iMac G4 hangs on booting

[Wouter3]

I am running Tiger on an iMac G4, 800 MHz with ! GB of RAM. I tried to install Leopard and as the clockspeed is 800 MHZ I ran LeopardAssist first. It had inserted the Leopard DVD and the LeopardAssist requested to boot. That didn't work wel and it ejected the DVD. I then tried to startup de G4, but now it comes up with the grey screen and Apple logo. I cannot do anything else. I cannot open the DVD tray. When I try startup with the R key, the same grey screen comes up. I cannot even reinstall Tiger as I cannot open the DVD/CD tray. When I poush the eject button, nothing happens.

How can I get out of this deadlock? Any suggestions. Thanks, Wouter

 

[Project Alice]

I am running Tiger on an iMac G4, 800 MHz with ! GB of RAM. I tried to install Leopard and as the clockspeed is 800 MHZ I ran LeopardAssist first. It had inserted the Leopard DVD and the LeopardAssist requested to boot. That didn't work wel and it ejected the DVD. I then tried to startup de G4, but now it comes up with the grey screen and Apple logo. I cannot do anything else. I cannot open the DVD tray. When I try startup with the R key, the same grey screen comes up. I cannot even reinstall Tiger as I cannot open the DVD/CD tray. When I poush the eject button, nothing happens.

How can I get out of this deadlock? Any suggestions. Thanks, Wouter

To eject the DVD, start up the computer while holding down the mouse button, it should force an eject. I'm not aware of holding R doing anything on a PPC mac. Another trick I've learned if that doesn't work is to startup while holding option to get to the boot chooser, and once it's finished loading (the wristwatch will change to the normal cursor) press CMD (apple) + E and the tray should open.

What kind of leopard DVD is this? Is it retail? Did it come from the macintosh garden? If it is one of the reduced leopard images for a single layer DVD, those are pretty problematic.

 

[Wouter3]

To eject the DVD, start up the computer while holding down the mouse button, it should force an eject. I'm not aware of holding R doing anything on a PPC mac. Another trick I've learned if that doesn't work is to startup while holding option to get to the boot chooser, and once it's finished loading (the wristwatch will change to the normal cursor) press CMD (apple) + E and the tray should open.

What kind of leopard DVD is this? Is it retail? Did it come from the macintosh garden? If it is one of the reduced leopard images for a single layer DVD, those are pretty problematic.

Thanks Alice. Holding down the mouse button did not do much. Holding down the option button brought me in a screen which showed the harddisc with a red cross. When I pushed the option with a little arrow to the right it went on and started normally. So my OS X is still working.

The leopard DVD is a copy from the original and I bought it cheaply on the Internet. When I put it into my G4 it spits it out after some checking. On my new iMac I can read it. It shows all the Leopard installer files/icons
[doublepost=1557691298][/doublepost]I tried again to use the Leopard DVD. First ran AssistLeopard, then rebooted. It takes a while but then I get the message "blocksize discrepancy. ATAPI-Disk apend disklabel failed. can't open cd:,\\:tbx1. I then had to shut down and reboot without the disk. Now fortunately it booted up normally. I am suspecting the DVD to contain Intel based Leopard and not PowerPC base. I will have to contact the seller again.

 

[Project Alice]

Thanks Alice. Holding down the mouse button did not do much. Holding down the option button brought me in a screen which showed the harddisc with a red cross. When I pushed the option with a little arrow to the right it went on and started normally. So my OS X is still working.

The leopard DVD is a copy from the original and I bought it cheaply on the Internet. When I put it into my G4 it spits it out after some checking. On my new iMac I can read it. It shows all the Leopard installer files/icons
[doublepost=1557691298][/doublepost]I tried again to use the Leopard DVD. First ran AssistLeopard, then rebooted. It takes a while but then I get the message "blocksize discrepancy. ATAPI-Disk apend disklabel failed. can't open cd:,\\:tbx1. I then had to shut down and reboot without the disk. Now fortunately it booted up normally. I am suspecting the DVD to contain Intel based Leopard and not PowerPC base. I will have to contact the seller again.

