bondi blue blues

[compudude86]

i got the bondi blue blues!! i have a bondi blue imac g3, seems like revision b (sticker contains "b-1", graphics chip on board is an ati rage II pro? i think thats what it says) and when i received it, it ran 9.2.1 no problem. well, yesterday i upgraded to a 20gb drive and dug out my osx discs. loaded osx. no good. came and posted in osx forum, and tried the following:
cleared pram several times. zero-wiped the drive. partition 1 as a 5gb and 2 as a 14gb. set start-up disk. swapped ram sticks around. cleared CUDA. nothing worked. i gave up and decided to put 9.1 back on then update to 9.2.1. well i zero-wiped again. partitioned as macintosh extended. installed again. still, flashing folder. reset pram again. flashing folder. i need help with this majorly. thanks

 

[im_to_hyper]

You will most likely need to update the firmware prior to installing Mac OS X. Firmware Updates on Apple's site here Additionally, on older models like this you will need to format the hard drive differently.

On a machine like this, you will need to install Mac OS X on the initial 8GB of the drive, so format the drive with a 7.5GB partition and the make rest free space, and install OS X on the smaller, initial partition.

I don't know the reasoning behind that, but I suppose that's what needs to be done.

 

[compudude86]

yea, i decided to go back to os9. unfortunately, no matter what i do, i get the flashing question folder trying to boot from hard drive. will this happen if my battery is dead?

 

[im_to_hyper]

yea, i decided to go back to os9. unfortunately, no matter what i do, i get the flashing question folder trying to boot from hard drive. will this happen if my battery is dead?

Are you talking about the PRAM battery? I haven't heard of Mac OS X not installing because of a dead PRAM battery. I guess since you already did the formatting of the harddrive thing I don't know what else could cause it.

What version of Mac OS X are you trying to install? 10.3 is the highest that will install natively on there, and I wouldn't install anything lower than 10.2 if you would like to use this as a functional OS X machine. As far as the odd problems you are having, here are the steps I would do to try and get it working.

Boot from OS 9.x disc, use drive setup to create an initial 7GB partition, leaving the rest as a seperate, second partition. Then, install all the necessary Mac OS 9 updates... and BE SURE to install the firmware updates for your machine! Then, reinstall Mac OS X, making sure to install it on the smaller partition.

Also, hopefully you have more than 128MB of RAM. On any G3 iMac, maxing out the RAM will make the performace sooooo much better. Not great, but better.

 

[compudude86]

Are you talking about the PRAM battery? I haven't heard of Mac OS X not installing because of a dead PRAM battery. I guess since you already did the formatting of the harddrive thing I don't know what else could cause it.

What version of Mac OS X are you trying to install? 10.3 is the highest that will install natively on there, and I wouldn't install anything lower than 10.2 if you would like to use this as a functional OS X machine. As far as the odd problems you are having, here are the steps I would do to try and get it working.

Boot from OS 9.x disc, use drive setup to create an initial 7GB partition, leaving the rest as a seperate, second partition. Then, install all the necessary Mac OS 9 updates... and BE SURE to install the firmware updates for your machine! Then, reinstall Mac OS X, making sure to install it on the smaller partition.

Also, hopefully you have more than 128MB of RAM. On any G3 iMac, maxing out the RAM will make the performace sooooo much better. Not great, but better.

well i ordered a new pram battery, it must be the issue, as ive restarted, every time it loses the startup disk, i opened "openfirmware" and it read nothing each time in the boot option. plus the battery is the purple tadiran and reads "10 98" on the side (my mac was built november 6, 98, and i gotta fix this machine, 11/6 is my birthday) so im sure its time for a new battery. now, i read on mactracker that the rev b will take max of 512mb, is this true? 256mb each slot?

 

[im_to_hyper]

That sounds like it would be right. I had 384MB in one at some point (256MB+128MB) so that configuration should work for you.

I would go through OtherWorldComputing to buy your RAM, since it will be gauranteed compatible with your machine.

 

[compudude86]

i will definately order it from them. their prices are better than ebay, its guaranteed compatible, and appears to have a lifetime warranty, 3 things you cant beat. as for the motherboard/battery issue, i have the board sitting out on my desk with the battery removed, should give everything a chance to reset

 

[im_to_hyper]

Well then, good luck getting everything installed and up and running! If you are having any problems, be sure to report back here!

 

[compudude86]

prognosis negative. replaced the pram battery, reset pram and nvram, no good. ran imac firmware update on os9 cd, firmware is said to be up to date. i read elsewhere that it needs os 8.5 installed first before 9, is this true?

 

[compudude86]

ok, i got an idea here. as i am using a former pc drive, i am low leveling in a drive enclosure using my pc. my theory is that because it was used as a pc drive, there is still pc specific areas and stuff that werent erased by the os9 disk zero, but is causing startup problems. lets see how it does after this.

 

[compudude86]

Success!

ok, i did two things: i used the PC to low-level the drive, and i found a jumper set to "cable-select", wither one of those was the issue, and it now boots system 9!

 

[Jonnyfive]

ok, i did two things: i used the PC to low-level the drive, and i found a jumper set to "cable-select", wither one of those was the issue, and it now boots system 9!

That's exactly what I was going to recommend you check. Sounded like jumper settings to me. They can do wierd things reguarding the computer reading it or not. Kind of a pain really.

 

[im_to_hyper]

Good that you figured out what to do with the drive - the thought never crossed my mind that the jumper settings needed to be changed! Now you should have some luck and will be able to install OS X!