0/os9 retail package. do you have any other ideas for me? thank you.

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Hawaii Cruiser's picture

It's been a long long time si

Submitted by Hawaii Cruiser on August 4, 2007 - 4:11am.

It's been a long long time since I did the firmware update on my B&W's, but I don't remember it being necessary for 9.1. Did you reset the PRAM before going to install 9? Takes about 3 or 4 chimes to fully reset. Or just remove the battery for awhile. Has the harddrive been wiped clean?

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dankephoto's picture

for starters, check current firmware rev

Submitted by dankephoto on August 4, 2007 - 3:13pm.

Check the Boot ROM version against what it ought to be, looks like v1.1 is what you want. Then you'll know if you truly need to update the firmware or if this is a red herring of sorts.

Apple wrote:
To check the Boot ROM version, start up into Open Firmware by holding down the Command-Option-O-F keys. The Boot ROM and Open Firmware versions will be listed. To continue starting up, type "mac-boot" and press the Return key.

For anyone who may need a firmware update, here's the firmware updates page.

As HC mentions, OS9 doesn't need any firmware updates to run, only X needs that. However, you mention your OS 9.1 CD came as part of a 9/X package and so may have been programmed to check for non-updated systems. Exactly how Apple expected anyone to run the firmware updater if the %#&#&% OS 9 installer won't install is beyond my limited comprehension. Dolts.

protocol6v suggested it, but recheck for a restore disk image somewhere on the OS 9 CD. It'll be maybe 100MBs, maybe 200MBs, probably the single biggest file on the CD. That'd have everything you need - mount and copy, eazy-peazy.

If there is no restore disk image on the CD, here's a workaround: if you can get it to the drive, use Tomeviewer to extract the system parts and build from the bits your own bootable OS 9 System Folder on the target hard drive. Don't forget that as the B&W is a New World Machine, you'll need a MacOS ROM file in there or it's no go.

Have another classic MOS-capable Mac? Build a System Folder there and simply copy over.

dan k

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dankephoto's picture

Also, check your RAM and HD

Submitted by dankephoto on August 4, 2007 - 3:29pm.

OSX is much picker about installed RAM than are any of the classic MOSes. Do the RAM-swap shuffle to check for dicey modules.

Boot into the OSX install CD and run Disk Utility/Drive Setup, reinitialize the drive and do a full write-zeros thing to check for drive problems.

dan k

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you guys rock. the tomeviewer

Submitted by Contradude on August 4, 2007 - 7:48pm.

you guys rock. the tomeviewer way sounds like what I need to do. I'll post back in a bit when I've completed the operation.

Thanks,

Chris P.

» Macintosh User Since '92
Resident Tuba Player
I'm currently looking for a PM9600 that's in good shape. thanks!

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ouch.

Submitted by Contradude on August 4, 2007 - 7:49pm.

I can't seem to get it to allow me to use my kludged together system folder. I'm just not getting any loving from my B&W. any other ideas/ways I can get that system folder recognized?

» Macintosh User Since '92
Resident Tuba Player
I'm currently looking for a PM9600 that's in good shape. thanks!

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umm...

Submitted by Contradude on August 5, 2007 - 4:00pm.

I can't seem to find the system file using tomeviewer. does it dynamically create that file during the install or is it in another tome (other than the main install tome)? if not, can I resedit/hexedit it into thinking the version off of the cd is correct?

» Macintosh User Since '92
Resident Tuba Player
I'm currently looking for a PM9600 that's in good shape. thanks!

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