# If anyone can help me they are genius to me



## cliffyboro (May 26, 2005)

hi, i just bought an imac from ebay and when it arrived i switched it on and all I get is a grey screen with a flashing qusetion mark and a mac logo. I popped the os 9 cd in and held 'c' down. this booted me into mac from the cd. i then clicked on install os 9 only to be greeted with a warning that my firmware needs upgrading. i tried to upgrade it but when i clicked the upgrader i got another warning saying ' the imac firmware updater cannot move necessary files to the current system folder because the volume is locked. please restart from an unlocked volume.  I cannot do this because i cannot get past the flashing mac icon and question mark.  Is ther anything i can do? thanks


----------



## ksv (May 26, 2005)

What kind of iMac is it?


----------



## cliffyboro (May 26, 2005)

its a blueish green 233mhz imac. thats all i know its the first one ive ever used and i'm experimenting before buying a more expensive one and i'm not too sure on what to do now, they say first impessions mean everything and i'm not too impressed up to now lol.


----------



## HateEternal (May 26, 2005)

Do you HAVE to do the firmware upgrade? Is there like a "later" button or something

This may impress you:

To install a rough copy of Mac OS X on the hard drive:
1. Find disk utility on the Install disk (should be in a utilities folder)
2. Format the Hard drive
3. Copy (drag and drop) all of the contents of the cd (open the cd from the desktop) you should be able to copy folders like System and Application. You don't really need everything, just the system files that are necessary to boot from, but I can't remember which ones you need specifically.
4. reboot the computer with out the CD. It SHOULD boot to something that looks exactly to what the CD boot looked like (this boot is just to see if it worked)
5. reboot the computer with the CD and continue installing stuff.

Now I have done this before with an OS 9.0.4 Install disk which booted to basically the full OS 9 desktop and then you run an installer off the cd. There may be other OS 9 install disks that work differently that just boot to a install wizard if that is what you have you might not be able to do this.

I also want to point out that your experience on OS 9  is going to be completely different than on OS X


----------



## ksv (May 26, 2005)

Yea, you'll rather want to try out Mac OS X as it's a completely different operating system. Apple completely abandoned OS 9 a few years ago.
I think it'll install without any firmware upgrades, but certainly won't be fast. You'll get the OS X experience, though


----------



## lbj (May 26, 2005)

cliffyboro said:
			
		

> its a blueish green 233mhz imac. thats all i know its the first one ive ever used and i'm experimenting before buying a more expensive one and i'm not too sure on what to do now, they say first impessions mean everything and i'm not too impressed up to now lol.




Please tell me you are not forming an impression of Apple based on your experience of buying an old and obviously used compter off eBay . . .


----------



## Cheryl (May 26, 2005)

The seller did not do his/her job. The iMac should have had a fresh OS installed so you can plug and play.


----------



## g/re/p (May 26, 2005)

If you paid with paypal, demand the option to return
the computer and get a refund.


----------



## elander (May 27, 2005)

If you install Mac OS X on a Mac that needs a firmware upgrade, you'll completely hose it. I've done that, and friends of mine have too. The Mac's just died and couldn't be revived.

Try to find an older version of Mac OS (8.6 or so), install that on the hard drive, and upgrade the firmware. Then move on to OS 9 from there. On a 266 iMac you probably don't want to run OS X, as it might get painfully slow. I do suggest that you give it a try though, as YMMV.

But don't, please don't, try to install a system newer than 8.6 before you upgrade the firmware, you'll destroy the computer!


----------



## Natobasso (May 27, 2005)

Don't install OS X on that computer at all because it will run like crap, if it runs at all. You'll need more ram and processor speed than that old iMac has in it.

You could try zapping the PRAM on start up (Command + Option + P + R) and then see if that shakes things loose enough for you to use the OS 9 that's currently installed.

In 9 you can also start up with the Command + Option keys held down till you see "Are you sure you want to rebuild the Desktop" and click yes/continue. You could have a very simple problem solved with these two solutions.

Let us know what happens.


----------



## albloom (May 28, 2005)

Yeah, you need a firmware update, but that shouldn't stop OS9
from installing on the HD. Afterwards, startup from the HD and
then apply the firmware update.

Since you booted from CD, the updater wanted to install and run
from the CD. Not likely.


----------



## Ric9 (May 28, 2005)

Cliffyboro:

By now you should be up to speed as to what you purchased.  But if not, I'll try to inform you.

You purchased a 2nd generation iMac commonly referred to as a Rev.B.  There have been 22 newer imacs produced since and the new iMacs on the market today are Revs 23-27.  The iMac Rev.B was produced in 1998 and was discontinued in 1999.  The Rev.B iMac 233 MHz PowerPC 750 (G3) processor, 32 MB of RAM, a 4.0 GB to 6.0GB hard drive, and a Rage Pro Turbo graphics acceleration card to include a crystal-clear 15" color screen. 
The hard-drive, spins at a paltry 4400-RPMs (todays hard-drives spin at 7700 RPMs) and this machine's max RAM is probably 256MB from 2, 128MB RAM chips.

I agree with IBJ in that I hope you are not using this '20 revision behind', 6-7 year old machine, to ACTUALLY form an opinion about MAC's.  Because this would be like buying a Ford PINTO to compair against todays modern cars.

I agree with Cheryl in that you purchased this iMac with a faulty OS load.  Every iMac, fresh out of the box, loads and runs on the 1st try.

G/re/P is correct in that you should attempt to get your money back!

Elander too, is correct, in that to resolve your problem, you need to revert to OS 8.5/8.6 and then upgrade into OS 9.

The machine you have can be upgraded to OS 9.2.2 but it can not handle the current generation OS, OS X.  It doesn't have the RAM support, the CPU is WAY too slow and the hard-drive is just, plain, clunky.  Ohhh... you can spend some money to update parts here and there, but in the end... 
You should have done some homework, Dude, as you made a bad choice by selecting THIS machine to get acquanted with Apple!


----------

