In over my head here.

D

dejo42

Registered
About a month ago my Imac G5 (pre-intel) started hanging all the time. Eventually it stopped booting up altogether. Couldn't verify disks, so I couldn't repair. I just moved and can't find my install discs. At this point the system is just useless.

So in my desparation I tried a clean install of 10.1 (was running 10.4) just to get the thing working. Oh yeah, I popped the back and the system passes all the LED tests so I could rule out power supply/logic board issues. Any way back to the install. I did an 'erase and install'. I hear people say that you cannot load an earlier version that what is already on there but you can if you're doing a clean install right? That's what it said when I began, that I had to adjust the settings of the installation to erase and install.

So everything seemed to be going fine and I was very pleased to soon have a working mac again, even if it was running an older OS. But it hangs upon install. I've killed the install and restared numerous times and it always hangs. Never at the same point.

For sh!ts and grins I did a regular reboot. It boots right into the open firmware. Is it safe to say that the 'erase' portion of 'erase and install' was successful? Any thoughts? If I'm guilty of anything it's getting in over my head when it comes to this stuff. I'd like to avoid a trip to the Apple store as I'm on a very tight budget. Do you think a fresh in stall of say Leopard would work?

Thanks in advance for even reading it....any help is appreciated.
 
Exactly the same happened to me but with a Mac Mini! Apparently it could be something to do with the RAM (memory) or with your combo or super drive! What I did was change the RAM (memory) and then used my laptop in Target Disk mode so that the Mini could use my laptops combo or super drive!

Hope this helps! :D



[spam about free iphone removed. this is warning number one. there won't be a second warning. next time, you're banned forever.]
 
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No, you cannot install a version of OS X that was released prior to the version of OS X that shipped with your iMac.

In other words, there is no hope of getting 10.1 to install on your machine. You must install the version of OS X that came with your machine, or a later version.

A fresh install of Leopard should work. You will end up with an iMac G5 running Leopard.
 
Thanks for the quick reply. Wouldn't it give me a warning of some kind? Or an error message upon installing an older OS? Or would it just hang like it is? What I'm getting at is I totally beleive you but now I'm wondering if that is actually what's causing to hang or if it's something else entirely.
 
Mac OS X 10.1 is old. VERY old. So it's perceivable that the warning messages about installing on unsupported hardware don't exist in that system, not to mention there were only ever a handful of Macs that could run OS 10.1... Apple hadn't released the many versions of the G4, iMac and laptops that they have since then.

Think of Mac OS X 10.0 and 10.1 as "test-runs" of Mac OS X that are just about unusable for day-to-day work.

The hang is probably caused by the fact that the G5 processor (as well as a bunch of other components) in your iMac G5 was merely an IBM engineer's wet dream when 10.1 came out, and 10.1 does not have the drivers to support the different architectures that are present in your iMac.

Modern-day Mac OS X install disks will warn you most of the time if you're trying to install them on older hardware.
 
very well put. thanks for the info. I found a copy of leapord on craigslist for 100 bucks. I guess I'll give that a go.
 
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