# iMac 233mhz revB not booting



## MonkeyJamboree (Sep 20, 2006)

hello, i'm new here... i just recieved a Bondi Blue 233MHz Revision B iMac from someone my wife works with. Originally, it had OS 8.6 on it, but no install discs or anything... i borrowed some from a friend. anyway, i was able to get networking up and running, and decided to upgrade to OSX if possible, and OS 9.2.2 if not. Well, as always, i researched this before attempting anything, and i found out that i had to do updates before i could try to install OSX. i downloaded all three updates (firmware, cd-rom, and modem), and only needed to update the modem. the rest were up-to-date according to the software.
Anyway, after that, i figured i was safe, so i decided to do a clean boot on another hdd with osx or os9... i took apart the imac (being computer hw literate, i knew how), removed the old 4gb hdd, checked out my memory and video situation, etc... and replaced the old hdd with a 40GB that i planned to partition with osx's drive format thing (whatever it's called). after putting it together and trying to boot, it does nothing but spin up the cd drive (with whatever version of os i have in there), blinking a question mark followed by a mac icon. i tried holding down the C button to boot from cd, that didnt work. tried holding down command+option+p+r to reset PRAM, that didnt work. i even put back in the original hdd (that i had NOT touched since i took it out, before trying to install anything), and still no go. The only other computer i have is a P2-class celeron 433, and my friend's P2 400, so netbooting isn't an option (unless i'm just unaware of a way to do it. Can anyone help figure out how to get this thing booting?


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## MonkeyJamboree (Sep 20, 2006)

by the way, forgot to mention, both drives were set to master, ram is at 64mb currently (enough to boot os9 i'd think), vram 6mb, i did have the mac working on my home network (though only to connect to the internet), and it's a revB G3 iMac (forgot to say G3 )... also, no cd's seem to want to boot at all to install.
Thanks Again...


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## Giaguara (Sep 20, 2006)

Having 64 MB of RAM itself is already a reason why it will not boot to any OS X installation disc.


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## MonkeyJamboree (Sep 20, 2006)

well yeah, that i realize, but the OS9 disc SHOULD still boot, as should the original HDD that was in there, as it was running fine before swapping out the hdd for another one.


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## bobw (Sep 20, 2006)

Sounds like you may have a damaged or loose cable inside.


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## MonkeyJamboree (Sep 20, 2006)

new update: the OS9 disc now tries to boot, but all i get is a plain grey screen when doing so. no flashing question mark (unless there's no disc in the drive or one that's not bootable)


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## sinclair_tm (Sep 20, 2006)

did you make sure that the cable is surcurely atteched to both the drive, and the motherboard?


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## MonkeyJamboree (Sep 20, 2006)

i did, but i'll re-check it, just in case...


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## MonkeyJamboree (Sep 20, 2006)

yup, all the cables are attached, none loose, and i doubt any are broken - they havent been moved much at all since i got the machine, and it worked previously. Any other suggestions?


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## MonkeyJamboree (Sep 20, 2006)

i don't understand at all... you would think that an installation cd would boot just fine and allow you to overwrite the data if you wanted... the drive even spins up, but just get a grey screen when trying to do so.


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## MonkeyJamboree (Sep 20, 2006)

another update: i've tried holding down the option key, it brings up no menus whatsoever... when holding c and os9 install disc is in the drive, it seems to freeze at an all grey screen... when resetting pram, does not help, even after 4 or 5 restart tones... when booting into open firmware, it will still not boot from the hdd or the cd (and i'm not sure what other commands i can use there)... and all it does it flash the question mark of doom, and MOCK me with that smiley face... someone please help!


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## mononoke (Oct 15, 2006)

I have final found someone elese having the same problem... im having the exact same issues with my G3 333mhz processor apple... i put in a 60 gig harddrive... it has all the updates but when i try to boot off the osX cd all i get is a grey screen with the question mark that is supper grayed out... like i can barly see it... i got this computer used from someone elese on ebay... Plz help! im an Apple noob but i build windows clones so im fairly computer savey. PLZ HELP ME OH GODS OF APPLE OS!


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## eric2006 (Oct 15, 2006)

From lowendmac.com:


> Mac OS X
> 
> If you have a hard drive *over 8 GB in size*, you must partition it, and the partition containing OS X must be completely within the first 8 GB of space or you will not be able to run OS X. (If you are creating the partition within OS X, it must be 7.45 GB or smaller as reported by Disk Utility, because sometimes a GB is billion bytes and sometimes it's 1,073,741,824 bytes.)
> 
> ...


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## maz94protege (Oct 15, 2006)

My MacMini hdd died weeks ago, and thats all i got was that question mark. I assume you have a CD or DVD drive inside. Hold down the OPTION key or the C  key when it boots up to run it from the CD or DVD drive. run Disk Utility and you may just need to repair it from there. IF that doesnt work reboot it a few times til it recognizes the drive. May help to format the drive if it is not already...Disk Utility will do this for you.  if it still doesnt work, take it into an Apple Store and one of the mac genuises will help you out while your in the store.

Email me if you need some more info.  mazdaboi@mac.com


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## eric2006 (Oct 15, 2006)

maz94protege said:


> My MacMini hdd died weeks ago, and thats all i got was that question mark. I assume you have a CD or DVD drive inside. Hold down the OPTION key or the C  key when it boots up to run it from the CD or DVD drive. run Disk Utility and you may just need to repair it from there. IF that doesnt work reboot it a few times til it recognizes the drive. May help to format the drive if it is not already...Disk Utility will do this for you.  if it still doesnt work, take it into an Apple Store and one of the mac genuises will help you out while your in the store.
> 
> Email me if you need some more info.  mazdaboi@mac.com


That's good info, but the older iMacs cannot boot off of a hard drive that has a system partition over 8 GB, no matter what the condition of the drive.


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## MonkeyJamboree (Oct 16, 2006)

the strange thing is that i now have Xubuntu linux running on it (VERY slowly i may add), so i know the hdd, cd, and all peripherals work fine. for some reason mac discs just plain don't want to boot in it... and i don't know why.


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## mononoke (Oct 16, 2006)

yes but that doesnt solve my question of it not booting off the cd to begin with... thats where my true problem is.....


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