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New Cube Owner

Tonight I'm getting this error at boot. As mentioned before my USB keyboard/mouse only works intermittently, not sure if it's the ports or the peripherals. Anybody seen this error before?
 

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My new hard drive arrived today, upon removing the old one I noticed that the guide rail/bracket is missing. Does anybody know if this is a generic part that I can buy a replacement for?
 
Finally I'm getting somewhere! It turned out the 'new' hard disk I bought was also defective as the installer kept failing at various points. So I bought another one and third time lucky, on this HD it installed first time. I have also traced the USB/kernel panics down to the mouse which had a faulty cable and was rapidly connecting/disconnecting, freaking the Cube out during boot.

Attached is a screenshot of my new desktop with a few installed apps. It reminded me how beautiful OS X and digital design in general was during that period. I love the Photoshop and Office icons, and OS X itself is more colourful. This flat/minimal movement of the last 5-10 years has really gone too far IMO.

I have a question about OS 9. I have installed the 'Netboot' version of 9.2, which runs in Classic mode just fine. However when I try and boot from it, the screen goes black after the extensions have loaded. I thought maybe OS 9 doesn't like 1920x1080 so have tried changing the screen resolution in both OS X and OS 9 preferences to 800x600, but it still does it. I have also tried removing the Netboot extensions and disabling all extensions on boot, also no luck. Any idea why it might be happening? I'm sure it's not crashing, it just seems like OS 9 doesn't like the display or something.
 

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Try starting Classic with Extensions Off. Either hold the Shift key while it starts up or select the boot option from the Advanced section in the Classic Preferences.

Does this black screen take over your whole OS X display? if so, it could be something in the Mac OS 9 startup items (like the welcome / config app). Check in the System Folder > Startup Items folder and remove anything you find in here.
 
Thanks. Yes if I boot holding shift so no extensions load, it does get past the loading screen but then gets to a Netboot setup screen which I can't pass because the mouse doesn't work (I assume because USB is an extension?)
 
Thanks yes I'll give that a try, just not sure why a user login would make the screen go black, seems more like a video setting to me. Will report back later :)
 
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OK so deleting the Multi User startup file does get me to the desktop with all extensions disabled, but not with them enabled. It must be something else, there are over 150 extensions so it would take a lot of time to trial and error disabling all of them one by one, any suggestions as to which extension may be the culprit?
 
Well this is confusing. If I move all extensions to the disabled extensions folder, I get a black screen at boot after the welcome screen. If I disable all extensions (including system, startup etc) in the Extensions preferences, I get the black screen. The ONLY way I can get to the Finder is by holding shift while booting.

I'm no OS9 expert, so what difference could there be between holding shift and disabling/deleting the extensions? This is the 'out of the box' Netboot OS 9.2.2.
[doublepost=1519248890][/doublepost]Just to add, I am using a 1920x1080 monitor. Could this be the issue, resolution? Seems weird that OS 9 will run just fine with Extensions disabled at 1080p, but not with any enabled.
[doublepost=1519249594][/doublepost]EDIT: I think I've ruled out resolution as I can change that to 640 x 480 in classic preferences under OS X, still getting the black screen.
 
iv not had any experience with the netboot Mac OS 9.2.2 image

but there are proper Mac OS 9 installers/images out on the interwebs :)

(Google Mac OS 9.2.2 and click on the 3rd link with "2002" in its name ;) )

I doubt your Monitor is the issue. the Rage 128 Pro in the G4 cube can handle a 1920x1080 monitor Just...
 
I finally figured it out. Although I was setting 640 x 480 in Classic preferences, it was changing back after the Welcome screen to what it thought was the native resolution of 1600 x 1000 (?) which my monitor doesn't support. So my hi-tec solution was to boot without extensions, place the Preferences window in the top left of Finder with the Monitors preference icon first, reboot with extensions, and then blindly open the Monitors preferences with my mouse and use tab and up/down to change the resolution. 1920x1080 works just fine! :)
 
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eddjedi said:
I finally figured it out. Although I was setting 640 x 480 in Classic preferences, it was changing back after the Welcome screen to what it thought was the native resolution of 1600 x 1000 (?) which my monitor doesn't support. So my hi-tec solution was to boot without extensions, place the Preferences window in the top left of Finder with the Monitors preference icon first, reboot with extensions, and then blindly open the Monitors preferences with my mouse and use tab and up/down to change the resolution. 1920x1080 works just fine! :)
Click to expand...

Nice solution! I clearly misread the part about booting into OS9 and thought you were running under Classic.

Another solution on the same track could be to delete the Display preferences file to use factory display settings (combine with a PRAM reset).
 
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I have noticed some 'tearing' and graphic glitches in OS 9 at 1080p, do you think it's the limits of the stock graphics card? OS X Tiger works smoothly so I'm surprised it is struggling with OS 9.
 
eddjedi said:
I have noticed some 'tearing' and graphic glitches in OS 9 at 1080p, do you think it's the limits of the stock graphics card? OS X Tiger works smoothly so I'm surprised it is struggling with OS 9.
Click to expand...

You will want to install OS9 drivers for your graphics card. Try the Macintosh garden or repo.
 
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Updated the drivers but no improvement. Is the NVIDIA GeForce2 MX any better?
 
Another issue. I have bought a VGA to HDMI adapter as sadly my monitor doesn't have VGA (so far I've been tinkering on my large LCD TV which does have VGA.) This is a neat solution as it also acts as a sound card and provides audio via USB. However in OS 9 I can't get it to display 1080p!

I know the adapter can handle 1080p because it works in OS X, and I know OS 9 can do 1080p because it works on my LCD TV via VGA. Any idea how I can add 1080p to the list of available resolutions? I have tried changing it to 'all' as you can see.
 

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Can anybody help me with this novice OS 9 issue? I seem to have accidentally pressed a key or something that disables double click, so I can't open any folders or apps! Double clicking now just shows a magnifying glass as pictured. Any idea how to turn this 'feature' off? Can't see anything in mouse preferences.
 

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That's the "Spring-loaded folders" cursor. I'm not sure how it's sticky like that, but you could turn the feature off in Finder Preferences (under the Edit menu)
 
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Have a look at the Universal Access control panel. I can recall that "sticky keys" was activated by hitting the shift key 5 times or something, so maybe there was a "sticky click" mouse option which was activated in a similar way.
 
Something else I recall from the Cube days... get an old iMac G3 keyboard with a power-on button. Somehow the power buttons on the Cube always fail, and you can boot with those keyboards. I also recall having a similar problem with the OS when I first got my Cube.
 
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It may not help you, but many G4 Cube start problems have been cured by using the 'scotch tape' fix.
Try applying a piece of scotch tape over the touch-sensitive area of the power button, placing it on the power switch between the core and acrylic case. This makes the button less sensitive and cures many strange problems associated with that touch sensitive power switch.
It worked on two of my G4 Cubes that were experiencing starting problems; one that didn't respond to pressing the button, and the other that would auto power-on, or would go into sleep mode even if a cloth or piece of paper brushed over the switch.
This fix was documented many years ago on CubeOwners site which unfortunately can no longer be accessed.
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Just found THIS associated link from a much earlier post.
 
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