White screen after OSX messup...ouch

[pabritai]

It doesn't look pretty.

I own a Rev. D iMac (333, 192MB, 6GB HD, OS 8.6). Installed OSX a few days ago on the same drive. Couldn't boot from 8.6 into X (of course) but wanted to keep 8.6 because to keep classic system memory low. Probably a bad idea. Regardless, copying the OS9 startup disk control panel into 8.6 and working for a two days, I install the MouseWorks control panel for OSX and hit restart...and the pain begins. All I get is a "bootr, failed to boot" message on a white screen with the Apple OpenFirmWare version and what looks like a command line. Is my processor fried because of my foolishness? Have you seen the white screen before?

 

[pabritai]

Mmmmm...from what I've been reading in this forum, I could be in OpenFirmware. Could that happen every time I reboot?

 

[nmcg]

Yup...
I know the white screen.
It's basically the boot ROM screen.
I get it everytime I boot up, because you can have password protection directly from the boot ROM.

Ok... try typing 'mac-boot' (without the ''). If that doesn't work, I'm out of Ideas. Try contacting Apple Support. They have/had an option for mac OS X support (ie: press 1 if you are exeriencing problems with OS X).

HTH
nmcg

 

[pabritai]

I tried to start up from the CD but the boot process wouldn't even get that far. I talked to the techie at the repair shop yesterday and he said that I damaged my processor (i.e. firmware) and a new one would be $425. Yeah. I'm thinking that I may not have been able to boot from the OpenFirmware screen if I damaged it.

So, it's looking like I may have to spring for a new Mac before Christmas. I know I've seen iMacs for under $800 refurbed, so getting a new 333MHz processor seems kind of foolish right, especially with speed bumps coming up. Methinks iBook is tasty.