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G4 Quicksilver won't boot, from DVD or HD
- Thread starter jasperaustin
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With ATA hard drives you must have the jumpers set correctly. Verify that both are on cable select.
Yeah, I thought of that too, but they've been set awhile now. That said, I suppose my fingers could have slipped while I was pulling out the plugs and I inadvertently knocked a jumper off. I'll check tomorrow.
Might be a drive issue. Because it's not a jumper issue.
http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/...cuda7200pm.pdf
I've got one jumper on the master, 7&8, and zero on the slave, the way it should be according to the above pdf.
Thing is, why would the bad drive affect the other drive?
I can live with this. The slave dr
http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/...cuda7200pm.pdf
I've got one jumper on the master, 7&8, and zero on the slave, the way it should be according to the above pdf.
Thing is, why would the bad drive affect the other drive?
I can live with this. The slave dr
I guess I got cut off... I can live with just the one drive working, as the slave is backed up and I only use the Quicksilver to run an old version of Pro Tools (I've since moved on to Logic). But I'd really like to know what's causing this.
Drives fail in different ways, and I've seen a bad one really mess up the entire bus.
Something else interesting-I was playing with an MDD a little while back and found that-regardless of OS(it has 3 or 4 versions of OS X along with OS 9) I would get a hard freeze within a couple of minutes of booting.
Somewhere along the way, I'd(I think intentionally-maybe not) disabled one of the HDDs. Normally, when I do this-especially if I intend it to be temporary-I will pull the data cable on the drive and leave the power plugged in. For whatever reason(don't ask what I was thinking), I'd pulled the power plug but not the data cable. I spent a long time switching around HDD busses(the MDD has three ATA busses) but the problem was recurring-the boot drive I was trying to use was on the bus that had this problem.
Once I pulled the data cable, everything was perfect. In fact, the computer is a speed demon in OS 9-the single 1.25 MDD is considered by some to be the "gold standard" OS 9 computer.
Something else interesting-I was playing with an MDD a little while back and found that-regardless of OS(it has 3 or 4 versions of OS X along with OS 9) I would get a hard freeze within a couple of minutes of booting.
Somewhere along the way, I'd(I think intentionally-maybe not) disabled one of the HDDs. Normally, when I do this-especially if I intend it to be temporary-I will pull the data cable on the drive and leave the power plugged in. For whatever reason(don't ask what I was thinking), I'd pulled the power plug but not the data cable. I spent a long time switching around HDD busses(the MDD has three ATA busses) but the problem was recurring-the boot drive I was trying to use was on the bus that had this problem.
Once I pulled the data cable, everything was perfect. In fact, the computer is a speed demon in OS 9-the single 1.25 MDD is considered by some to be the "gold standard" OS 9 computer.
Apple must of agreed with that statement as they sold the 2003 single 1.25 MDD for a little while alongside the G5s for customers who wanted OS 9.
Interesting stuff, Bunnspecial. I wonder what would happen with the opposite, the data cable out but the power plug still in?
It works fine.
Then I wondered — what would happen if I plugged in the data cable upside down. So I did it. Guess what. Back to the original problem. Freeze before it goes to the startup blue, freeze on the TechTool app right after it boots from the disc. And before you guys think I'm a total idiot, I remember now that to get the data cable in right side up, I had to twist it — totally counterintuitive of what you'd think.
Here's a review:
• With the cables out of the slave drive, it boots up to the master hard drive. With the power plug left in but no data cable plugged in, it starts up fine on the master drive.
• With the data cable to the slave plugged in without twisting the cable (what looks like right side up) I get a blank screen and while I can boot into TechTool, it shows zero hard drives.
• Finally, when I turn the data cable over and plug it in (which looks like wrong side up) the computer starts to boot and freezes right before it goes into the start-up screen. It also freezes when booting from the DVD.
Weird.
It works fine.
Then I wondered — what would happen if I plugged in the data cable upside down. So I did it. Guess what. Back to the original problem. Freeze before it goes to the startup blue, freeze on the TechTool app right after it boots from the disc. And before you guys think I'm a total idiot, I remember now that to get the data cable in right side up, I had to twist it — totally counterintuitive of what you'd think.
Here's a review:
• With the cables out of the slave drive, it boots up to the master hard drive. With the power plug left in but no data cable plugged in, it starts up fine on the master drive.
• With the data cable to the slave plugged in without twisting the cable (what looks like right side up) I get a blank screen and while I can boot into TechTool, it shows zero hard drives.
• Finally, when I turn the data cable over and plug it in (which looks like wrong side up) the computer starts to boot and freezes right before it goes into the start-up screen. It also freezes when booting from the DVD.
