Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

’03 MDD 1.25GHz SP FW400 - No load or boot of OS 9

Wild Hare

Wild Hare

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 29, 2021
127
124
And no - it is not an MDD FW800 model.
(Nor does it have a FW800 mobo.)

Have tried various “solutions” with this machine located inside the Russian Federation. And with current international sanctions in place, can’t send “things” (discs, drives, video cards etc.) to the machine’s owner.

The machine loads and boots many versions of OS X successfully - but when it comes to all attempts at installing OS 9.2 on separate partition - reboots then yield gray screen freezes (even via attempted drag & drop installations).

Think you might know the cause of this or have “the fix” / or enjoy a challenge?
… respond here or over on MacOS9Lives.com please.

Thought perhaps someone here might have encountered / remedied this before?

Again, not a FW800 MDD.

For more background info - the sad story begins (over there) a month ago:
@ http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?topic=6335

Графика-2.png
 
Don't hit me, but im really sure that the MDD line doe'snt support MacOS 9.2.2 native boot, only with classic environment.
 
No, there will be no hitting involved.😇

But I'll tell the four working MDDs here that they're not supposed to run OS 9.2.2
(native), so they'd better stop it right now! (laughing)
 
Yes. One downloaded from Macintosh Garden - AND same from MacOS9Lives.com.

Tested with various conventional drives and SSDs and all, even on ATA-66 bus as well.

If current sanctions weren't in place, I'd send a tested-true SSD with OS 9.2 pre-installed
AND maybe even an external, bootable firewire drive. But no can do at present.

Again, thread detailing all that has been attempted thus far, over the last month...
http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?topic=6335

AHT, ram tests, hardware & video all check out a-ok... so the mystery continues.
 
Wild Hare said:
… respond here or over on MacOS9Lives.com please.
Click to expand...

I don't see any pictures over there. Did he ever say what CPU he's using? I thought OS9 doesn't play well with CPU upgrades? It sounds like you guys have checked everything else.
 
Believe it to be the stock 1.25 SP CPU.
And yes, must sign in there to see pics.

But here's a pic of CPU.

CPU.png
 
I had the same issue with my Dual 867Mhz MDD. Turns out it was the GeForce4 MX OEM card not wanting to play nice with OS 9.2.2. I was testing a GeForce2 MX 400 and that booted OS 9.2.2 just fine.

I think you can resolve the issue by updating the nVidia drivers to the last version of OS 9 if you too are using the GF4 MX card.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD
 
Thanks Darth.

Regretfully perhaps, he began with an ATI Radeon 9000 Pro 64 MB and then changed that to a “flashed” ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128 MB. And the last ATI driver updates available were installed. Still all a no-go.

Maybe he should acquire & test an nVidia?

Currently wondering here if Apple ever produced a FW400 MDD "Education model" that was “OS X only” but can find no reference of such a thing.
 
Wild Hare said:
Thanks Darth.

Regretfully perhaps, he began with an ATI Radeon 9000 Pro 64 MB and then changed that to a “flashed” ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128 MB. And the last ATI driver updates available were installed. Still all a no-go.

Maybe he should acquire & test an nVidia?

Currently wondering here if Apple ever produced a FW400 MDD "Education model" that was “OS X only” but can find no reference of such a thing.
Click to expand...
Boot into Open Firmware and load the Mac OS ROM in debug mode so we can see what is going on with the boot CD:


Code: 
dev /
13fff encode-int " AAPL,debug" property
boot cd:,\\:tbxi





 
Will pass that along.
Sometimes takes a day to get a response, due to time zone differences.
 
According to Mactracker, that MDD 2003 model was likely sold without OS 9 at some point, but there's no indication that there was a change in the logic board preventing install or boot of OS9, but Apple simply sold some without OS 9. So, I think you can still say that if a MDD had FW400 ports, then native OS 9 boot should work.
FW800 ports, no native OS 9. Maybe that was related to the release of Panther (I don't remember...)
 
Last edited:
DeltaMac said:
According to Mactracker, that MDD 2003 model was likely sold without OS 9 at some point, but there's no indication that there was a change in the logic board preventing install of boot of OS9, but Apple simply sold some without OS 9. So, I think you can still say that if a MDD had FW400 ports, then native OS 9 boot should work.
FW800 ports, no native OS 9. Maybe that was related to the release of Panther (I don't remember...)
Click to expand...
Depends if they left the " MacRISC" and " MacRISC2" in the compatible property. If they just have " MacRISC3" then it can't boot OS 9 without Open Firmware hacking or a custom Mac OS ROM, but the OS9Lives CD should boot in that case.
 
Have forwarded info along with a link to this thread. It’s either 9:30 or 10:30 p.m. “over there”.

Best method for him to check for MacRISC, MacRISC2 or 3?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back