[geeks] Problem booting G3 B&W

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

On Wed, Sep 07, 2005 at 08:28:49PM -0400, Ido Dubrawsky wrote:
> I'm not sure which model...it's got a zip drive, a CD drive and a 10GB Maxtor
> drive.  I discovered that it was a 10GB drive and not a 6.4GB like I previously
> thought.  I presume that it's the second model but I can't tell for sure.

I think it's the first. The tip off for a quick qcheck is the double IDE
drive (one on top of the other) bracket, though some second models were
shipped with a single drive bracket. The only way to tell for sure is
to look for a web site with pictures. One chip on the motherboard is
noticably different, the IDE controller chip.

> The memory is 100MHz memory.  The possible problem is that the new memory is
> 2 x 256MB sticks and it already has a 128MB stick in there.  I've removed the 
> 512MB of new memory and it still won't recognize the Maxtor drive.

ok sounds good.

> When it did boot I found out that it had Panther installed.  I can't imagine
> it's the drive as I've tried two others (a 7.5GB Quantum Fireball and a 120GB
> Western Digital) and they both were not recognized by the OS installer (OS 10.2
> -- my OS 10.3 disks won't even boot this puppy).

Are they pressed or burnt CDs? I could never get a burnt disk to read
unless I burnt it at a very slow speed. The best results I had were in 
a 4x DVD burner buring at CD speed 4. My HP 12 speed cd burner also did
well.

> It's got a CD drive in it.

Most of them did originaly. There were a few of the second model shipped
with DVD drives, mine has a Toshiba DVD burner added later.

> Well here's a twist to the whole story.  I tried the MacOS 9.2.2 install CD and
> the system found the disks and allowed me to re-initialize them.  I then tried
> the OS 10.2 installer and it found the disk (which I had partitioned into two
> partitions each about 5GB big).  When I went to install it it came up with an
> error and I could only reboot.  I'm going to try my hand at it again but it 
> could well be the disk.  Although I can't understand why the MacOS 9.2.2 
> installer succeeded in seeing the disk and working with it and the OS 10.2 
> installer couldn't.

That is wierd. You can make it one big partition and initalize it with
MacOS 9. I've never intialized it with anything greater than 9.1.5 and then
upgraded to 9.2.1 and 9.2.2. 

9.2.2 should work. Though I've never seen a 9.2.2 CD. The latest I've seen
is 9.2.1.

Usually I install and format the disk with OS 9 and then upgrade in place
to OSX. Then I can boot either from the same partition and run OS9 under
OSX (clasic mode).

> I may consider that.  I just want to know how to tell the two models apart
> definitively.

I think the IDE controller chip in the second model had "402" on it,
but it would be best to look it up. Do a Yahoo or MSN search.

Geoff.

-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm at mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM
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