G3 B&W problems...

[jammybob]

I've just bought a G3 B&W 350 rev.2 and put a OS X 10.4 CD in to boot it, hard drive was wiped when I got it. However, it chimes fine, there is some disk access, but then grey screen appears with the flashing question mark. I've tried every keyboard shortcut I find, but to no avail, it won't boot from the CD. I've changed the DVD-ROM that was in back to the original CD-ROM, but exactly the same. Also ruled out the RAM, changed the sticks round a few times.

My suspicions lead to the keyboard, I'm running through a KVM, using a PS2-USB adapter at the Mac end, when the grey screen is on, the lock key lights are all on and won't turn off.

When I plugged in a Logitech wireless USB keyboard directly, it did the opposite, the lights wouldn't turn on.

Any suggestions? I thought Macs just worked straight away (I'm an absolute newbie!)

 

[jammybob]

I've just reset the PRAM, meaning my keyboard does work to some extent, but holding down C still doesn't get it to boot from CD...

 

[mad jew]

Maybe try updating the firmware. Have you had OSX work on this thing before?

 

[jammybob]

Does that require an OS to be installed in order to do it? I only have a blank hard drive at the moment... Is it worth trying my friend's copy of OS 9 to try booting from? He doesn't use it any more.

 

[mad jew]

Yeah, see if OS9 gets any further. This shouldn't be necessary if you've had OSX on there before though.

 

[jammybob]

I only bought the computer today not been a good experience so far! I've had a suggestion to plug a Mac USB keyboard directly into it for the purposes of booting from CD, could it be picky in this way?

 

[mad jew]

I haven't had any experience with these older machines but I'm pretty sure you need upgraded firmware to install OSX and you may even need that firmware simply to start from the OSX disks but I could be wrong. I recommend getting your hands on an old version of OS9 and seeing if things work out better. FWIW, I don't think it has anything to do with the keyboard, but once again I could be wrong.

Sorry, I'm a bit of a newbie when it comes to older Macs.

 

[jammybob]

The only firmware available on that site for the B&W was released in 1999, not much help to OS X surely? When was that released?

 

[SmurfBoxMasta]

The only firmware available on that site for the B&W was released in 1999, not much help to OS X surely? When was that released?

1st.....YES you do need a USB keyboard AND mouse to boot from OS X

If you do indeed need a Firmware update (which I suspect you do) then you will ALSO notice that OS 9.1.xx or later is REQUIRED to run it, so you may as well install it first, get it running right, run the updater, then re-try the OS X install.....

ps........do you have a minimum of 512mb of ram? needs to be for Tiger......and are your 100% sure the Tiger disk is a CD ????

 

[redeye be]

Are you sure that's a Tiger CD (should be more than one).

I think it's a DVD. Your G3 probably doesn't have a DVD player...

You can firmware all you want, new (or used ) hardware will be needed.

 

[frankblundt]

i'm not sure that the firware update's necessary (it's only for PCI performance) but not a bad thing to do anyways.
The B&W won't boot off an external drive either BTW.
Have you got a copy of OS9 you could try installing? - you need it to do the firmware update anyway and at least if that runs you'll be able to see the X install disc on the desktop and run it from there (it'll restart but should have set the startup disc to the CD, then you can format the drive again if you like).
Another option (for people with mac friends) is to take your drive out, use a tool like Xupport to create a bootable system backup of their X onto your drive, put it back in boot from that.
X can occasionally be fussy about hardware - bad ram, bad drives etc.
I'm still using my B&W and i've taken it thru 9 > 10.2 > 10.3 with no issues at all (even with a LG DVD writer, ACard IDE controller, generic USB2 card, generic RAM, 3 HDs stuffed into it, overclocked to 400...).
It makes a lovely web/iTunes server.

 

[jammybob]

I've just tried an OS 9.2.2 CD, still no response. Yes the copy of Tiger is CD. I'm borrowing a USB Mac keyboard tomorrow hopefully to try that avenue.

Any other thoughts? Really thought this would be simple!

 

[frankblundt]

sounds pretty much like the keyboard to me - asking an old g3 to recognise a wireless/ps2 pc keyboard from scratch is probably asking a bit much of it.
if it wasn't having a problem with the keyboard (or some other piece of boot-checked hardware) i'd have thought it would eventually find the cd and boot from it after first trying for a while to find a system on the HD.

 

[Eidorian]

For what it's worth, I've had Power Mac G3's stall while having non-Apple keyboards plugged into them. No problems with none Apple pointing devices though.

 

[slooksterPSV]

A few posts down it said you NEED 512MB of RAM to use/install Tiger, that's incorrect. The Mac-Mini's used to come with 256MB of RAM and Tiger, so 256MB is Minimum, 512MB Recommended, 1GB+ Greatly Appreciated. But you can install and run Tiger on 256MB.