Inherited Imac w/power PC chip and Leopard: Help with password recovery

[Spaulu]

I have a G5 1.8 ghz Power PC(all in one model- screen, hard drive and disc drive in the side). I am trying to recover or replace the user password, I have tried numerous times to boot up with various key combinations (comd.- S; comd- R; comd- opt- p- r) to no avail. The keyboard seems to be working properly because 'comd- E' will eject a disk, for instance. I have also tried 'option- power button', this gets me to a text page to enter the Firmware password, but that is all. Can anyone explain why the boot- up key combinations aren't working? And what might be done to get them working again.
Thanks in advance!
Sam

 

[1042686]

This user seems to be in a similar situation to you and the posted solution worked for them.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3506318

Good luck.

 

[Eriamjh1138@DAN]

He has an open Firmware lock, not an OSX account password problem.

That’s a bit different than the link.

Google “remove open firmware password” or variations of remove, reset, clear, etc.

(I have no idea if it is possible. I’ve never had this problem.)

 

[Spaulu]

This user seems to be in a similar situation to you and the posted solution worked for them.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3506318

Good luck.

Thanks RhianB,
But my problem is that all of these combinations do not work. The computer just keeps booting up into the OS normally. Although one reply in that thread mentioned removing the DIMM memory and then resetting the PRAM 3 times. Unless anyone has another way I guess I'll try that.
I will let you know if that does it.
Thanks again,
Sam

 

[defjam]

Thanks RhianB,
But my problem is that all of these combinations do not work. The computer just keeps booting up into the OS normally. Although one reply in that thread mentioned removing the DIMM memory and then resetting the PRAM 3 times. Unless anyone has another way I guess I'll try that.
I will let you know if that does it.
Thanks again,
Sam

This is the solution.

 

[Spaulu]

Thanks all! I had two sticks of DIMM ram I removed one of them. Then booted up and pressed Cntrl- Option- P- R and now have the access I needed to change the password (then replaced the removed DIMM).

 

[Spaulu]

BTW... for whatever reason the instructions said to remove the battery. Well I think maybe that refers to a laptop because a couple vids I found on YouTube didn't say to. I mentioned this because when removing the battery (under the Air Port module) I broke the clip and spent three-quarters of my time "fixing it" using a paper clip. Learning the hard way.....