can't boot os9

blue&whiteman

blue&whiteman

PowerPC Fanatic
for the last while I have not been able to boot os9 on my blue G3 with a G4 500 cpu. I can boot panther and 8.6 no problem but os9 for some reason freezes right when the desktop pops up after startup. I can use classic via the os9 system folder no problem. the os9 install disk is 9.2.1 and I have not been able to update to 9.2.2 since it won't boot all the way. I hardly use 9 but it still bugs me a lot. tried reinstalls, tried everything I can think of..

I consider myself a pretty knowledgeable mac user but i'm stumped. my ibook G4 can't boot 9 by default so my tower is my last way of running 9 when I need to. any help is greatly appreciated.
 
Try rebuilding the desktop. When you start up in OS 9, immediately hold down the option and the Apple (command) keys. Continue to hold them down until you get a dialog box asking if you wish to do a desktop rebuild. This will appear after the extensions load at the bottom of your screen. When the dialog box comes up, release the keys, click on okay.

If that does not work, it could be the memory control panel needs some tweaking. You should be able to fix that by starting up with one of the other System folders, then go into OS 9 system folder>Control Panels> memory control panel. The disk cache should be set to 16384 k, Virtual memory on, Ram disk off.
 
I had this same problem, and I narrowed it down to my G4/500 CPU upgrade. For some reason, OS 9 doesn't like it too much - especially booting from the OS 9 CD.

Do you have your original processor handy? Might wanna try a swap and then try and boot OS 9.
 
ElDiabloConCaca said:
I had this same problem, and I narrowed it down to my G4/500 CPU upgrade. For some reason, OS 9 doesn't like it too much - especially booting from the OS 9 CD.

Do you have your original processor handy? Might wanna try a swap and then try and boot OS 9.
Click to expand...

since you have the exact same cpu as me I bet this is the issue. I don't have the original G3/350 cpu any longer but even if I did I wouldn't use it. I would have to uninstall the firmware that lets a G4 work on a B&W to use a G3. thankfully sonnets firmware patch is the one that can be removed.

I have thought of throwing a powerlogix G3 1.1 GHz in this since it keeps the bus at 100mhz unlike sonnets G4/700-1ghz upgrades. people that have writen reviews about the G3 1.1 say it make a b&w or yikes feel like a new mac or even faster. they always mention a fluid ui.

anyway, maybe I will never be able to boot 9 on this G4. I prefer 8.6 anyway if I need to boot a classic os.

thanks for the help anyway.

cheryl: I have tried all those things you sugested with the same result. thanks anyway.
 
Oh yes, PowerLogix's 1.1GHz G3 chip would absolutely scream with a 100MHz bus, and would blow the 700-1GHz G4 chips @ 66MHz out of the water. I've contemplated the same myself, but since I mostly use my machine for ssh'ing to school for assignments and surfing the web and email, it doesn't make sense to do it now.

I will say that eventually, after several attempts, my machine will successfully boot and install OS 9 -- but it's hit and miss, as you say. Sometimes it'll boot the CD, but REAL slow, then the install process will fail toward the end, and other times, it'll seem to install flawlessly but hang when I try and boot into OS 9 from the hard drive. I eventually gave up OS 9 altogether and have only Panther on my system now. Less complicated, plus, I didn't have any "must-have" OS 9 applications that I couldn't replace with something that ran natively under OS X.

Good luck, and I do agree -- 8.6 was the last, true, great classic Mac OS. 9 was nothing but a transition to OS X, and a poor one at that.
 
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