Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Issues with installing Powerlogix CPU

Ih8reno

Ih8reno

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Aug 10, 2012
1,383
207
Hi everyone


Last night I picked up a cpu upgrade for my mac and OWC sent me the software needed to install it. Instructions say to use a disk with the dmg, shut down the mac. When turning it back on press the programmers button while it boots and let go when you hear a beep. From there press and hold C to get it to load the disk. I have done this dozens of times so far and it never boots from the disk, in fact I don't even hear it spin up. It goes to OS X and the disk is on the desktop. Am I missing something obvious?
 
Did you use Disk Utility on your Mac to burn the disc image? Go into System Preferences and choose the CD as your startup disk.
 
Made a mistake, the cpu upgrade is a maxpower cpu. The file they gave me was a dmg but in settings the mac doesn't seem to use it as a boot disk. I burned it from disk utility.
 
Yes, pressing the C immediately. As for firmware the Quicksilver is the 733mhz model and it is running firmware 4.2.1
 
Isn't 4.2.8 available for it? The install guide says you need the latest firmware. You should be able to do a search for Power Mac G4 firmware updates to find the link. I can't recall if you need to run it from OS 9 or not.
 
ctmpkmlec4 said:
Isn't 4.2.8 available for it? The install guide says you need the latest firmware. You should be able to do a search for Power Mac G4 firmware updates to find the link. I can't recall if you need to run it from OS 9 or not.
Click to expand...

I just looked, Apple shows that there isn't a 4.2.8 update for the Quicksilver but for earlier Macs
 
If the CD were bootable, you should be able to select it as a startup disk. So, we know that it reads the disc fine because it mounts on your desktop. However, when you try to boot from it, the Mac still proceeds to boot OS X instead. That tells me that the Mac does not recognize the disc as being bootable which is why it won't boot from it and why you can't select it as a startup disk in System Preferences. I would try burning the image to a CD again at the lowest speed setting. Aside from that, I'm out of ideas. Do you have another Mac you could test boot the CD with?
 
I cannot be of much help here as the instructions seem to be a strange way of doing things. Normally, if you're going to press the programmer's button then the flashing does it's thing and you reboot…not continue on.

So, to me something seems a little…wrong with the directions. But I've never used a Powerlogix so IDK.

Anyway, the 'C' button for me has been somewhat of a unicorn. I've had multiple Macs with various equipment over the years and found maybe a couple or so that would actually respond to the 'C' key. Most times my holding down that key is just ignored.

Consequently, I've taken to just using the OPTN key…which of course is no option here because you'd already be past that point.
 
I burned the disk again and changed it do I burned a mounted dmg. It allows me to set it as a boot disk but when i reboot from it it puts the ? not found and then boots into osx. There is a os 9 icon on the disk and my mac doesn't have os 9 installed, think that may be the issue?
 
Ih8reno said:
I burned the disk again and changed it do I burned a mounted dmg. It allows me to set it as a boot disk but when i reboot from it it puts the ? not found and then boots into osx. There is a os 9 icon on the disk and my mac doesn't have os 9 installed, think that may be the issue?
Click to expand...
I sure wouldn't think so. The install guide says nothing about needing a bootable OS 9 System Folder on your hard disk. But, I guess I'm not sure what you mean by an OS 9 icon on the disk. Is it the OS 9 folder icon? I imagine it's just a bootable system folder on the CD which may be needed for the firmware update utility. Unless you were running the firmware update utility from within OS 9, I don't think it matters because you're booting the CD at startup.
 
At least half a dozen combos of files and file formats and still nothing doing. I hold the programmers button and power, hear the beep and let go of the programmers button and press c. Mac reboots into open firmware and doesn't boot the disks.

fd595fdd52b2645df67d72ff786316b5.jpg
 
Used dropdmg to make ISO disks. First one for 7445/7447 cpu's. Try that boots to Apple logo after flashing everything and then I get the symbol saying nothing is there. Un flash put back original cpu, try whole process again with 7447/7448 version of software. This is what I get

7e20fb5b71eed01989109fc6411566dc.jpg


Any other suggestions?
 
flyrod said:
You are doing this before changing the CPU, right? The firmware has to be patched before it can boot with the new CPU. Depending what OWC told you, you might also try this:

http://home2.owc.net/~tech/Processors/PLGX 7457 and 47 firmware/

http://home2.owc.net/~tech/NewerTech/Processor/MAXPower_3.1b5FW.zip
Click to expand...

Thanks, this is the firmware I was using and yes I installed it before putting in the cpu. It boots to an apple logo and after what seems like forever it puts the circle with the line through it. I even tried another hard drive and using my tiger disks to erase the hdd and it shows the same symbol.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back