Resolved Powermac G3 won't boot from OS X and gets stuck at happy face.

After transporting my Powermac G3 beige desktop, it doesn't boot anymore. It has 10.2 on main HD and before it would boot into it, but now it just shows a happy face and gets stuck at that. happy face is for classic Mac OS. OS X doesn't show happy face. I don't have OS 9 or 8 on it, only OS X. Please help
Also the PRAM battery is dead, perhaps it got reset or something?

bunnspecial said:

Do you have an OS 8 or OS 9 disk? If you do, try booting off that by putting it in the drive and holding down "C" while powering up.

This might at least let you isolate whether it's a problem with the boot volume or with some other part of the system.

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It does not have a disk drive

Maybe the startup disk is messed up? But I would think it would boot to whatever is available. Maybe because it is OS X it cannot recognize it. But would Mac OS 9 recognize it too?

Intell said:

Have you tried reseating everything inside the machine? Something may have gotten agitated.

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Yes I have, everything is in fine.
I think it has to do with the PRAM reset. When it was working, it had not been unplugged for a long period of time since I installed OS X. The install probably set something up with the PRAM and now that it is reset it doesn't work. I probably need that firmware update.

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havokalien said:

I have found the beige G3 does not like a dead pram battery.

The easiest way I have found to fix this is boot off an OS X CD and use disk utility to make sure the OS X is seen by the startup disk control panel then restart. The beige G3 was made way before OS X and does not seem to like to boot off of it politely.

Its much like the power double tap on old LC series macs with a dead pram.

Welcome to an almost twenty year old machine.

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Dang... so I have to wait until I buy a optical drive and PRAM battery... oh well ok.
Theres a firmware update for it that I have not installed, should I install that firm ware update?

havokalien said:

The beige G3 did not have a firmware issue per say, but a rom issue. Since you had already been running OS X its a pram startup issue.

Use an OS X disk like I stated (not OS 9) as it won't have the ability really to set the pram correctly.

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you don't have to buy a pram battery just don't unplug it again.

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I would think that that firmware upgrade will allow it to recognize OS X so it will work even after a PRAM reset?

Ok so i bought an IDE disk drive for it (Pioneer drive, just like the one from the G4 that worked) and I burned an OS X Jaguar install disk (1) onto a CD from a disk image. I put it in and booted while holding the C key. It showed the cursor for a bit but then went on with the happy face to try and boot into the startup disk (and get stuck). It's not working!

PowerMac G4 MDD said:

Check out the HD. I have a PowerMac G3 beige desktop, and while I did put a new HD in it, OS9 now has giant lag spikes. I am certain there is either a software error, or the HD is dying or something. The original HD in it died as well, (which is why I had to replace it in the first place) as I kept transporting the machine all over the place.

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By the way, does anyone know if there are software updates for MacOSX 10.1.1 to be updated to 10.2.8? (or at least an update package I can download?) I have a 10.1.1 disc but no 10.2 disc. I'm pretty sure I could, but just checking in case.

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I already solved this problem as being dead PRAM battery causing PRAM to be reset and so it 'forgets' how to boot into OS X.

My newest problem is that I cannot boot from a Jaguar install disk that i burned. I burned it from a dmg disk image that I made with disk utility from a real OS X Jaguar disk.
So apparently the G3 cannot boot from burned disks? Or maybe the dmg file did not save the disk exactly like it was. Maybe I should've used iso.

I am positive the disk drive i bought is good because the seller said it was tested and working, but I have nothing else to test it and cannot be sure.