Need Help SOS!

[banders]

welp, im new to this forum because i recently recieved a mac Powerbook G3 for free and was hoping to play around and learn how to actually use a mac. Ran into a slight problem though. it has mac 8.6 OS on it. every time i boot it up, it runs fine, says that it was unexpecdidly shut down, and runs a scan, then comes up with the home screen for about 2 seconds, and goes to what i think is a screen saver then directly to black. When i push a button from this screen it asks me for a password, which i have no clue what it would be. when i press return it goes away back to black, and doesnt bring up the desktop.

Ive tried wiping the old OS and upgrading it to version 9 (only mac disc i have) it just runs with 8.6 and pulls the same stuff. and holding down the C key does the same.

im getting very frustrated, so any help would be much appreciated. i just need a way to bi-pass the password, or just wipe the system completely and start over.

thanks

[eric2006]

Assuming you have a generic OS 9 disk, it should install. Try disabling the open firmware password, which may/not be enabled. I can't find the document right now, but I believe that you change the memory, then reset the pram 3 times.

[MACBOY29]

can i please get more info on this thanks

[redbeard76]

to access Open Firmware, you Power-up the computer, and while the chime sounds press and hold Open Apple, + option, + "O", + "F". You'll then get a prompt. Type printenv and return. This will display some important information, which for you right now the most important might be boot-device. Google Open Firmware and do some research, you should be able to boot from any acceptable System once you can type the correct line into setenv.