X won't install on either of our Beige G3s

A

AlanCE

Registered
Like DP4, this Beta will not install on either of our Beige G3s. Actually the problem is that neither of these machines will boot from the Beta installer CD. Here's the configurations of each:

A:
G3/266 desktop upgraded with an IBM 466MHz ZIF. Upgraded the ROMs to Rev.B. Added a Keyspan USB card. 224MB of RAM, 20GB Maxtor 7200RPM drive (master with no slave), MacOS 9.0.4.

B:
G3/266 desktop upgraded with an OWC Mercury 466MHz ZIF, we kept the ROMs at Rev.A, no additional upgrades, 128MB RAM, original 4.3GB hard drive, MacOS 9.0.4.

All the signs point to the ZIF upgrade. This is truly unfortunate because those ZIF upgrades actually make the Beige G3s useful for things like Photoshop. If we have to go back to 266, well, we're not going to go back to 266. Hopefully the next release will be able to handle a ZIF upgrade.

 
Well, my beige G3 revB works ice with DP4 and PB.
It has a Formac G3/400 ZIF upgrade and a second IDE HD.
Don't know why it doesn't work on your beige...
Try to remove everything before installing.

Nicolas.
 
I am having an almost identical problem. Here is my config:

G3 Beige upgraded to 466 ZIF
128MB RAM
Generic USB Card
ATA 10GB Drive on ATA 0 (Master)
ATA 6GB (OEM) on ATA 1 (Master)
OEM CD-ROM (IDE)
YAMAHA CDRW (SCSI)

I put in the OS X CD and click the install button. A window appears that tells me that the machine will restart and begin the process of installation via the CD. I click "OK" and the machine restarts stays grey for about 5 minutes and then loads my hard drive with OS 9. I have tried to select the Start-up disk in the utilities folder on the CD but it doesn't matter.

HELP!!!!!!!!
 
On the Beige G3 (revB's), Apple did an arguably stupid thing by putting the CD-ROM on their IDE expansion chain. All of the Mac OS X family since Mac OS X Server has liked to start up off of a master drive. Since the CD's that install Mac OS X run as Mac OS X (same goes for Server), the CD-ROM needs to be master. If you're installing onto the IDE drive on the same chain as the CD-ROM, it requires a lot of bit-switching. See Zonetuke's link.

I've been dealing with this situation for a while (ever since Mac OS X Server) and have kindof become old hat at it. But even today when installing, it took a while to get the big drive on the second IDE chain (the one the CD-ROM's on) to show up at ALL. A lot of nervous moments.

Hopefully soon, that G3 will be relegated to the role of Server (running Mac OS X Server for NetInfo and file sharing and occasional Zope development) and a shiny new G4 will be on my work desk.

Also hopefully, installing the public beta on my home iMac will go smoother than DP4 (which seemed to smeg up the boot record, requiring enough of a Mac OS 9 reinstall to boot up into Mac OS 9 again).
 
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