B&W G3 cannot access Open Firmware

[weckart]

I recently acquired a rev1 B&W equipped with one ATA and one SCSI HDD. I am trying to clone the existing installation from the ATA drive onto the SCSI drive so that I can use the ATA drive for test installations.

The ATA has Panther installed but the user has a password,which I need to nuke so that I can use Disk Utility. I can boot with OS8/9 cds but either trying to boot with an OSX disc or trying to access OF results with the display going to sleep and disk activity stalling.

I have tried all the usual tricks, including a CUDA reset. I can zap the PRAM and boot into the exisiting installation but the restriction on booting OSX cds has me stumped. Firmware is at the latest level (1.1f4).

Any suggestions?

 

[Dronecatcher]

I recently acquired a rev1 B&W equipped with one ATA and one SCSI HDD. I am trying to clone the existing installation from the ATA drive onto the SCSI drive so that I can use the ATA drive for test installations.

The ATA has Panther installed but the user has a password,which I need to nuke so that I can use Disk Utility. I can boot with OS8/9 cds but either trying to boot with an OSX disc or trying to access OF results with the display going to sleep and disk activity stalling.

I have tried all the usual tricks, including a CUDA reset. I can zap the PRAM and boot into the exisiting installation but the restriction on booting OSX cds has me stumped. Firmware is at the latest level (1.1f4).

Any suggestions?

Can you go into single user mode and reset the password?

 

[weckart]

Can you go into single user mode and reset the password?

Nope. Any time I try pressing the Cmd key it sends the display to sleep apart from C-O-P-R. It won't boot from the SCSI drive if I try detaching the ATA drive.

 

[Dronecatcher]

Nope. Any time I try pressing the Cmd key it sends the display to sleep apart from C-O-P-R. It won't boot from the SCSI drive if I try detaching the ATA drive.

What about booting through firewire from another Mac or hard drive, selecting it with Option key - I'm guessing you already tried that?

As a parallel, when I couldn't get my iBook to work (I didn't know about the airport issue at that point) OF would crash, yet single user verbose mode would proceed - so maybe it's some hardware conflict somewhere. Maybe even trying a different graphics card might be worth a shot?

 

[MagicBoy]

Still got the OEM Rage 128 in it?

 

[weckart]

What about booting through firewire from another Mac or hard drive, selecting it with Option key - I'm guessing you already tried that?

As a parallel, when I couldn't get my iBook to work (I didn't know about the airport issue at that point) OF would crash, yet single user verbose mode would proceed - so maybe it's some hardware conflict somewhere. Maybe even trying a different graphics card might be worth a shot?

B&W will not boot from FW or USB. Option key boot screen also seems not to exist on the G3 even though it is NWR. Graphics card is the default Rage 128 and seems to be working fine from what I can tell.