Blue & white G3 reinstall problems

[thoneal]

When I turn on my G3 I only get the smiley face computer. I tried reinstalling the OS disk by pressing "c" but it did nothing.

What should I try next?

 

[SmurfBoxMasta]

what OS are you trying to re-install ?

Is the OS on a CD or DVD, and if DVD, do you have a DVD drive in that machine ?

What steps, exactly, have you already tried ?

 

[thoneal]

I am running OS 8.1. I believe it is a CD but I will double check again because I do not have a DVD on the G3.

I put the CD in and turned the computer on. I pressed and held "C" - nothing. Then I did the same thing and pressed and held "D" - nothing, and then I tried holding "C" and "D" together and got nothing. Just the smiley-face computer.

 

[dual64bit]

Hold down the OPTION key when booting, it will give you a menu of bootable options. If the CD is not listed, there is A.) an issue with the CD or B.) something wrong with the cd-rom/ide controller.

When holding the option key - you do not have to hold down any other keys

 

[thoneal]

i just tried that but no options came up. Could that mean that my harddrive is shot?

 

[SmurfBoxMasta]

Hold down the OPTION key when booting, it will give you a menu of bootable options

This only works with G4's and later, AND OS X IIRC..........the OP is running 8.1, and besides that, when you boot from a CD, there are NO "options" per se, just the installer screen, read-me's, etc and a suedo-desktop environment

Thoneal.......

A) OS 8 NEVER came on dvd so no worries there.....but make sure you are holding down the "c" key before you push the power button and continue to hold it down until you get the boot screen, and make sure the caps lock key is off.......

B) Your harddrive may or may NOT be shot.....but since you can't boot from it, your OS is definitely fubarred 4 sure. However, your CD drive may be on the fritz, if it won't actually read/load the OS CD........did it work prior to this situation ?