Is it possible to boot properly in MacOS9.x without a personality card? (old beige G3 DT here, upgraded to G4 with sonett chip)
Mine powers up but freezes with a blank error message window sometime while loading OS9...
I use another soundcard for my sound needs so the personality card is surplus to requirements. Also, I m in the process of moving the components to a smaller, cuter case and the personality card causes problems since I cant boot properly without it and also I cant find any sort of riser for it to place it in alternative locations within the case.
Any ideas?
thanks in advance
-MacNewbie
When I first picked up my beige G3, I could not get any sound from the computer at all. I wasn't experiencing crashes though.
Anyway, the problem with my G3 was that the personality card was not seated properly. I pulled the personality card out and reseated it and it worked fine.
Although this doesn't answer your question, it does suppose that a beige G3 will function fine with a poorly seated personality card. I would hazard to guess that a poorly seated card, for all intents and purposes, would be tantamount to a missing personality card.
I would point out that the sound portion of the monitors and sound control panel would not function without the personality card.
My advice: Keep the personality card and find a case that will allow you to have the personality card installed. There is no real benefit to running an unstable machine for the sake of cosmetics.
Mac OS 9.0.4 should boot fine without the personality card as will 8.6, but 9.1 and above are tricky. They will boot by chance every so often, but I would assume it's something to do with poor code in OS 9 causing the crash.
I faced this issue with my Beige G3 a while back. I ended up using 8.6 for a while untill I got a Personality Card and even then I stayed with 8.6.
On the other hand, with the correct graphics card Mac OS X will run without a personality card. It will just be regarded as a "whisper" G3 in the system profile.