Cant boot to disk on a wallsteet

[Togglehead]

So..as it turns out...i cant boot to a disk on my wallstreet.

I hold C when the machine powers on...KNOW bootable disks....no go

Is there something involving OS9 or OSX on there causing it to not be allowed to boot to disk?

 

[bleachthru]

Are you sure the CD drive is in working condition? Sometimes it will fail on older machines. Also you might try holding down "cmd-opt-shift-delete" This will bypass the startup drive and boot from external (or CD). This actually forces the system to NOT load the driver for the default volume. For SCSI devices it searches from highest ID to lowest for a partition with a bootable system. Not sure about IDE drives.

I am not sure what your need to boot from cd is, but if you are looking to boot into OS 9 I believe you press "cmd-opt" hold it down until 2nd chime, it should boot into Mac OS 9, sorry it's been a while since I have needed to do this. Lastly if you are trying to boot into OS X, hold down "cmd-x" (or just x?) Will boot into OS X if 9 and X are on the same partition and that’s the partition you’re booting from. Good luck! (Good to hear about people using older machines, keep em alive.)

 

[Togglehead]

good info....and i do remember a few thing along these lines while installing panther....but sadly these tricks dont work.

installed is OS9.2.2 and Panther. I needed to use Xpostfacto to trick OSX into thinking the machine had native USB....after some tough times...i got it installed and working great.

One issue i noticed was that if i let the thing sit around and the PRAM batt died (brand new), it would try to boot to OS9 first....then restart in OSX....but when the login screen pops up....the video isnt backlit. To solve this in the past..i would boot to my OS9 disk....then open up SetupX to tell it to boot to OSX, and from then on it would work....

...not anymore. i Cant seem to boot to either known bootable CD...gentoo or OS9.

Uhm...lost?

 

[bleachthru]

If your system is not booting to anyting, I suspect this might be a larger problem. This sounds to me like a possible HD or motherboard issue. I would attempt to boot from an external HD, via firewire PCI card, or an old school SCSI HD with an OS on it. Unfortunatly I suspect this is not a HD problem if your cd drive is in fact in good working order and the cpu still will not boot from cd. Luckily you can get wallstreets for dirt cheap on ebay, and wallstreet parts even cheaper. Try the HD test, if that doesn't solve it, look into another wallstreet, and swap the HDs. I hope this helps, and again I am glad to hear about other people using older machines. Just think in 1998, the wallstreet base model (12" screen, 233MHz, and no floppy) started at $2,299 and the fully loaded model, with 14.1" screen went for $7,000

 

[Togglehead]

If your system is not booting to anyting, I suspect this might be a larger problem. This sounds to me like a possible HD or motherboard issue. I would attempt to boot from an external HD, via firewire PCI card, or an old school SCSI HD with an OS on it. Unfortunatly I suspect this is not a HD problem if your cd drive is in fact in good working order and the cpu still will not boot from cd. Luckily you can get wallstreets for dirt cheap on ebay, and wallstreet parts even cheaper. Try the HD test, if that doesn't solve it, look into another wallstreet, and swap the HDs. I hope this helps, and again I am glad to hear about other people using older machines. Just think in 1998, the wallstreet base model (12" screen, 233MHz, and no floppy) started at $2,299 and the fully loaded model, with 14.1" screen went for $7,000

I know..i have the fully loaded 300!!!!!

Ok....it DOES boot to osx if i let it..just with no backlit video...so i can barely see the screen. Theres just something im not doing right.....i can beat this i know it.

I just brought the floppy drive here to replace the CD drive....liets see if i can get it to boot to floppy....i dont give up this easily. =]

 

[bleachthru]

I know..i have the fully loaded 300!!!!!

Ok....it DOES boot to osx if i let it..just with no backlit video...so i can barely see the screen. Theres just something im not doing right.....i can beat this i know it.

I just brought the floppy drive here to replace the CD drive....liets see if i can get it to boot to floppy....i dont give up this easily. =]

Oh, well this sounds like it is an LCD issue, most likely the cathode backlight. Good news, this is a very cheap fix, the 14.1" 1024x768 wallstreet LCD case tops can be had for around $35 on ebay, I have seen complete machines in working order go for $55. Check it out, the screen is easy to replace on the old G3s, and a spare machine is always good for parts. Good luck, and NEVER give up

 

[Togglehead]

heh heh...thanks again for the advice...but again, its not a backlight issue. it had the same behaviour when i first set it up....its something about OSX not using video properly through xpostfacto....

....although again...i guess something COULD have gone wrong in the mean time....

...i'll see what i can dig up...and ill let you know.

 

[Togglehead]

anyone else with ideas?

 

[Togglehead]

oddly enough, turns out it was the disk after all!

Back up and running with panther.....postting from her now. =]