B&W G3 Problem

[rickvanr]

Hello

I'm having problems installing an OS onto my computer. First, the Panther installation is having an error which could be related to the second problem. When trying to install OS9 I'm getting a warning telling me to install new firmware, when I goto install the firmware it tells me i need to install the OS first.. it's rather annoying, considering this machine shipped with OS8.6, should I install it first, then update the firmware, then install OS9, only thing is I do not have the OS8.6 disk here with me.

[scan300]

Unfortunately you need to have system 8.something on your computer to install the firmware update. The firmware update needs to update the system folder, so booting off a CD is also out of the question. The firmware definitely needs to be installed before installing 9.x or X.x

If you can get your hands on a 8.x CD from a store or borrow it, that would be ideal. Unfortunately the system images that have been released by Apple for free only go up to 7.5.x, which may not help you.

[rickvanr]

I have OS8 CD's, they require a floppy to start the process...
The OS8.5 CD I has will not boot from the CD drive, and I can't find the restore CD that came with it!

wait.... i have an idea

EDIT: idea of using an ADB keyboard because earlier os' dont support USB failed... dammit

[scan300]

If you are able to boot the B+W from the OS9 CD and if you had an xtra cd drive your could run the installer from there, or external hard disk where you can copy the 8.6 installer to or network to another mac and run the installer from there.

If your B+W has firewire, which I think all were equipped with, it might suport FireWire target disk mode, you could use another mac to run the installer.

[rickvanr]

also, are the error's during panther's installation attributed to the lack of the firmware update?

[rickvanr]

If you are able to boot the B+W from the OS9 CD and if you had an xtra cd drive your could run the installer from there, or external hard disk where you can copy the 8.6 installer to or network to another mac and run the installer from there.

If your B+W has firewire, which I think all were equipped with, it might suport FireWire target disk mode, you could use another mac to run the installer.

I might be wrong, but i think you need OS X to enable Firewire disk mode, because it isnt working to start up the b&w as a firewire disk, but it works for my to start up my powerbook as one via the B&W...

I'm screwed until i can find my restore cd i think, ill keep looking

[rickvanr]

found the 8.6 cd, installing now...

if anything goes a fowl, I'll post it

[rickvanr]

this is just a treat, I'm having a plethora of errors

Installing 8.6 is rather problematic.... It's frozen once, worked once, but then has errors starting up... upon installing, says the disk has errors... erasing the disk fixes it temporarily, then installation bugs up and the process repeats itself...

my luck with G3's has been horrible as of late

EDIT: attempting the simple restore function, hopefully it'll work

crosses fingers it wont freeze

[rickvanr]

results, checksum failed, and it wont load, stuck on the happy mac face

[scan300]

this is just a treat, I'm having a plethora of errors

Installing 8.6 is rather problematic.... It's frozen once, worked once, but then has errors starting up... upon installing, says the disk has errors... erasing the disk fixes it temporarily,

If your hard disk has bad blocks you need to do a low level format to map bad blocks so they don't get used.

From apple, (old article)
As a rule, use initialization with only the write zero option selected followed by Test Disk to achieve the best level of block data integrity.


There's another doc relating to formatting drives to troubleshoot drive problems:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=21103

[rickvanr]

opened it up and realized this machine had been O/C'd... which didnt please me... so i put it back to it's stock speed. Still didn't remedy the problem, I've replaced the HD and trying again

the HD i was using was brand new though, and worked fine in the other computer I have

[rickvanr]

installation on a 10 gig HD that came with the B&W worked....

what are the chances that the computer store would let me exchange the one week old crap WD 120GB Drive that kept erroring on me?

[cluthz]

installation on a 10 gig HD that came with the B&W worked....

what are the chances that the computer store would let me exchange the one week old crap WD 120GB Drive that kept erroring on me?

If its one week old they have to replace it..

Did you have both drives in the B&W??
The first rev of B&Ws had troubles with two drives on the same controller.

[rickvanr]

If its one week old they have to replace it..

Did you have both drives in the B&W??
The first rev of B&Ws had troubles with two drives on the same controller.

the replacement is good news...

I only recently added the second drive after installing os x on the smaller drive

how am I supposed to have more then one drive if they have issues with more then two HD on one controller? there is only two controllers and one is for CD and Zip...

[rickvanr]

weid ram problem

with the ram installed that came with it I shut it down... then tried installing a new stick, it wouldn't start, removed it, still wouldn't start, took out all the ram, put on stick back in, it starts

could this be because the RAM wasn't seated correctly? or because it's bad RAM?