If the original was the "Outer Space" disc with the retail box, it would be universal. If it was gray, that would have came with a specific mac; and Leopard only shipped like that on intel macs. But from the issues you're describing I would put my money on it just being a bad copy.

Go to the Macintosh Garden to download a new image, burn it to a dual layer DVD-R. At a slower speed would be best. In the link I've provided you'll want download #32.

 

[Wouter3]

I talked to the vendor and he assured me thta his DVD works for both architectures. I therefore think that my DVD drive is not a dual layer. The vendor will now send me a dmg file which, after storing on a USB sitck, I should be able to run from my iMac G4. Hope this works. Otherwise I should install a dual layer dvd player

 

[Project Alice]

I talked to the vendor and he assured me thta his DVD works for both architectures. I therefore think that my DVD drive is not a dual layer. The vendor will now send me a dmg file which, after storing on a USB sitck, I should be able to run from my iMac G4. Hope this works. Otherwise I should install a dual layer dvd player

All DVD drives can read DL discs. Just not write to them unless they specify. If you have a DVD drive, it can read the Leopard DVD. I would refrain from using whatever the seller has and just use the one in the link I've provided. That is a known working image and is what all of us in this community use as our source.

 

[Wouter3]

OK. I am downloading image 32. Will probably take a while. With which program can I burn it to a DVD? I have a separate apple superdrive, but never used it for burning CD or DVD's

 

[Project Alice]

OK. I am downloading image 32. Will probably take a while. With which program can I burn it to a DVD? I have a separate apple superdrive, but never used it for burning CD or DVD's

You can use any that you like. If you're using a Mac the built in image writer would suffice. For Windows, I recommend imgburn.

I also thought I'd mention that if you happen to have another PPC mac, OR a Leopard capable Intel Mac; that you could start the iMac in target disc mode, with it connected to the other mac via a FireWire cable and use the other mac to install Leopard to the iMac's internal drive normally. Once installed, Leopard needs no tricks to boot on "unsupported" G4s. Just make sure the drive stays formatted Apple Partition Map if an intel Mac is the source.
Target disk mode is enabled by starting up holding "T" or by selecting it in the startup disk control panel in system prefs.

 

[Wouter3]

I just found how to burn on my iMac. I will burn the plain .iso image to the dvd.
The other option you were talking about I read as well, but therefore I need to buy a Thunderbolt 2 to firewire adapter (±$50) and then a firewirecable 9-pins to 6-pins. I first try the dvd burning option. Thanks for you advise and the reference to the Mactintosh garden. Best Regards, Wouter

 

[z970]

Go to the Macintosh Garden to download a new image, burn it to a dual layer DVD-R. At a slower speed would be best.

Just want to put this out there, but I've found that you don't even need to burn it to disc if you don't have any spares around.

All you have to do is make a new partition in another Mac, restore the Leopard image to that, hook up the two Macs with a FireWire cable, boot up the Mac with the Leopard installer partition holding T, boot up the Mac to have Leopard installed with Opt (Alt), and select the Leopard install partition located on the serving Mac.

Faster and more convenient than burning to disc. Not to mention less wasteful.

 

[Wouter3]

Just want to put this out there, but I've found that you don't even need to burn it to disc if you don't have any spares around.

All you have to do is make a new partition in another Mac, restore the Leopard image to that, hook up the two Macs with a FireWire cable, boot up the Mac with the Leopard installer partition holding T, boot up the Mac to have Leopard installed with Opt (Alt), and select the Leopard install partition located on the serving Mac.

Faster and more convenient than burning to disc. Not to mention less wasteful.

Thanks, Project Alice already alluded to that. My problem with that is that I have on my newer iMac only Thunderbolt 2. A Thunderbolt 2 to Firewire (9-pins) costs around $50. Then I need a firewire cable 9-pins to 6-pins. I will first look into disk burning. I found a few DVD's (DVD+R double layer) in a dark corner of my attic, so I will try that first. Although I find it strange that the dual layer disk I have with Leopard on it is readable on my new iMac with superdrive but not on my old iMac G4.

 

[Wouter3]

I burned Leopard on a DVD, but my iMac G4 could not boot from it. Same as what happened wit the disk I bought earlier. So it must be the dual layer problem. I have an early version of the iMac G4 with CD that can read DVD.

