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AdamR01

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 2, 2003
259
9
I recently acquired a Beige G3 from my place of employment. It was just a tower without keyboard and mouse. I got the proper cable to hook it up to my PC monitor, and I bought a PCI USB card to use with it. I then used a USB keyboard and mouse to install 10.2, which worked great. I then wanted to install OS 9. Unfortunately, I assume because I am not using an ADB keyboard I cannot press the C key to boot from cd. So, I coppied the OS 9 folder from my iBook to my PowerMac just to see if it would boot. The computer boots into OS 9 now but I have no keyboard and mouse so I cannot login nor can I change the computer to boot back to 10.2. Any advice? If all else fails I will buy an ADB keyboard from somewhere, but I'd rather not.
 
Well, there is such thing as an ADB-to-USB adapter you could check out. It's a useful little device when working with a combo of old and new stuff. Good luck!
 
Thanks!! Do you know of any places to purchase one?

Does anyone think if I pushed the CUDA reset button I might reset something and be able to boot into 10.2? I started to think about it, and I realized maybe If I could get back into 10.2 I could get a VNC server and somehow set up 9 to load it at startup.
 
That looks like its going in the wrong direction anyways. That would let you plug an ADB device into USB. I would need a way to plug a USB keyboard into ADB.
 
for the usb devices in os 9, you probably need a driver of some sort, how strange this might be... but holding the C button is going to be a problem with startup, you pci card probably isn't accepted until the os fully loads...hmmmm....

Just get an old Apple ADB keyboard and an ADB mouse, they are really cheap. I still prefer them over every other keyboard and mouse that was ever made. Those keyboards are sooo sturdy and never brake! If you pay 10 USD for them, it is still much, but you probably get an LC or SE30 with it! :D
 
I had this same problem on my old Beige G3. At one point I spilled soda (OK, it was really beer) on the ADB keyboard, so I was using a USB. In my experience, there's no way to get it to recognize the USB keyboard for boot functions. Once the ADB dried out and was working again only then was I able to access boot functions (pressing C to boot from CD-ROM, zapping the PRAM, etc...).

Last I checked, MacSales.com had ADB keyboards for like $2 - I agree the best thing to do is invest in one and re-install your system software from scratch.
 
AdamR01 said:
If all else fails I will buy an ADB keyboard from somewhere, but I'd rather not.

Let me know if you get to this point, I may have one available for cheap. Now that I think about it, I may also have the mouse. Need to check my closet.
 
yupperz... the beige was the last mac to ship w/o usb onboard. which means the usb will not be recognized until after the system has completed loading. which sucks for you.

doing a CUDA reset or otherwise on this machine is pointless. It's an old world ROM, and will always look for the classic mac OS before it thinks about OS X.

pick up a cheapie adb keyboard, and that'll be that. that's why I never used a USB kb on my beige when I had it. If you can find a semi-mac nut, they're likely to have extra adb kb's strewn about and will give you one. in fact, i might have a spare for the cost of shipping (which may well be more than just going and picking one up yourself).
 
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