Power Mac G4 MDD Errors when booting and installing OS X Leopard from disc

[Panzerfaust101]

Ok so basically, I've got a Leopard disc which works and I've got a MDD I need to install it on (1.42 2x CPUs, 1GB RAM). There's a variety of errors occurring which I will list out.
Situation 1 - Get into the install place, formatting the HD with Disk Utilities when an error message pops up saying I need to restart my computer.
Situation 2 - Booting up G4 and holding C and screen turns grey, but then I end up in a white screen telling me to type in "mac-boot" to continue booting or "shut-down" to do the obvious. When I type in "mac-boot", the system goes into the grey screen again (without the Apple logo) and is effectively stuck there. "shut-down" shuts the system down (as expected)
Situation 3 - Boot up holding C, grey screen without Apple appears, flashes once, screen turns black for a moment, grey screen without Apple reappears and system is stuck.
Situation 4 - Reaches screen with grey and Apple, but either 1. the loading circle thing is not there and the system is stuck or 2. the error message making me restart the computer (as seen in Situation 1) appears and I have to shut down the computer
Situation 5 - Grey without Apple and then no display
Situation 6 - (follows situation 5) no display whatsoever. After shutting down and booting up, display comes back, but another of the above situations occurs.
If anyone could help me out with this, that would be great because I've been working on this Mac for quite a while (as some may know) and I've nearly finished, just not quite. Thanks

 

[Jethryn Freyman]

I have a Leopard disc that used to work, but won't any more (gives errors on installation), I solved the problem by imaging it with Disk Utility and then restoring the image to a USB hard disk and using the hard disk to install the OS. And yes PPC Macs can boot off USB 1.

 

[Panzerfaust101]

Does it come up with the message "You need to restart your computer. Hold down the Power button for several seconds or press the Restart key"? That keeps happening with me.

 

[666sheep]

Behaviour you've described usually indicates bad hardware. From bad RAM, through graphics card to bad CPU or logic board. Test each one by one, if you can. Start from RAM.
It could be also caused by overheating. See if all fans are working properly. CPU reseating + new thermal paste might be worth a shot too.

 

[Nameci]

Remove all unnecessary peripherals from your powermac first. Any installed PCI card excluding the video card, since you get video out I can say that the video card is working.

Then remove all the RAM sticks and reinstall one stick first. Try to install Leopard this way until you find the offending hardware.

Most of the time it is a bad RAM stick.

 

[Panzerfaust101]

Installed Leopard now (thanks guys ^.^). I think it was a case of the HD getting too hot (or maybe the CPU getting too hot) so I moved the HD from the rack near the heatsink to the other place and removed the RAM sticks and put in one. System works without a problem and it's fine even with the other RAM stick in. Thanks people for all the help and Happy New Year ^.^