I am now looking into an option withe the install file in a dmg package that is offered by the seller of my earlier version. If that doesn't work, my next option is to go for the firewire solution.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

All DVD drives can read DL discs. Just not write to them unless they specify. If you have a DVD drive, it can read the Leopard DVD. I would refrain from using whatever the seller has and just use the one in the link I've provided. That is a known working image and is what all of us in this community use as our source.

Also to be aware, if it is a burned DVD, be aware that there are two different burned DVD standards. DVD-R (dee eve dee dash arr) and DVD+R (dee eve dee plus arr.) Most DVD drives made since about 2003-2004 can read both just fine, and most since about 2006 can write both just fine. Early on, Apple backed DVD-R exclusively. And DVD-R was designed as part of the original DVD specification, so even the very earliest 1x DVD-ROM drives can read a DVD-R or DVD-R DL disc just fine. (Although rewritable DVD-RWs were *NOT*, the original DVD standard's "rewritable" format was DVD-RAM) DVD+R was designed to be more "computer friendly," with rewriting part of the initial standard, and is NOT 100% backward compatible. Early DVD-ROM drives, and even many early DVD-R drives, have difficulties reading DVD+R discs, or won't read them at all. Especially DVD+R DL on a pre-DL-burning DVD-ROM/DVD-R drive. If the disc you have is a burned DVD, check if it has a "DVD+R" or "DVD-R" logo on it. DVD-R's logo is the conventional "DVD" logo, with a small "R" (or "R DL" for dual-layer) underneath. DVD+R's logo is a big boxy "RW" with "DVD+R" or "DVD+R DL" underneath.

If it's a commercially-pressed DVD, this won't matter.

 

[Wouter3]

Also to be aware, if it is a burned DVD, be aware that there are two different burned DVD standards. DVD-R (dee eve dee dash arr) and DVD+R (dee eve dee plus arr.) Most DVD drives made since about 2003-2004 can read both just fine, and most since about 2006 can write both just fine. Early on, Apple backed DVD-R exclusively. And DVD-R was designed as part of the original DVD specification, so even the very earliest 1x DVD-ROM drives can read a DVD-R or DVD-R DL disc just fine. (Although rewritable DVD-RWs were *NOT*, the original DVD standard's "rewritable" format was DVD-RAM) DVD+R was designed to be more "computer friendly," with rewriting part of the initial standard, and is NOT 100% backward compatible. Early DVD-ROM drives, and even many early DVD-R drives, have difficulties reading DVD+R discs, or won't read them at all. Especially DVD+R DL on a pre-DL-burning DVD-ROM/DVD-R drive. If the disc you have is a burned DVD, check if it has a "DVD+R" or "DVD-R" logo on it. DVD-R's logo is the conventional "DVD" logo, with a small "R" (or "R DL" for dual-layer) underneath. DVD+R's logo is a big boxy "RW" with "DVD+R" or "DVD+R DL" underneath.

If it's a commercially-pressed DVD, this won't matter.

Good evening "Anonymous Freak. In your location it must be late at night. Here in Europe it is almost 10 in the morning. From your explanation above I deduct that my dvd-drive is an early one that can only handle DVD-R. The disc that I burned is a DVD+R (the only ones I have). I could be worth looking for burnable DVD-R disc.
[doublepost=1557734838][/doublepost]I just saw that the dvd-R available only have storage capacity of 4.7 GB, which is insufficient for my .iso image

 

[Hughmac]

I have a 10.5.6 disc slipstreamed onto a single layer DVD if it helps.

Languages other than English and printers have been stripped out, but it does work.

I also have a stack of Maxell DVD-R blanks, so I could write one and post it to you.

