G4 Cube and Leopard Assist - HELP PLEASE!!!

[Graham Bell]

HI there - HELP! I've have a G4 Cube with a 450mhz and 1.5Gb RAM. it was running 10.3 but would like 10.5, so i loaded LeopardAssist onto it and ran it. restarted ready for Leopard install and.... nothing. blank screen. constant blank screen. it's running, but by the sound of it doesn't get very far in to the boot up. I have done the PRAMS, unplugged and held down the power key, tried booting with shift key down - all the usual stuff. I would boot from a disc but this cube have only got the CD/R drive and i don't have a firewire DVD drive to plug in. should I take it apart and reset the PMU? looks tricky. would that help? Have I ruined it?

right now happy to go back 10.3 just want it running!!! I have got a 10.4 disk i could use if i could boot from - but that's not worked from the USB DVD drive i have (even before this problem), which i believe won't work for a reboot - is that right? HELP PLEASE?!!!

 

[RogerWilco6502]

Ok, so first, Leopard wasn't ever distributed on CD, so there wouldn't be any way for you to install it if you have a CD drive in there. Secondly, I have no experience with LeopardAssist (only ever used the OF hack), but I would suggest burning yourself a CD of some known-compatible Mac OS version (or the Apple Hardware Test disc if you think that might help) and see where that gets you.

Also, does it bong at least? If it does, that means that there hasn't been a hardware failure so great so as to prevent it from POSTing.

 

[Graham Bell]

Ok, so first, Leopard wasn't ever distributed on CD, so there wouldn't be any way for you to install it if you have a CD drive in there. Secondly, I have no experience with LeopardAssist (only ever used the OF hack), but I would suggest burning yourself a CD of some known-compatible Mac OS version (or the Apple Hardware Test disc if you think that might help) and see where that gets you.

Also, does it bong at least? If it does, that means that there hasn't been a hardware failure so great so as to prevent it from POSTing.

thanks for the reply, can't Tell if it boings, as don;t have the cube-specific speakers which is annoying.

 

[RogerWilco6502]

thanks for the reply, can't Tell if it boings, as don;t have the cube-specific speakers which is annoying.

No problem and ok. I hope this works out for you.

 

[eyoungren]

I had something similar happen when I tried to use LeopardAssist to install Leopard on my 500mhz G4. Restarted and got a blank screen. Left it for a while, no change.

I rebooted it and it rebooted into Open Firmware where I told it to continue boot and then it went right back into the old Tiger install.

At that point, I said "the hell with it" and pulled the drive, put it in my dock and attached that to the G5 I have next to it. Installed Leopard that way. But the firmware commands for the CPU and such had not cleared so I eventually had to reset PRAM for that.

Is the Cube capable of Target Disk Mode? If so, and you have another Mac that can boot from Leopard (even if it's Intel) I'd try installing Leopard that way. Your data is still there, you haven't lost anything.

 

[Graham Bell]

i'm worried i've screwed the firmware. could that be the case?

 

[RogerWilco6502]

i'm worried i've screwed the firmware. could that be the case?

Well, it is a very common procedure to do this, so I'd be surprised if the firmware has been messed up. It is always possible something went awry however. I'd go with the advice given by @eyoungren , as those are good troubleshooting tips.

 

[eyoungren]

i'm worried i've screwed the firmware. could that be the case?

No.

Reset PRAM. That's all it takes to revert to stock settings. Be sure to do it properly though, keep holding down CMD+OPTN+P+R until the Mac has chimed at least three times (not including the first boot chime).

 

[Graham Bell]

So i've now tried booting from a 10.2 Jaguar CD disk (it swallowed the disk), resetting PRAM 3 times, opening up and resetting the CUDA/PMU button, removing the PRAM battery for a few seconds, even tried connecting a usb DVD drive via a USB/Firewire converter no joy there at all. Unless any one has any good ideas, i guess the last roll of the dice is the afore mentioned target disk mode, however that'll have until after the lockdown to borrow back my old G4 Powerbook from my uncle (not used in years) to boot it from, as don't want to use any of my more modern business critical macs.

 

[RogerWilco6502]

So i've now tried booting from a 10.2 Jaguar CD disk (it swallowed the disk), resetting PRAM 3 times, opening up and resetting the CUDA/PMU button, removing the PRAM battery for a few seconds, even tried connecting a usb DVD drive via a USB/Firewire converter no joy there at all. Unless any one has any good ideas, i guess the last roll of the dice is the afore mentioned target disk mode, however that'll have until after the lockdown to borrow back my old G4 Powerbook from my uncle (not used in years) to boot it from, as don't want to use any of my more modern business critical macs.

The USB to Firewire converter likely wouldn't work no matter what, as they're completely different protocols. TDM will be a good way to see if it's a hardware failure that is causing your issues. It very well could be just a well-timed coincidence where hardware failed right as you did this.

 

[Graham Bell]

FINALLY got it restarted. Held down the D key, and it all came back - still in 10.3.

Looks like it didn't what to boot from, as having run leopardAssist it assumed i was installing from an install disk which it then couldn't find. simple answer in the end. with the lack of a suitable DVD drive, I think Target Disk Mode will be the way to get it sorted into 10.4 and forget 10.5 all toether.