Weird.
To eyoungren — Good suggestion. I think replacing the ribbon cable is worth a shot, especially since the one I have had to be twisted all these years to fit properly. I'll do that and follow-up with the result here.
That said, it'll likely take me a week or two to scare one up.
That said, it'll likely take me a week or two to scare one up.
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BTW I meant to ask you this last time you mentioned it, but why is the single 1.25 better than the dual? I don't doubt that you are correct, just curious.
I don't think it actually is...it's just that most of the time in OS 9 the second processor sits there and doesn't do anything. Of course, there are programs that use both processors(Photoshop for one) but the OS itself doesn't split tasks between the two like OS X does.
In my experience, the single 1.25s are a lot easier to find than dual 1.25s, and of course a FW800 dual 1.25 won't(natively) boot into OS 9.
Update: Replaced the cable. Same problem still. Must be the drive. I ordered an external enclosure. Should get here in about a week. Will update when I test the drive externally.
Okay, the problem is solved — something was physically wrong with the drive.
I got an external enclosure I bought on eBay, took the drive out of the G4 and ran it to my MacMini as an external USB, and yes, the drive was messed up.
With Disk Warrior I was able to save the one thing on the disk I didn't even know was there but wanted to keep, an old recording session. I was able to save that, then I erased the disc completely, ran TechTool Pro and found that, yes, there are bad blocks, but the drive is still 90 percent workable.
So mystery solved... I had a bad drive on the G4, physically, not just a software problem, but it wasn't so bad it couldn't be salvaged. Thanks for the help.
I learned two things — 1) If you have a bad slave drive, it can mess up the boot drive and 2) I'm done with IDE/ATA drives. Time to get rid of the G4.
BTW, I posted this problem to three forums, and this one by far was the most helpful.
I got an external enclosure I bought on eBay, took the drive out of the G4 and ran it to my MacMini as an external USB, and yes, the drive was messed up.
With Disk Warrior I was able to save the one thing on the disk I didn't even know was there but wanted to keep, an old recording session. I was able to save that, then I erased the disc completely, ran TechTool Pro and found that, yes, there are bad blocks, but the drive is still 90 percent workable.
So mystery solved... I had a bad drive on the G4, physically, not just a software problem, but it wasn't so bad it couldn't be salvaged. Thanks for the help.
I learned two things — 1) If you have a bad slave drive, it can mess up the boot drive and 2) I'm done with IDE/ATA drives. Time to get rid of the G4.
BTW, I posted this problem to three forums, and this one by far was the most helpful.
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Not necessarily. My G4 Quicksilver has two 1TB hard drives, both SATA. I flashed a $10 PC SATA card from eBay.
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Using IDE drives in a computer is rather simple when it works. It is just an older technology that was more dependent on both sides working right than modern technology (SATA) is. Just like how older cars had carburetors that were simpler in nature but posed more problems when they did not work right compared to fuel injection...
So I got all the hard drives from my G4 working fine on the external enclosure. Eraseed one of them, put it in the G4 so I can install a brand new Tiger system — and the computer can't recognize the hard drive. I try again, setting the jumpers from master to slave, then on cable select. Nothing, nothing, nothing.
Then I think, hmm. Why don't I try it out wit this brand new IDE Ultra ATA cable I bought but never used?
And that was the winner. So I had two things wrong with my G4 — a corrupt slave drive (since fixed) and a worn IDE cable that apparently worked intermittently, for awhile, and the not at all after a while longer.
I'm putting the new system on my G4's HD as I write this. Then I'm selling the damn thing. It served me well, but I like my MacMini (Late 2012) with the 2.3 GHz Intel Core I7, the 16 GB of memory, and the 512GB SSD much, much better.
That said, the Quicksilver 2002 was probably the best looking Mac I ever had (the 8600 was also pretty cool) and a great workhorse. Got a lot of great audio recordings made on that puppy.
Cheers.
Then I think, hmm. Why don't I try it out wit this brand new IDE Ultra ATA cable I bought but never used?
And that was the winner. So I had two things wrong with my G4 — a corrupt slave drive (since fixed) and a worn IDE cable that apparently worked intermittently, for awhile, and the not at all after a while longer.
I'm putting the new system on my G4's HD as I write this. Then I'm selling the damn thing. It served me well, but I like my MacMini (Late 2012) with the 2.3 GHz Intel Core I7, the 16 GB of memory, and the 512GB SSD much, much better.
That said, the Quicksilver 2002 was probably the best looking Mac I ever had (the 8600 was also pretty cool) and a great workhorse. Got a lot of great audio recordings made on that puppy.
Cheers.
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