Cheers

Hugh

 

[Project Alice]

Also to be aware, if it is a burned DVD, be aware that there are two different burned DVD standards. DVD-R (dee eve dee dash arr) and DVD+R (dee eve dee plus arr.) Most DVD drives made since about 2003-2004 can read both just fine, and most since about 2006 can write both just fine. Early on, Apple backed DVD-R exclusively. And DVD-R was designed as part of the original DVD specification, so even the very earliest 1x DVD-ROM drives can read a DVD-R or DVD-R DL disc just fine. (Although rewritable DVD-RWs were *NOT*, the original DVD standard's "rewritable" format was DVD-RAM) DVD+R was designed to be more "computer friendly," with rewriting part of the initial standard, and is NOT 100% backward compatible. Early DVD-ROM drives, and even many early DVD-R drives, have difficulties reading DVD+R discs, or won't read them at all. Especially DVD+R DL on a pre-DL-burning DVD-ROM/DVD-R drive. If the disc you have is a burned DVD, check if it has a "DVD+R" or "DVD-R" logo on it. DVD-R's logo is the conventional "DVD" logo, with a small "R" (or "R DL" for dual-layer) underneath. DVD+R's logo is a big boxy "RW" with "DVD+R" or "DVD+R DL" underneath.

If it's a commercially-pressed DVD, this won't matter.

This is why I specified using "DVD-R" in my previous post about burning the disc. This could almost certainly be your problem.

I would've bet my life that I've owned DVD-R DLs, but I can't find any trace of them online so maybe I'm mistaken.
I am surprised that the iMac G4 won't read +Rs though, so far the only thing I've found that doesn't like +Rs are computers back to the iMac G3 early graphite G4 era. iMac G4s are rather new by those standards.
As I have a million PPC macs I just have an external FW drive with both Tiger and Leopard installs on so I haven't bothered to burn a Mac OS install disc in quite awhile.

I would either try the single layer image from a known working source, or create a partition on your internal drive and restore the image to it. The single layer images have had mixed results with different users.

Of course, you could always buy retail Leopard on eBay, though a bit pricey.

If you plan to keep the iMac, and even end up with more PPC macs, I would recommend you get an external FW drive and do what I do. Its much less headache.

 

[Dronecatcher]

There's a few guides online how to take the full Leopard install image and slice it up to fit on a single layer DVD-R.

There's also the chance your optical drive has had it - I've lost 8 in recent years - Mac and PC, all from the 2000 - 2005 period. Some of them are useless, whilst some still work with CDs and the odd retail DVD.

 

[Wouter3]

I have a 10.5.6 disc slipstreamed onto a single layer DVD if it helps.

Languages other than English and printers have been stripped out, but it does work.

I also have a stack of Maxell DVD-R blanks, so I could write one and post it to you.

Cheers

Hugh

Hello Hugh, that would be very helpful if you could do that. I would be happy to pay you the costs and postage using Paypal. Tell me when you manage to burn one and I give you my address in the Netherlands. Hope you can send me a payment link via Paypal. Best Regards, Wouter
[doublepost=1557769561][/doublepost]

This is why I specified using "DVD-R" in my previous post about burning the disc. This could almost certainly be your problem.

I would've bet my life that I've owned DVD-R DLs, but I can't find any trace of them online so maybe I'm mistaken.
I am surprised that the iMac G4 won't read +Rs though, so far the only thing I've found that doesn't like +Rs are computers back to the iMac G3 early graphite G4 era. iMac G4s are rather new by those standards.
As I have a million PPC macs I just have an external FW drive with both Tiger and Leopard installs on so I haven't bothered to burn a Mac OS install disc in quite awhile.

I would either try the single layer image from a known working source, or create a partition on your internal drive and restore the image to it. The single layer images have had mixed results with different users.

Of course, you could always buy retail Leopard on eBay, though a bit pricey.

If you plan to keep the iMac, and even end up with more PPC macs, I would recommend you get an external FW drive and do what I do. Its much less headache.

An external firewire DVD drive is a good idea. Can you boot the iMac G4 from an external firewire drive and which one you would recommend? I have an external Apple superdrive but that has a usb interface and cannot be used as a boot device unfortunately.

 

[Hughmac]

Hello Hugh, that would be very helpful if you could do that. I would be happy to pay you the costs and postage using Paypal. Tell me when you manage to burn one and I give you my address in the Netherlands. Hope you can send me a payment link via Paypal. Best Regards, Wouter
[doublepost=1557769561][/doublepost]
An external firewire DVD drive is a good idea. Can you boot the iMac G4 from an external firewire drive and which one you would recommend? I have an external Apple superdrive but that has a usb interface and cannot be used as a boot device unfortunately.

