MDD wont boot

[physics700]

My System:
PowerMac G4 MDD DP 1.25Ghz
1.5 Gb Ram
20" ADC Cinema Display

I had 10.4 on this for a long time. I didnt use it very much at all for the past year, because i was just using my laptop, but when i did start it up it would have a kernel panic almost instantaniously, if not on startup. So I decided to just erase and repartition and put 10.2 on it, because thats the newest full install disk i had(my macbook came with 10.5 preinstalled). I repartioned using target disk mode and disk utility on my macbook. THen i put the first 10.2 disk in and restarted the G4. and I just got the flashing mac symbol/question mark. i tryed holding down c and even holding down option in hopes that the cd would come up on the boot screen, but nothing happened, it sounded like it was reading the cd at some points, but eventually it just flashed the same mac symbol/question mark. So i tryed a few different hard drives, and a few different dvd drives as well and had the same problem. I tried reseting the PRAM and PMU, as well as try it without the battery. I also tryed using target disk mode to install 10.2 on it from my macbook, but it didnt work. Any thoughts? the best idea i can think of is i need a new motherboard...but im not sure though, i live in the middle of no where, and would have to order it online...

 

[physics700]

update

so i replaced the motherboard... and now its even worse... I go to turn it on and the light under the power button and the light on the motherboard flash momentarily and then go off and nothing.... I think it may be the PSU, but i gotta test it first

 

[tomeczek43]

You should press for a few seconds small button on motherboard.
It will help to start up your PowerMac I had the same problem.
You should repartition it by PowerPC software. I mean from disk utilities included on 10.2 install cds.

When you powermac will be starting hold command+o+f [You will open OpenFirmware] type there boot cd or boot ide:1

 

[physics700]

You should press for a few seconds small button on motherboard.
It will help to start up your PowerMac I had the same problem.
You should repartition it by PowerPC software. I mean from disk utilities included on 10.2 install cds.

When you powermac will be starting hold command+o+f [You will open OpenFirmware] type there boot cd or boot ide:1

Yea, i think that may have been part of my first problem, is that i repartitioned using my macbook which is an intel machine. But I heard a rumor that you cant even start up a mdd fw800 on anything earlier than like 10.2.3? does anyone know if that is true?
Also my battery is dead on the motherboard too now, because i have reset it so many times trying to troubleshoot it, so i have to replace it...

 

[physics700]

alright, so i got into open firmware and i tryed to boot to cd from OF by typing'boot cd' and i got it read like this:
0 > boot cd load-size=0 adler32=1

LOAD-SIZE is too small


Anyone know what that means?

 

[tomeczek43]

Did you use original apple disks which you bought with MDD ?
Try boot ide:1 or ide:0 it helps me with installing Debian on MDD and with any OS X.

You can install clear 10.2 but not earlier versions because it will be very unstable

 

[physics700]

alrighty, well, i got my hands on a set of 10.3 cd's... I put the first one in and restarted, and it started booting to the cd!!!!! only to kernel panic 10 seconds later. It said something about no update for the driver for PowerMac(3,6) or something like that... Im going to wait and try again in a few minutes, and if i get the message again, ill take a picture and post it here..

 

[physics700]

so weird... here is the kernel panic...

http://s786.photobucket.com/albums/yy145/physics700/?action=view&current=DSC_0605.jpg

i changed out the dvd drive for the original apple dvd drive and then i got the following message:

BPS:clearparthints) /pci@000000/ethernet@f

invalid memory access at %SRRo: 00024200 %SRR1: 02400000

Apple PowerMac3, 6 4.5.7f1 BootROM built on 01/15/03 at 15:14:50
Copyright 1994-2003 Apple Computer, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Welcome to Open Firmware, the system time and date is:​

I didnt press the keys to go to open firmware though...

 

[tomeczek43]

Today I will write for you simple tutorial how to upgrade your Open Firmware without any OS.
It will helps.

 

[tomeczek43]

I am upoading cracked CD install of Mac OS X 10.2 which I got with my PowerMac. This CD you can boot on any PowerPC based PowerMac.
Next I will upload Mac OS 9.2.2 Live CD which will runs on any PPC PowerMac.
To upgrade your Open Firmware.

 

[physics700]

so... finally got a new cmos battery from amazon.. tried it and no difference, but...
I finally got a 9.2.2 cd, so that was in my cd drive when i got the new cmos battery, so i tried rebooting with that. but half the time when it boots it gives the normal mac boot chime, but doesnt display anything on the screen. This time after i tried to boot it went to the black screen and i tried to restart it and i went to hold down the power button to shut down the button it gave me a tone l had never heard before and refused to boot... after i few tries i just had to pull the plug on the computer...

anyone have any ideas? i tried to use the 10.4 cd i had, but it didnt work... im at a loss and about to just pay the apple store to fix it...