PowerMac G4 Quicksilver does not start in OS X after PRAM setting

[aesen]

Our old PowerMac G4 350 MHz Quicksilver was acting up lately. I set the PRAM hoping that it might help. It got worse. Now, when I hit the start-up button, it starts up but in OS 9.2, which I have in a separate partition. When I select the OSX partition as start-up disk from OS 9.2 control panel and hit the re-start button, it starts but hangs half-way; I get a gray screen with Apple logo and a spinning broken circle below it. I waited as long as 30 minutes; the gray screen remained without any change. Does any one know a cure for this problem?

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Originally Posted by aesen

Our old PowerMac G4 350 MHz Quicksilver was acting up lately.

This computer does not exist. Do you have the PCI-based 350MHz G4 computer (introduced around 1999/2000), the 350MHz AGP-based G4 computer (introduced around 2000 or so), or the PowerMac G4 "Quicksilver" which has anywhere from around a 733MHz to 867MHz processor speed (and has two optical drive slots instead of one)?

I set the PRAM hoping that it might help.

What do you mean by "set the PRAM" -- do you mean "zap the PRAM?" Or perhaps "set some kind of setting in open-firmware?" What is the procedure you used -- hold command-option-p-r at startup, or something else?

Now, when I hit the start-up button, it starts up but in OS 9.2, which I have in a separate partition. When I select the OSX partition as start-up disk from OS 9.2 control panel and hit the re-start button, it starts but hangs half-way; I get a gray screen with Apple logo and a spinning broken circle below it.

Have you tried booting from the OS X Install CD/DVD and running a "Repair Disk" procedure from within Disk Utility? What version of OS X is the computer running?

[aesen]

Sorry guys. This PowerMac is 350 Mhz is not Quicksilver. It looks like it is a 1999-2000 model. It came with 10 GB HD but we replaced with a 40 GB HD later. Since I cannot start it, I cannot get the exact info. I believe it was running under OS 10.3.9.

I followed your suggestion on repairing it from a Panther installation CD's disk utility. Unfortunately, the repair failed. I got a prompt saying "Disk cannot be repaired". Then it said, "Error: the underlying task reported failure on exit (-9972). Volume cannot be repaired".

Now, I am trying Disk Warrior 3. It says it is rebuilding directory. After a while this prompt showed up "Speed inhibited by disk malfunction". The "cancel" radio button is lit. I will let it go to see what happens.

[djackmac]

Originally Posted by aesen

Now, I am trying Disk Warrior 3. It says it is rebuilding directory. After a while this prompt showed up "Speed inhibited by disk malfunction". The "cancel" radio button is lit. I will let it go to see what happens.

I hope you had your data backed up because that drive is shot! I wouldn't let DW keep cranking on it like that if the drive still mounts because that could bring it down for good. So if it does still mount and you don't have a backup, you better start grabbing whats important.