iMac g3 problem??!!??

[iPhil]

iMac g3

I don't know if that's possible, I think it has to be running an OS because the firmware updater is a Mac OS application. So, install any OS on it that will run, update the firmware, wipe and install whatever OS you want.

Mk,

Is alex right that could do that after the update, because i dont wanna erase an OS and screw it up and have tiger wont install.. its my windows mindset, @ M$ft for brainwashing the 95%..

thanks,
iphil

 

[iPhil]

iMac g3

Since i gotta install Mac OS 9.2 to do firmware update 4.1.9 .. How much Harddrive space does 9.2 use ?







Edit: since i only got 12Gb harddrive in the iMac,i wanna try use all the drive

 

[mklos]

You can either choose to keep OS 9 or get rid of it after the firmware update. Mac OS 9 takes up like 300MB. Its a fairly small OS. The only reason to keep it is if you think you're going to use an OS 9 app with it, otherwise just scrap it and put only OS X on it. About 90%+ of Mac apps are OS X apps now so highly doubt you'll ever be using OS 9 except for the firmware update. I haven't used OS 9 in at least 2 years for anything. Personally, I would just scrap OS 9 like I said before, but its up to you.

For future reference, you can upgrade the HD in that iMac to probably at least 30 GB.

Who says Macs aren't upgradable?

 

[iPhil]

iMac g3

You can either choose to keep OS 9 or get rid of it after the firmware update. Mac OS 9 takes up like 300MB. Its a fairly small OS. The only reason to keep it is if you think you're going to use an OS 9 app with it, otherwise just scrap it and put only OS X on it. About 90%+ of Mac apps are OS X apps now so highly doubt you'll ever be using OS 9 except for the firmware update. I haven't used OS 9 in at least 2 years for anything. Personally, I would just scrap OS 9 like I said before, but its up to you.

For future reference, you can upgrade the HD in that iMac to probably at least 30 GB.

Who says Macs aren't upgradable?

i thought that OS 9.2 was more than 300Mbs in size, i was thinking GB+..

Im thinking of upgrading the iMac of harddrive wise via external drives then boot off them, so if the external drive goes, still got the internal one as backup.. I know it has to be "firewire" to be bootable drive.. I know what
'Brand' of drives to get from reading 'ungodly' amount of threads on that topic ... soo i know sum of the products and names of companies to trust because of so many threads on those types of products.. Even im still a n00b
it gets on my nerves too ..

There should b stickie of all the "trusted" companies 'n' products that M.R. group is using/has hands - on experience with..

thanks,
iphil

 

[California]

well I already bought tiger because the iMacs drive was zeroed out,so thats why
i cant do that and i wanna to be up to date ..

Actually i didnt want an "old" version of Mac OS and wanted to see the new features for myself

YOu know, I forgot completely that i have the sonnet upgrade firewire kit for your computer. I think it takes it to 600mhz. I have not installed it -- I think it has some sort of lifetime warranty. If you are interested, let me know. Just sitting here -- yours for small $.

 

[iPhil]

YOu know, I forgot completely that i have the sonnet upgrade firewire kit for your computer. I think it takes it to 600mhz. I have not installed it -- I think it has some sort of lifetime warranty. If you are interested, let me know. Just sitting here -- yours for small $.

thanks, cali but no thanks ..

This iMac is supposed to get my feet wet with Mac OS.. I dont think i'll "need" extra speed "Just" for basic tasks ..

 

[California]

thanks, cali but no thanks ..

This iMac is supposed to get my feet wet with Mac OS.. I dont think i'll "need" extra speed "Just" for basic tasks ..

Oh, forgot that you have firewire. This kit is only for 233/266/333 iMac G3s. Adds firewire port and speed. You don't need it and it wouldn't work for you anyway!

 

[iPhil]

iMac g3

You can either choose to keep OS 9 or get rid of it after the firmware update. Mac OS 9 takes up like 300MB. Its a fairly small OS. The only reason to keep it is if you think you're going to use an OS 9 app with it, otherwise just scrap it and put only OS X on it. About 90%+ of Mac apps are OS X apps now so highly doubt you'll ever be using OS 9 except for the firmware update. I haven't used OS 9 in at least 2 years for anything. Personally, I would just scrap OS 9 like I said before, but its up to you.

