eMac powerPC problems

[ajg2345]

eMac 1.25ghz 1 gig ram

This is gonna sound really stupid, I was given an eMac a couple of weeks ago it had some major problems, but I have fixed almost everything. the most perplexing was deleting the ATI drivers and now I don't have to boot in Safe Boot - but I'm wanting to upgrade it to 10.5, it's currently running 10.4.11 but it won't do it. I can get it to read a single layer dvd at boot up but it will not read a dual layer dvd the boot screen (holding down option at boot) when a os X 10.5 dual layer dvd is in there it won't read it, it will only show the hard drive

any suggestions would be helpful - my mac is at work so I can put all the specs in here tomorrow if needed

 

[Intell]

It sounds like your eMac has bad capacitors. Many eMacs were plagued by this. They way to check is to remove your eMac's shell and look at the capacitors. They are the things that look like little cans. If they are leaking or have a rounded top to them, then they are bad. They can be replaced if you are good at soldering.

 

[ajg2345]

I've had it apart a few times and checked the capacitors or at least the ones I could see - none of them were bulging or leaking - and not to ask a really dumb question (I'm a PC man who was given a MAC so forgive me) would the Capacitors effect my ability to boot off a dvd? or is it one of those british car problems - the wind shield wiper doesn't work, so let's fix the radio....

 

[Intell]

Failing capacitors can effect many things. They can effect the graphics, cause kernel panics, cause corrupted data, cause an inability to use the optical drive due to lack of sufficient power. It sounds like you've already had the graphics problem and are currently experiencing the optical drive problem.

One thing to note is that some eMacs don't have a DVD drive, but only a cd drive.

 

[Goftrey]

One thing to note is that some eMacs don't have a DVD drive, but only a cd drive.

Yes, maybe the OP has an overclocked education model. I believe all all them came only with a CD drive.

 

[ajg2345]

here are my specs - also how can I update the Boot Rom i've noticed that it's not the newest and that might be hindering it - sorry for asking so many dumb questions i've spent my life from the time i was 5 on a PC and don't know enough about a Mac except how to power it on and some other easy things

Hardware Overview:

Machine Name: eMac
Machine Model: PowerMac6,4
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (1.1)
Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 1.25 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory: 1 GB
Bus Speed: 167 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.8.2f1
Serial Number: G84401DNQJ8
Sales Order Number: M9425LL/A

and for the cd/dvd??
SONY CD-RW CRX315E:

Firmware Revision: NAK6
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipped/Supported)
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
Burn Underrun Protection CD: Yes
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw
Media:
Media Type: DVD-ROM
Blank: No
Erasable: No
Overwritable: No
Appendable: No

 

[Intell]

That is the latest bootrom for eMacs. No eMac model has ever had a firmware update. Another reason why it can't boot from the dvd is that some older G4 era dvd drives get dusty inside and stop reading dvds. This has happened in two of my iMac G4s and one eMac I serviced awhile ago.

 

[pistooli]

That is the latest bootrom for eMacs. No eMac model has ever had a firmware update. Another reason why it can't boot from the dvd is that some older G4 era dvd drives get dusty inside and stop reading dvds. This has happened in two of my iMac G4s and one eMac I serviced awhile ago.

I agree. It hapenned to my parents eMac 1.25MHz as well. For no obvious reason - other than dust or age - it just stoped reading DVDs. CDs were still fine. So, I replaced the drive with a new DVD burner.

 

[Goftrey]

Do you have another optical drive you could stick in it? They're not too hard to replace. Or if you have another Mac you could you target disk mode & use CarbonCopyCloner.

 

[G51989]

Did you try getting a can of compressed air and spray the inside of the drive? My original xbox stopped reading Discs completely. Opened the tray, sprayed it out. Now it works just like new.

 

[ajg2345]

I will try the canned air first - but if that doesn't work - I used to work on PC's alot and I have tons of spare parts from those and I think one may be a dvd burner can I use that or does it need to be from another MAC? Again I'm going to keep saying sorry because I don't know as much about anything other than a PC

 

[Intell]

eMacs take standard desktop sized PATA/EIDE/IDE drives. Any should work just fine. But be sure to match the master/slave/cable select jumpers with the old drive.

 

[ajg2345]

It now is having a different problem, I have been able to boot and get 10.5 installing but when it gets about 10 minutes into the install it gives me an error message and says that it can't install. I erased the hard drive to try to do a clean install and still the same problem. I've done all the disc utilities and everything says it's OK i'm just stumped all I want is 10.5 to work and it seems like it never does. Any ideas?

 

[Intell]

Are you trying to install from the Leopard DVD? It could be that you optical drive is very near the end of its DVD life.

 

[ajg2345]

I'm trying so many different things, just to keep from having to spend money because i'm cheap - so i have a seagate freeagent Go and i watched a youtube video on how to put a disk image on the drive and partition it so you can boot off of it and it won't let me boot - i have the partition set as "apple partition map" because this is a non intel mac - and i have it as mac os (extended journal) and not as the GUID I made a disc image - I'm really beginning to think that my PC curse (computers just do weird things when i'm around) is extending to Apple products - i may just give up soon and stick with 10.4.11 but again thanks to everyone who has helped me out