G3 Help needed

N

nippynorman

Registered
Hi

just acquired a G3 blue and grey imac - no installation discs or p/word.

Tiny 10 GB drive - full up so I have put in a 40 GB drive from my old pc
(fujitsu)

Machine starts and goes to flashing folder with question mark. I have tried to get it to boot on Tiger ( Apple disc), Panther (apple disc) even tried leopard for a last ditch attempt to load disc utilities. Still no joy. Read the old info

reset pram, reset the open firmware, tried all the boot option commands on the web. The machine starts scans the dvd or cd and then spits it out again.

Anyone got any suggestions or am I trying to do something that cant be done?

regards

Norman
 
Hi, the installation discs would come in really handy for you right now. The bottom line is that you're going to have to source a set before you can proceed to initialise/format the new internal HD.

The Tiger/Panther discs you tried to use would need to be Full Retail Versions (universal) before they would work and even then, if the current OS version was pre OS X you first need to apply the relevant Firmware Update before installing OS X.

Because you have a fresh HD installed which has never had an installation of Mac OS X before, I don't really know if the Firmware Update applies here and you might just need to buy a Full Retail Version of Panther. Either way, you need to know the System Specs of your G3 and the System Requirements of Panther or Tiger first.



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Last edited:
Thanks for your help on this. The old HD does run the machine and it was running tiger quite happily but with very little space left on the drive. I also did'nt get the password with the machine. I have several other machines 2.8 dual core and a powerbook g4. Can I use one of these to initialise the new drive as a target via the firewire. The tiger version that I have is the full apple universal copy - home licence. Or won't this work as it has never been mac initialised before?

I only paid a few bucks for iy co the kids use it so I didn't want to spend a great deal on it. Thanks for your help anyway

Norman
 
You should be able to boot from the Tiger disc and use Disc Utility to format the new internal drive ... regarding TDM, as long as the G3 is on the Target Disc Mode list of compatible macs, it should be fine too ...
 
check your jumpers on the disks. if they are both set to master or something like that they could be trying to stomp on each other. also, make sure that your optical drive fits the media you are trying to use. i.e. if you have a tiger install dvd, make sure it is a dvd drive because not all of these blue and white g3s came with dvd drives.

as a side note, if you have two drives hooked up to the internal onboard IDE interface make sure it is a rev 2 motherboard. if you look at the chip closest to the IDE plug on the motherboard near the hinge you should see a 402 on the chip. The reason this is important is because there was a data loss/corruption issue with the rev1 motherboard when two drives were hooked up to a single chain. if you have the rev1 board, i would choose a single drive and only use that.
 
I also forgot to mention, the Blue and White G3s are not on the official supported list for target disk mode
 
Thanks for the help guys- my logic board will only take 1 drive
Looks like I need the OEM install discs - just tried installing 10.4 from my ipod but it won't initialise from that either.

regards

Norman
 
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