install problems on erased harddisk

M

mark august

Registered
Got a g4 350 mhz here of my brother, who was still running it on 9.2; and I wanted to be so friendly to upgrade it to panther for him..
This didn't work on top of 9.2, so I erased the disk.
Now whenever I put in 10.3 or 10.2.8 it looks like the installation goes fine, untill about 2% is done (sometimes less or more), then it skips to a blue field with the time-circle going round, not doing anything any more. At most it tells me I got an unexpected error (exit code 0 or exit code 138) and that I need to restart..beginning all from the start again.
I also tried to use my ipod as a startupdisc with the most important packages on there (done with pacifist), but that doesn't work either.
I verified and repared the harddisk of this computer with disk-utility (that sometimes doesn't even open) and it seems to be ok.
Tried it all and don't know what to do.
The install-cd's are copies, but they worked fine earlier (the copies)
Help?
 
Check third-party or additional RAM that has been added to the computer, as well. Take it all out if there is any and return the machine to it's "stock-most" configuration and try again. RAM that worked fine in OS 9 may not be up-to-spec enough for OS X, or may truly be faulty.
 
Update disk drivers ?

Can you still install OS 9 ?

How large is the HD ?
 
If the latest firmware hasn't been installed then that's likely the problem. G4s from that era, needed the new firmware to work in OS X.
 
I can't install to a SCSI disk, no problems to ATA. I get the same problem if I try to install on a third party 36GB Ultra SCSI III (which works great if not used as a system disk) it fails with error and is always unable to build MacOSX on it.
 
When you open Disk Utility and select the drive you are attempting to erase/format, have you checked the S.M.A.R.T. status at the lower right side of the Disk Utility window frame? If it is anything other than verified the drive is history and will have to be replaced.

Another possibility, Disk Utility only checks the volume status and it does not test the hardware, in particular it does not perform a surface scan. You will need either the Apple Hardware Test CD for this particular machine or TechTool Pro to test the hardware and run a surface scan. Erase with the write zeros or 8 way write option is the normal "fix" for bad data blocks that turn up in a surface scan, but that presumes there are enough spare data blocks to remap any bad blocks to.

My last idea, for what it is worth. I recently ran into a similar case that was solved by removing an ill-behaved DIMM module. What appeared to be a drive problem turned out to be a problem in RAM. Just a thought.
 
Thanx guys!!!!!!!!!!!!
it was a combination of the 2
a not osx compatible DIMM
and not the right firmware
it's working fine now!!
 
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