PowerMac G3 Boot problems

[ChrisFerri]

I recently acquired a G3 computer for free and I'm having issues booting it. First it was a bad RAM DIMM, took that out and got the Apple logo to come up and I get a message that just shows all the MAC address. I boot into single user mode and run /sbin/fsck -fy and then it comes up say G3-HD was repaired successfully and that the file system was modified. So I run /sbin/mount -uw / and it just goes to the screen with the MAC addresses on it. Tried holding down shift, option, resetting the PRAM at start up, everything I can think of. Pretty sure its running OS 9. Anyone have ideas? Don't know why the thumbnail shows the photo upside down but if you click on it seems to be fine.

 

[Intell]

If you get into single user mode, then it's running OS X. It appears to get stuck when loading the Apple BMacEthernet, the Ethernet chipset used in older 604 and G3 era Macs. It may have a slightly incompatible version of Mac OS X installed. In single user mode, type in "uname -a" without the quotes. What does it print back at you? Do you have a Mac OS 9 or early version of OS X installation disc?

 

[ChrisFerri]

I get back

"Darwin localhost 7.9.0 Darwin Kernel Version 7.9.0: Wed Mar 30 20:11:17 PST 2005; root :xnu/xnu-517.12.7.obj~1/RELEASE_PPC Power Macintosh powerpc"

I don't have a copy on hand but I bought a copy of OS X 10.0 on eBay since I didn't have a version and its on its way.

 

[Intell]

Is this a blue and white G3? If it is, that version of Mac OS X (Panther/10.3) is supported on it. Mac OS 10.0 may be a bit unusable in the modern era and it's very buggy. That machine, if a blue and white G3, can natively run up to Tiger/10.4.11. For it, I'd suggest either OS 9.2.2, 10.3.9, or 10.4.11.

 

[ChrisFerri]

Yeah its a Blue and White G3, 350MHz, 6GB HDD 128MB RAM. Reallistically I wanna make sure it works and then just put it on the shelf for display purposes. With the 10.0 I also got a copy of the 10.1 upgrade coming too. So would you say I'd just have to format it and start from scratch?

 

[Intell]

Reformatting it and reinstalling it from the cd may be the best option.

 

[ChrisFerri]

Thanks for the help. I got it for Free and a 17" Studio Display with it for free too. So I can't complain too much.

 

[Intell]

You're welcome. I'd say that's a good deal.