For future reference, you can upgrade the HD in that iMac to probably at least 30 GB.

Who says Macs aren't upgradable?

Is there any way to get OS tiger on external monitor,if the iMac crt goes south*?


* ghosting etc ..

iphil

 

[iPhil]

update to iMac g3

got the iMac yesterday afternoon then about 3pm pst (West coast time) ..

After that time mklos helped me so well with OS 9.2.1 install..

I was half - way to 4.1.9 update then system Crash

That was my first OS 9 crash

And last night i loaded tiger, it rocks ... As you guessed it im typing this post on my iMac



thank you all for the help,

iphil

 

[shu82]

Since you have a 333MHz iMac which doesn't have a VGA out port, this will be even more difficult than it was for me. The one I worked like the one iphil has, includes a vga port on the outside of the case. What happens is that when you try to install OS X without doing the firmware update, it fakes the computer into thinking that the filter board is bad. If you call Apple, or take it in to get repaired, they will tell you its bad when actually its not. The key is to get the firmware update installed. Since you're a Mac user who sounds like you've been using Macs for quite a while, you saw that the display didn't turn on, and thus reset the PRAM. Actually, all you did was make things 10x worse by doing that. When I did when I did that is I took the RAM out, unplugged the computer, pressed the CUDA reset switch ONCE which resets the power going into the board and I was able to get the computer to try and boot, and it would boot, but anytime I had to restart I would have to fool around trying to get the computer to boot again. Thats why this is a time consuming process. I was able to use an external display to get OS 9 installed and do the firmware update. The internal display won't kick in until you do the firmware update. This is why you need the external VGA port.

What may (notice "may") work for you, is if you can get ahold of an old Macintosh Display with the old style display connector. I think thats either a 14 or 15 pin connector and will kinda look like the male end of a parallel cable with only 14 or 15 pins in 2 rows only unlike a VGA cable which has 3 rows. When you go to pull the logicboard assembly out of the 333 MHz iMac, you have to take the display connector off and you'll see the connector and what it looks like. So if you can get a display that has that connector on it, and can make it boot from an OS 9 CD then erase the HD and reinstall OS 9.1 (bare min OS for the firmware update), do the firmware update, and then restart the iMac into OS 9 one more time, then shut it down, unplug the external display, and then plug the internal 15" display back in and it should work.

Like I said in my first post, this is a huge pain in the @$$ to get working. Its a wonder Apple didn't get sued over this and a ton of people did the very same thing you did when OS X came out. They did get sued over some G3 processors not working with OS X, but it had nothing to do with this particular problem.

Let me know if you have any problems. You can even use the email address I've provided for iphil if you want.

Sorry to resurrect the dead but I just came out from this world of ***t. I am very happy now, and I want to share how I did it. I got an imac 400 graphite that someone tried and failed to install 10.2 on. Of course the "geniuses" said it was unrepairable for what the computer was worth. The screen was horrible and almost illegible. I saw it did not have a classic folder and remembered something about having to have OS 9 first or this would happen.

I installed os 9.0 and things got better. The screen was readable but everything was blue. So I thought, "well this is a software problem", and immediately zapped the pram. Bad idea! Black screen!

Now here is the trick for everyone stuck at that point with an imac with no vga out. It did not want to even boot properly the first few times. So I unplugged it and let it sit for a while. When I plugged it back in and booted it ; the computer booted but still no screen. I tried to do a hard stop, but by mistake I put it to sleep. When I woke it up, I got a great screen but it was very small. But completely usable.

After that I read about the firmware update. So i had to get this up to 9.1 before I could run it! So I installed 9.1 using the wake from sleep trick every time I had to restart. The firmware update took 5 attempts, but worked like a charm!! I now have a fully function imac ready for more ram and Tiger!

It was a pain in the ass, but well worth the effort. Now I know what I did wrong and how to do it right. There are a million of these things out there that have been screwed up by school IT guys, basically for free. I would encourage anyone with a free few hours to go out and grab one of these and bring it back to life!!! There is also a blueberry one from the same guy with the same problem I am going to fix next!