Dual Boot G4 no longer boots OS9

S

StefanNowak

Registered
Hi, first time poster here.

I have a G4 that dual boots OSX and OS9.

Now I can't boot OS9, I get a grey screen and a frozen pointer in the top left hand corner.

At a bit of a loss and any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks

Stefan Nowak
 
Hi,

Mac is a G4, at 1.2Ghz, 500MB of RAM.

Not entirely sure of the series. I think the series prior to the mirrored door model.

Stef
 
This machine is just not interested in OS9 anymore.

I've tried booting of a few CDs, Diskwarrior, Norton and a OS9 recovery CD and the G4 is totally refusing.

Is there a chance there might be a firmware problem, I updated the machine to Tiger a while back, is there any reason to think there was a firmware upgrade at that time?

Current firmware is 4.3.3f2 I have read that mirrored door G4s are at 4.2.8 yet mine (a quicksilver) appears to have newer firmware... odd.

Stef
 
Never got your version of OS X that you're running. What version would that be? Remember that 10.5 dropped Classic support.
 
Hi,

I'm running 10.4.6 and 9.2 when I (used to) boot in 9.

When I run classic within OSX it seems to run fine, I can also select to boot from the OS9 system folder without problem. Problems start after the chime... grey screen, frozen pointer, nothing.

Thanks for your reply.

Stef
 
Any reason you're still on 10.4.6 and not updating to 10.4.11 which was the latest OS X version? Also, have you tried zapping the PRAM or doing some maintenance (Repair Disk or Repair Permissions) with Disk Utility? Remember that a Repair on the system disk will require you to either boot from the installation disc and run it that way, or by doing it via the command line within Single User Mode (Command-S at the chime).
 
Hi,

Yes I've zapped PRAM, also booted in single user and ran a check and disk came back without problems.

The machine has just decided it's not living in the past anymore!

Thanks
Stef
 
Yes,

I can't bless the folder as I can't boot of CD.

I'm not sure this required anyway as in Startup disk in OSX, the option is there to boot OS9 so the computer seems to know the system folder.

Stef
 
StefanNowak said:
This machine is just not interested in OS9 anymore.

I've tried booting of a few CDs, Diskwarrior, Norton and a OS9 recovery CD and the G4 is totally refusing.

Is there a chance there might be a firmware problem, I updated the machine to Tiger a while back, is there any reason to think there was a firmware upgrade at that time?

Current firmware is 4.3.3f2 I have read that mirrored door G4s are at 4.2.8 yet mine (a quicksilver) appears to have newer firmware... odd.

Stef
Click to expand...

There was a firmware update for older Macs in order for them to run OS X properly. However, newer Power Mac G4s didn't require this IIRC. The list of available firmware updates is here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1395?viewlocale=en_US

From the looks of it and the description of your PMG4, you don't need one.
 
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