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incarceration

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 18, 2010
11
0
I am new to the Mac scene, I am a long time repair technician of PCs. I can repair anything thrown at me, but a Mac, I will admit now I haven't touched until recently. I was given an iMac G5 and recently aquired a PowerBook G4 1GHz.

The iMac G5 had a bad hard drive, the PowerBook G4's HDD was ok and needed the OS reinstalled.

My predicament: I have the original CDs for the iMac G5 (so far only CD 1, I'm working on getting the rest of the discs for the iMac G5) but I do not have any discs for the PowerBook G4. How do I install an OS on this without them? I've managed to download OS 9.2.2, OS X 10.5\10.5.6 Leopard, and OS X 10.6\10.6.3 Snow Leopard.

I've done A LOT of research on this matter and have come across a possible result that I cannot install a fresh install from a burned disc due to a BIOS "feature" that disables the ability to install from a burned disc. Is this true?

I've also read places that you can modify the installer and it might work? I haven't really identified what that is accomplishing and if it'll work for my situation.

I've read and tried another option that I can try to start the installed from "Open Firmware"...? Needless to say that didn't work either.

Finally, I'd like to say that if this isn't allowed on this forum I apologize (possibly asking to reverse engineer etc.).

I'm able to boot up to a burned copy of the GeekSquad Mac MRI\TechTools Pro 4 diagnostic tools and runs fine (on both machines) but not an OS disc. I can also boot to disc 1 of the iMac G5 disc and run all the hardware tests, I can't go further in the install as there isn't a functional HDD in the unit.

Thanks in advance!
 
Well I have an update, and it's good news.

I finally found an install image online for Mac OS X 10.4 for PPC powerbooks.

It installed and everything is up and running but another issue I have had on the back burner while trying to get this to work, there's a white band on the bottom of the screen about a 1\3 the size of the screen. I thought it was a bad LCD screen but it's not, upon moving it back and forth it goes away when i do so.

What is this? The left hinge was snapped and broken during shipping cause the person that shipped it shipped the thing in a bubble mailer. Do the LCD connectors behind the LCD panel come loose often?

I've uploaded some photos of what I'm referring to here: http://img153.imageshack.us/g/sspx1463.jpg/

Thanks for your replies!
 
Well, the issue now isn't a software issue. The issue now is this white band at the bottom of the screen.

Drmacpro, I've tried sending you a msg but I either don't have access to that on here or simply cannot find the send PM feature. I'm only able to view your profile, add you to a buddy list, and view posts you've made.

Thanks in advance
 
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