Resolved iBook G3/ Mac OS 10.4.11 Update Issues

I have an iBook G3 that is now working thanks to a donor iBook. I got a Mac OS 10.4 DVD and installed Tiger on it without any problems. The problem I am having lies with the OS 10.4.11 Combo Update from Apple, I can't get it to install correctly.

The first time I downloaded it and tried to install it, (via Software Updater) it failed installing it. So I downloaded a copy off of Apple's website and tried it that way. It worked, the iBook restarted and it would stall at the Apple logo and spinning wheel. After 30 minutes, I hard booted it. It seemed to get further (finally got to the "Starting Mac OS X" screen) and then it would stall with the status bar at 100%. It also wouldn't recognize the trackpad and I had to plug in an external mouse to move the cursor around (even though you couldn't do anything). This morning I reinstalled 10.4, it went to restart and it produced a kernel panic (Sys. Failure: cpu=0, code=00000001 (Corrupt stack) ). I rebooted, and I got the infamous "You need to restart your computer" message at the Apple logo screen. So for a third time, I reinstalled Mac OS X 10.4. Everything works, got through the installation and back to the desktop. I tried to install the Combo updater for 10.4.11 again (via. package from Apples site, not the software update), it goes all the way through it and at the end says "Update failed, try again". I tried to reopen the installer but it would automatically close after I open it. So I go to the apple menu and click "About this Mac" and it says I'm running 10.4.11 now. I reboot, and now I'm back to where I was, the iBook just stalls at the Apple logo and the spinning wheel. The hard drive sounds like its doing something every now and then, but not much activity.

Any suggestions on what to do from here? I ran the "Apple Hardware Test" CD, and everything passed. Previously (before the RAM upgrade and swapped hard drive) I had problems with Mac OS 9 giving me bomb errors at random (even after a clean installation). Somebody told me that the RAM soldered to the logic board could be bad, but I have no idea what to do with that (thought it was more of a hard drive issue at the time). I do have another 256MB stick in there now which seems to be working fine.

jpross123 said:

Kernal panic can be anything, but usually it can be the ram. I would recommend running a ram test

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Like said I did the Apple Hardware Test (extended version which took about 20 minutes) and it passed (RAM, HDD, logic board, airport, everything).

jpross123 said:

He said he thinks it was the Ram, I asked if he had run a ram test. Secondly I was suggesting installing another OS on it, if it works fine then it was a bad OS CD which is a possibility. Both legitimate things to say.

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Yes, like I said it passed the Apple Hardware Test. Before I installed 10.4, the machine was running OS 9.2/10.1 with no known problems. The problem isn't the OS 10.4 DVD because it installs Tiger just fine, the problem arises when I try to install the 10.4.11 combo update.

OK: Update.

I tried resetting the PRAM. Nothing. Wouldn't boot in safe mode either.

I booted from Verbose mode. I got the following (it hangs here):
ATIRage128: Using AGP
AirportFirmware: start Sta f/w download
disk0s2: I/O Error.
Workaround Bonjour: Unknown error: 0
disk0s2: I/O Error.
disk0s2: I/O Error.
disk0s2: I/O Error.
disk0s2: I/O Error.
disk0s2: I/O Error.

Any ideas? And no, jpross, this machine is capable of running 10.4.11. I'm positive.

EDIT: Resolved.

Figured I'd update this thread in case anyone else experiences this problem. The issue was the hard drive (which was probably well over 10 years old). Although the SMART Status read "verified", obviously something was still going wrong (probably bad sectors).

Ordered a 80GB HDD drive, spent the entire afternoon installing it, and I'm now dual booting 9.2.2/ 10.4.11 . It works awesome, still a tad slow on a few tasks but totally usable.