Reinstalling OS 9.2 on refurbished PP G4 Quicksilver

[mrglide]

Hi all,

I recently purchased a refurbished Powermac G4 Quicksilver (see what I know of the specifications below), with a view to reproducing an audio software setup I used to have on a previous 10+ year old G4. This previous G4 had power issues and was extremely dusty inside, so I decided to go the route of buying a refurb, sticking the old harddrive (which seems to work ok) inside it, erasing its contents, reinstalling Mac OS 9.2, and finally setting up Logic 4.8.1. I have a large amount of arrange and AIFF files backed up on an external Lacie drive, and I'd like to export the tracks on there for remixing and adding to on a custom DAW I now have. As far as I can tell, the Lacie drive is still usuable and intact. To do that, I need to be able to reproduce my old setup.

APPLE POWER MAC G4 M5870 PC UNIT
1.25GHZ
1GB RAM
(Installed from previous PP G4 733) Standard Optical: 12X CD-RW
(Installed from previous PP G4 733)Standard Hard Drive: 40 GB (5400 RPM)


So far, I've had no luck booting from CD. I have 4 software restore CDs, the second of which I've been told is bootable, but starting up with 'c' depressed only leads to a white screen with a floppy disk icon adorned with a question mark, and starting up with the option key held down goes into a boot menu, but other than the partitions of the drive I'm trying to format, no boot CD option is displayed. That is the current situation, but I did manage to access the CD once before, and be presented with the option of which hard drive to wipe and install 9.2 on, but the only two options presented were a restore image and the CD drive itself.

The next attempt was to obtain a .dmg of OS 9.2 and stuck it on a thumb drive. This is recognised by the boot menu, but when trying to boot, goes nowhere. Now, the thumb drive isn't being recognised at all.

This has stumped me completely. Am I doing something very obviously wrong?

Cheers,

Nick

 

[eyoungren]

Nick, let's make sure you have the right model. If you truly have a Quicksilver, the external speaker will be at the bottom when facing the front of the Mac.

If you have an MDD the speaker will be at the top. If you know all this already and I'm patronizing you, I apologize, but I just want to confirm what you have.

The reason I want to confirm this, is that no PowerMac G4 Quicksilver ever had a 1.25Ghz processor. The last version, the 2002 QS had dual 1.0Ghz processors but that's as far as it got. There was, however a 1.25Ghz option on the first MDDs.

The second reason I want to confirm this because it will determine which track we take. See, if you truly do have a QS, then your 1.25Ghz processor is an upgrade (because there were no 1.25Ghz Quicksilvers).

And having a QS myself with a processor upgrade I can tell you that getting things working is a bit more complicated. My particular processors require that I flash NVRAM from the getgo. It then requires that I install software that will allow the OS to work with the processors. Kext files for OS X are installed on my HD and any disk I access for booting (optical or external) references those kext files. If they aren't there, my Mac kernel panics.

So, my point on that is that IF this is a QS and IF it truly is a 1.25Ghz upgrade then the processors may be looking for certain files it requires to boot. If you wiped the drive already you may have wiped them out and that may be the problem.

So, we'll also need to know what kind of upgrade you have, if this is the case. I have both a Sonnet 1.2 single (my backup) and my current upgrade a dual 2.0 Giga Designs (which I'm running at 1.6Ghz right now) as examples of the manufacturers out there.

Get back to us and let us know. Because if you have an MDD then we need to look at those models. Because certain models of MDD were not able to boot OS9. Only the early MDD models were capable of that.

 

[mrglide]

Hi eyoungren, and cheers for the reply.

Good point - I must admit I got a little confused when looking up the myriad models released during that period. I'm admittedly no expert! It might be easier if I take a snap of the two towers I have, and perhaps narrow it down a little further.

I've attached a couple of snaps. The partially disassembled one in the photo is the old G4, and the shiny-looking one - well, I'm sure you can guess!

Cheers,

Nick

 

[Hrududu]

If you've got good working OS 9 discs and the machine won't boot off them, it may be a couple things. First off, the optical drive may be failing, and not booting from the CD. If you put the old optical drive in the new machine on the same bus as the HDD or existing optical drive, you may not have the master and slave jumper settings correct. This would create a situation where neither drive will function. Other thing that comes to mind is you may have gotten "too good" of a G4 to replace your old one. If the new machine has a Firewire 800 port on the back, it is too new to boot Mac OS 9.

 

[eyoungren]

Hi eyoungren, and cheers for the reply.

Good point - I must admit I got a little confused when looking up the myriad models released during that period. I'm admittedly no expert! It might be easier if I take a snap of the two towers I have, and perhaps narrow it down a little further.

I've attached a couple of snaps. The partially disassembled one in the photo is the old G4, and the shiny-looking one - well, I'm sure you can guess!

Cheers,

Nick

The Mac on the left, the partially disassembled one, is a Quicksilver. The one on the right, and the one you are having the issue with, is an MDD (Mirrored Drive Door). Otherwise known as the Wind Tunnel.

As Hrududu states, if you have a FW800 port on the back, well – you're done. The MDDs of that model and later do not boot in to OS9. You can keep trying until eternity ends, but it won't happen.

 

[mrglide]

If you've got good working OS 9 discs and the machine won't boot off them, it may be a couple things. First off, the optical drive may be failing, and not booting from the CD. If you put the old optical drive in the new machine on the same bus as the HDD or existing optical drive, you may not have the master and slave jumper settings correct. This would create a situation where neither drive will function. Other thing that comes to mind is you may have gotten "too good" of a G4 to replace your old one. If the new machine has a Firewire 800 port on the back, it is too new to boot Mac OS 9.

Hi Hrududu,

That's a bloody good point about the master/slave settings for the optical drives. I need to check those.

The software restore CDs have literally never been used! Not a scratch on them.

No Firewire 800 ports as far as I can see. Just the two Firewire 400s.

Cheers for the pointers,

Nick

 

[Altemose]

Hi Hrududu,

That's a bloody good point about the master/slave settings for the optical drives. I need to check those.

The software restore CDs have literally never been used! Not a scratch on them.

No Firewire 800 ports as far as I can see. Just the two Firewire 400s.

Cheers for the pointers,

Nick

If I remember correctly MDD models that high in clock speed required 9.2.2. I am probably wrong though.