Posted on 12/04/2004 7:19:56 AM PST by Gone_Postal
I have a problem with my Apple G3 and after a day of pulling out my hair, It dawned on me that the best place to have my questions answered is right here.
I had gotten my G3 when it was brand new, than gave it to my son, who after a few years gave it to my other son. The G3 having gone full circle I have it again.
The problem is I can't get it to boot, I have OSX and the update to it. When I start the system with OSX the installer never comes up, when I start the system with the OSX update the installer starts and proceeds untill it ask were to install it then says Hard drive dimmed because no preveice OSX installed.
I also have OS9 with the update and when I start the system with that I get a grey screen with a blinking icon,....the mac face to a question mark.
I would really apprectate any help to resolve this I want to use the mac for recording with pro tools
after checking the system requirements I think I need the basic OS9 CD and start all over
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Sadly, computers don't last forever. I have a friend who had a G3 iMac and he kept it until it crashed, bad. He had to pay more to get the data than a new Mac would have cost him. It's just not a good idea to keep on running old computers, even Macs, past about five years or so. (I'd give PCs even less time - most of them are pretty shoddy, because they are built strictly to be cheap).
As for your specific problem, it sounds to me like your hard drive is severely damaged or gone. Any MacOS X CD other than those marked upgrade will allow you to install MacOS X on the machine. If you have only an upgrade CD, it would be worth trying to dig up your original MacOS X CD and try installing it.
If the data on your machine is important to you, you might want to find a friend with a G4 or G5 PowerMac. They can put the old drive in their computer temporarily and see if data can be copied off of it and burned on CD for you. That would be useful before going to the extreme measure of calling a data recovery company. Data recovery can cost >$1,000.
If that doesn't work, or you know no such friends, and there's an Apple Store in your area, I'd take it to the Genius Bar and have them take a look at it. They might be able to recommend someone who can pull data from the hard drive.
My bottom line recommendation is that it's time to buy a new Mac. The G5 iMac will give you performance beyond your wildest dreams compared to what you're running now. You might also like going portable with an iBook - it's still going to be fast, and you get the convenience of portability.
As for all the PC users giving you snotty advice ... let 'em enjoy their virii and spyware, and the resulting freezes and crashes. When I've maintained PCs, it's been an agonizing experience. They're giving you lousy advice. Stick with the Mac and you'll be a lot happier.
Good luck!
D
(Proud PowerMac G5 owner: 3.5gb memory/910gb hd/Cinema HD display)
I had a very similar problem yesterday at work, although it happened with a Dell Workstation. What I did was open the back and poured scalding hot tomato soup all over the motherboard and hard drive. The help desk guys said it was a brilliant move and that I should do that everytime I have a problem... or maybe that I was an idiot and never to do it again, I don't remember.
Either way, they gave me a new P.C. later on in the afternoon. This should probably work for you too.
Owl_Eagle
”Guns Before Butter.”
Was that tomato soup with or without rice
If your son returned it to you not working, then the cause (and therefore solution) could be anything. Anything from missing components (someone removed/changed the RAM, for example) to a drop from 4 feet that broke the hard drive or motherboard.
I'd ask your son what "changed" between the time it worked and the time now that it doesn't work. RAM could be a factor -- I think the newest Mac OSX is more picky about RAM, and refused to work on sub-par RAM....
Oh, and ignore the OS-bashers -- both on the Mac and Windows side. I used to be arrogantly pro-Mac, but now I encourage people to just use what they want. I use Mac (and PC -- I'm a software developer, after all), and because I use a Mac I have an advantage over those who don't. It's nice to make more money and do it more efficiently and have better results because of the tools I use....
Oh - yeah, great advice - so then he goes from this first big problem, to big problems every time he turns it on!
I had a very similar problem with my G4. I was switching to OS9 and right as the machine started to re-boot the damn power went out. I got the same blinking icon.
I used an OS9 systems utility CD that I was able to boot with, and ran First Aid on my HD. It ran through most of the test, did a restart and after booting from the CD the second time it found the OSX and OS9 volumes. I hope something similar will work for you.
Ignore the heathens
Continue to walk in the way of the righteous
Sometimes you can find the system if you launch into
open firmware by holding down option key during boot
To force launching into the CD drive,
hold down the "C" key during launch
The symptoms do sound ominous however....
Best forums for help:
http://www.spymac.com/
http://www.macfixit.com/
http://www.macaddict.com/
To name a few
This is a wonderful forum but computer questions are best
redirected to the appropriate forums
God speed to you, live in peace
ROFLMAO! So far, this is the best advice, right up there with buy a new Mac. Not sure what all you use your Mac for, but the G4 iBooks are great and pretty affordable. Do you have an Apple store near by? Take it to the "Genius" and they can help you.
Cheers, CC :)
Confirm that you have at least 128 of ram. My daughters G3 would not go past OS 10.1 without adding ram.
I wil post back here if it works and what it is that makes it work
Thanks again all
Problem solved.
You might want to use my soup suggestion last.
Owl_Eagle”Guns Before Butter.”
Nah, all he has to do is show up and the 'reality distortion field' kicks in...
And away we go!
= )
Nice to know that some FReepers can be pejorative, mean-spirited, and repetitive, just like DUmmies are 24/7. Makes me feel like I'm experiencing the wider world, or maybe reruns of "It's About Time". It's particularly mean-spirited to treat a fellow FReeper that way when you're asking for help.
While Wintel machines tend to ship with hard drives that are cheap PesOS, which fail within two years, that's not likely (not impossible, but not likely) to have happened. Naturally I'll defer to daviddennis and Mr. Thorne who sound more experienced than I am (I've only used micros for, hmm about 20 years, and have never been involved in servicing them etc).
I've got an iMac with 9.2.2 at home, from 1999, and it's all original equipment. I'm using my late father's eMac right now, which is under two years old, and it is a hybrid OS installation.
It sounds to me that you've got a version of Mac OS X that doesn't like hybrid installations. Are you using the original CDs?
But hey, that old machine probably could use a bigger drive anyway. ;')
I think you were just CCing everyone who posted on this thread, right? If you look at my reply, you'll see that I'm actually trying to be helpful.
As a Mac user (I also use Windows, of course, but prefer Macs), I like to help other Mac users if they have questions or problems....
Gee whiz, old boy, sounds as though you're peeved at me?!
I was attempting to be helpful!
Promise!
I thought you were both helpful. I didn't ping the riff-raff, only those actually interested in helping our man in distress, but used that as an opportunity to give the riff-raff the once over, which they badly deserved. Sorry for the misunderstanding.
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