Can't install OS X PowerMac G4 Cube

[PowerHarryG4]

I'm a little bit stuck at this point after burning quite a few discs. I have a mainly stock G4 cube (upgraded to ATI Radeon 7500) running OS 9.2.2 and I wanted to dual boot OS X 10.4 and OS 9 but I can't get any OS X disc to boot, even official apple discs. When holding c on the keyboard and booting it will begin to load the installer and the mouse spinning icon will come up for about 10 seconds and then the machine turns off, i'm not sure what it could be. I have tried a genuine apple cd install for 10.1 for a powermac g4 and also burnt my own cds for 10.4 and then tried to burn a dvd for 10.4 (all images i got from machintosh garden). Any suggestions would be really helpful.

 

[Tratkazir_the_1st]

the machine turns off

I would run hardware diagnostic.

 

[B S Magnet]

I'm a little bit stuck at this point after burning quite a few discs. I have a mainly stock G4 cube (upgraded to ATI Radeon 7500) running OS 9.2.2 and I wanted to dual boot OS X 10.4 and OS 9 but I can't get any OS X disc to boot, even official apple discs. When holding c on the keyboard and booting it will begin to load the installer and the mouse spinning icon will come up for about 10 seconds and then the machine turns off, i'm not sure what it could be. I have tried a genuine apple cd install for 10.1 for a powermac g4 and also burnt my own cds for 10.4 and then tried to burn a dvd for 10.4 (all images i got from machintosh garden). Any suggestions would be really helpful.

This may only be one step toward identifying what’s going on: when you open your System Profiler in OS 9, can you verify what firmware version your Cube is running? It should be 4.1.9. If not, there’s a way to update that.

When you’re booted into OS 9, are you able to open and read these OS X CDs/DVDs in Finder?

 

[PowerHarryG4]

I would run hardware diagnostic.

I just ran one now and everything passed.

This may only be one step toward identifying what’s going on: when you open your System Profiler in OS 9, can you verify what firmware version your Cube is running? It should be 4.1.9. If not, there’s a way to update that.

When you’re booted into OS 9, are you able to open and read these OS X CDs/DVDs in Finder?

So i've opened it up now and I can't see anything that says the firmware but I attached an image to show you what I see. And yes it seems to read the cds fine when booted into OS 9, but the DVDs it can't always read, some read fine but others don't, but i'm guessing it is most likely because they are DVD-RW discs, which i'm guessing the cube can't read.

 

[B S Magnet]

I just ran one now and everything passed.



So i've opened it up now and I can't see anything that says the firmware but I attached an image to show you what I see. And yes it seems to read the cds fine when booted into OS 9, but the DVDs it can't always read, some read fine but others don't, but i'm guessing it is most likely because they are DVD-RW discs, which i'm guessing the cube can't read.

OK. This helps a little, though yes, this doesn’t indicate whether 4.1.9 was installed. But the serial would indicate your Cube was built at the end of 2000. The 4.1.9 updater was released early/mid 2001.

So… the first thing I would try to do is download the G4 Cube’s 4.1.9 firmware updater and follow the instructions on installing it. If it was previously updated by a previous owner, then the firmware updater should display confirmation of this and end the installation process before it would proceed. It would not need to be run a second time. [UPDATE: Yes, your Cube is updated with 4.1.9f1, according to the last section]

The next thing I would try is to burn the CD installation version of Tiger, instead of the DVD images. At the time, Apple released a special order version of Tiger on CDs, for the few models which could install Tiger but lacked a DVD-ROM drive or SuperDrive.

Specifically, grab downloads #26 through #29 from the Macintoshgarden and burn these to CD-Rs (not DVD-Rs).

When you’re ready to install, put in CD #1. When you restart, hold down the Option key until a screen comes up, showing the icons for all of the hard drives and optical discs which are bootable. In your case, you should see both your OS 9 drive and the CD icon with CD #1 of the 4-disc Tiger CD install. Wait for the pointer to appear and then click to select the CD.

Let us know how it goes!

 

[PowerHarryG4]

OK. This helps a little, though yes, this doesn’t indicate whether 4.1.9 was installed. But the serial would indicate your Cube was built at the end of 2000. The 4.1.9 updater was released early/mid 2001.

So… the first thing I would try to do is download the G4 Cube’s 4.1.9 firmware updater and follow the instructions on installing it. If it was previously updated by a previous owner, then the firmware updater should display confirmation of this and end the installation process before it would proceed. It would not need to be run a second time. [UPDATE: Yes, your Cube is updated with 4.1.9f1, according to the last section]

The next thing I would try is to burn the CD installation version of Tiger, instead of the DVD images. At the time, Apple released a special order version of Tiger on CDs, for the few models which could install Tiger but lacked a DVD-ROM drive or SuperDrive.

Specifically, grab downloads #26 through #29 from the Macintoshgarden and burn these to CD-Rs (not DVD-Rs).

When you’re ready to install, put in CD #1. When you restart, hold down the Option key until a screen comes up, showing the icons for all of the hard drives and optical discs which are bootable. In your case, you should see both your OS 9 drive and the CD icon with CD #1 of the 4-disc Tiger CD install. Wait for the pointer to appear and then click to select the CD.

Let us know how it goes!

I just burnt a cd and gave it a go now, unfortunately no change. it's so strange, it looks like it's about to come up with the installer screen and then just turns off. Maybe it's some sort of problem with the dvd drive, but I was able to install OS 9 on a cd just fine.