I will run a DVD off tomorrow and let you know if it boots OK on my PowerBook G4. This is 10.5.6 but I think I have a CD with the 10.5.8 update on
One thing, it takes 20 minutes to half an hour to boot, no idea why but that info. is included in the documentation.

I have my Carbon Copy Cloner backups on an external firewire drive which boots on all Macs with firewire, and it has proved very useful if your system becomes borked.

Cheers

Hugh

 

[Wouter3]

There's a few guides online how to take the full Leopard install image and slice it up to fit on a single layer DVD-R.

There's also the chance your optical drive has had it - I've lost 8 in recent years - Mac and PC, all from the 2000 - 2005 period. Some of them are useless, whilst some still work with CDs and the odd retail DVD.

I bought this iMac only recently, so I don't know the reliability of the drive. I installed Tiger using CD's which worked flawless. I dumped all my dvd movies so I cannot check the working of the drive for reading dvd. Would you have link to a good guide to slice up Leopard. Might be interesting to do some slicing myself

 

[Project Alice]

Hello Hugh, that would be very helpful if you could do that. I would be happy to pay you the costs and postage using Paypal. Tell me when you manage to burn one and I give you my address in the Netherlands. Hope you can send me a payment link via Paypal. Best Regards, Wouter
[doublepost=1557769561][/doublepost]
An external firewire DVD drive is a good idea. Can you boot the iMac G4 from an external firewire drive and which one you would recommend? I have an external Apple superdrive but that has a usb interface and cannot be used as a boot device unfortunately.

I have an external FW Hard Drive, not optical drive. I have full installations as well as the Install DVDs, on one Hard Drive. However, An external optical drive would work as well.
All Macs that have built-in firewire excluding the B&W G3, and PCI graphics (Yikes!) G4, can boot from FireWire. Even those two models can with some open-firmware coaxing.

As you know USB will not work. You can coax USB to boot on some PPC macs, but it is hit or miss and I have never been able to get it to work with Mac OS, only Linux. Personally I avoid the USB ports on my iMac G4 at all costs because all the earlier models are USB 1.1.

Other than that I don't think there's any more useful info I have, the three of us on here seem to have covered everything. Let us know how it goes and if there are any more issues. I always check mac rumors when I have free time.
[doublepost=1557771720][/doublepost]

I bought this iMac only recently, so I don't know the reliability of the drive. I installed Tiger using CD's which worked flawless. I dumped all my dvd movies so I cannot check the working of the drive for reading dvd. Would you have link to a good guide to slice up Leopard. Might be interesting to do some slicing myself

You could download the single layer DVD from the macintosh garden link I posted earlier in the thread. It is probably the same one that @Hughmac is using. I haven't ever used the single layer one so I can't provide personal experience there.

 

[Hughmac]

Yes, the single layer DVD is #35 in the Macintosh Garden link, but I'm not sure where mine came from

I also have a firewire DVD writer but could never get it to boot anything.

Cheers

Hugh

 

[Wouter3]

Yes, the single layer DVD is #35 in the Macintosh Garden link, but I'm not sure where mine came from

I also have a firewire DVD writer but could never get it to boot anything.

Cheers

Hugh

#35 has an .cdr extention. How can you boot from that? Should it not have an .iso extention?

 

[Hughmac]

I think you need to use Disk Utility to restore the image.
Somebody will correct me if I'm wrong.

Cheers

Hugh

 

[Project Alice]

I think you need to use Disk Utility to restore the image.
Somebody will correct me if I'm wrong.

Cheers

Hugh

CDR is ISO. you can just burn it. Or rename it. But if what you're doing is burning it, itll work as is.

Yes, the single layer DVD is #35 in the Macintosh Garden link, but I'm not sure where mine came from

I also have a firewire DVD writer but could never get it to boot anything.

Cheers

Hugh

There are some FireWire devices that like to be picky with booting PPC macs. In all my life I've only found one to be problematic - my OWC mercury elite pro enclosure. The older the better as far enclosures go for booting on these things. Most of them you see on ebay should work.