iMac G3 Unstable

[Qrani]

Recently, I got an iMac G3. I put in a new HDD (80GB), and installed Mac OS 9.2.2. It kept freezing on the installer, but now that I got it installed, it's extremely unstable. The Mac OS Setup Assistant crashed while I was going through it, and just doing basic tasks like changing settings or using the GUI cause the system to spontaneously freeze. I'm going to try to install a fan, and remove some dust, but why is it so unusable?

 

[Amethyst1]

Maybe the RAM is faulty.

 

[Qrani]

What kind of SIMMs or DIMMs does it use?

 

[1042686]

It depends on your iMac. Tray loaders used laptop pc66 dimms iirc & slot loaders used full sized pc100 dimms. Both can use up to pc133 but will clock down.

Are you sure the optical drive isn’t on its way out? It might’ve worked enough to install but left errors.

Did you set up the install as universal w OS9 drivers? You can do that or use the customized universal 9.2.2 install over at macos9lives. There are many OS9 images made with slight differences specific to various models. I have an orange iMac DV restore disc that my tray loader Hates - works great on a iMac DV. I also have a universal OS9 disc image that always freezes up on a QS & MDD. The OS9lives universal installs fine on them all. It’s a useful tool to have in the toolbox.

As you suspect heat, make sure you take the time to pop off the cpu heat sink, clean off the old gunky thermal paste and apply Fresh arctic silver. That TP is 20 years old & completely useless.

 

[Qrani]

Also, it runs just fine in Mac OS X, without any freezing, errors, or any issues at all.

 

[1042686]

In that case I think it is the build of OS9 you’re using.

 

[Gustav Pihl Bohlin]

Recently, I got an iMac G3. I put in a new HDD (80GB), and installed Mac OS 9.2.2. It kept freezing on the installer, but now that I got it installed, it's extremely unstable. The Mac OS Setup Assistant crashed while I was going through it, and just doing basic tasks like changing settings or using the GUI cause the system to spontaneously freeze. I'm going to try to install a fan, and remove some dust, but why is it so unusable?

Hey Qrani, I have the same problem on my slot loader (700MHz SE) I think. It freezes, usually while booting after loading the first extension, but sometimes it succeeds and it freezes after a few minutes of use. If the computer has been unplugged for a while it usually works longer. When the computer is opened up and upside down, it works much better, but it is EXTREMELY warm. The silver heatsink on the bottom of the logic board (chipset heatsink?) is so warm that it burns my finger in 1 second. Did you solve your problem by installing a fan? I'm considering installing a fan and changing the HDD to an SSD (hopefully SSDs are colder).

 

[Slix]

So this is actually something I experienced with my G3 B&W Mac, and it turned out to be a mouse issue. The mouse had a frayed wire so it would occasionally short and disconnect and reconnect with the Mac, but for some reason in OS 9 it never recovered from this issue and would freeze the system. I eventually figured it out since OS X worked just fine, but it would stop moving the mouse sometimes there. Replacing the mouse has prevented this issue from coming back at all.

@Qrani Did you ever fix the issue?