Installing OS X on G3 iMac with OS 9. Installation CD doesn't boot!

[Mebster]

Guys I need some help (clearly)

 

I purchased an old iMac G3 of ebay. It's a 350 Mhz, Slot loading CD-ROM, 10GBs, 128MB Memory, has OS 9.2 pre-installed and has the latest firmware installed ready for OS X. Think it's this.

 

I got OSX for PPC (4 CD version ) and burned the 1st CD. When I load it up and click the "restart" button on the OS X installation window it shows an error message which says this:

"An error has occurred. Startup disk was unable to select the install CD as startup disk. (-2)"

Went into Startup Disk but CD is displayed there but greyed out so can't do anything there.

I've restarted the system and even tried pressing "C" to boot from CD. But nothing.

 

I have burned the 1st CD 3 times but nothing still. Burns fine and OS 9 even reads it all fine. Just doesn't boot from it. Google'd the issue and came up with a few people with this problem. But not really any major solutions.

 

Is there anything at all I can do?

- Use external CD-ROM (seems I can't replace the internal because it uses a different connection to the standard PC CD/DVD ROMs)

- Is it possible to help initiate the installation using my hackintosh?

- Put it on a USB drive and do something from there?

- emmm... that's all I can think of here.

 

Ideally I just want to make it boot from the CD-ROM and not have to go and install it some other way.

 

I really need this to work or else will have to return the iMac (OS 9 is rubbish compared to OS X.. and XP) so please help if you can.

 

Thanks Guys.

[odrex]

What program are you using to burn the cd's with?

Anyone else report problems who d/led the cd's from same source as you?

 

Just because it burns and you can see the files, doesn't mean all is fine. OS X is very picky on it's boot up cd's/dvd's.

 

As the computer boots up press and leave pressed the following keys...

command + option + O + F

 

This should boot you into a white Open Firmware screen. Once there do...

reset-nvram

set-defaults

reset-all

 

Try booting from cd by pressing and leaving the "C" button pressed or pressing and leaving pressed the "Option-Command-Shift-Delete" keys.

[Mebster]

Hi thanks for your response.

 

I used Nero 7 to burn the cd on a cd-rw (i'll try a cd-r - didn't have any).

 

I've already tried holding "C". Although from the sound the system makes as it starts up I can see it's trying to do something different, it still doesn't seems to work.

 

I'll try your other suggestion.

 

Thanks again.

 

EDIT: I've just checked ebay and there are other people selling the same system it seems with OSX pre-installed. So it might be this perticular system itself of something wrong which i'm doing. Hope it's me.

[The Masked Muchacho]

try downloading pearpc on a pc and see if that will boot from the iso, if not then its a bad copy. if it does then it could be a problem with how you are burning the cd. if you can somehow get the iso's to a mac it may be woth tring to burn from disk utility, macs can be picky about what they boot from.

 

Also Dont even consider tiger with only 128mb, it will be so slow you will grow a beard before it opens safari. upgrading ram in those imacs is simple, it uses standard PC100 or 133 SDRAM DIMMS. go for atleast 384mb but 512mb is better to aim for.

[Mebster]

try downloading pearpc on a pc and see if that will boot from the iso, if not then its a bad copy. if it does then it could be a problem with how you are burning the cd. if you can somehow get the iso's to a mac it may be woth tring to burn from disk utility, macs can be picky about what they boot from.

Thanks mate, I appreachate the help. I will give it a try.

 

Also Dont even consider tiger with only 128mb, it will be so slow you will grow a beard before it opens safari. upgrading ram in those imacs is simple, it uses standard PC100 or 133 SDRAM DIMMS. go for atleast 384mb but 512mb is better to aim for.

Thanks for the tip. I am looking to try and buy 512MB on ebay. I think the system uses PC100 SDRAM DIMMS. But until then I will be stuck with the 128MB.

 

At least now thanks to you I’ll know why my beard seems to be growing so long while waiting surfing with safari.

 

Thanks mate

[A Nonny Moose]

OK, so we know it can run OS 9. Try installing the latest firmware onto the iMac. If it's the latest one, it will yell and say it doesn't need any updating. If it gives you directions, then follow them and then try reinstalling.

[snackole]

Try burning the disks with disk utility or toast, or download new install disks from and burn them from a mac friendly piece of software.

[bptba93]

trying getting new install discs. i dl'ed os 9 once and it wouldn't boot so i downloaded another one and it booted just fine.

[falseadress]

if u dled the disks there ususally f***ed

dl a different 1 that is what i did

[McSkywalker]

Try this once:

 

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/7594

 

Maybe it will help

[Trombone_Bob]

Update your firmware

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=88010

When I had an iMac DV I had to load a new firmware before I could install 10.2. Also start by installing 10.1. 10.1 uses a bootloader that is very close to os 9 (if not the same)

10.2 came with the firmware update that I needed to load to install it onto the iMac.

Hope this helps

[MacRetail]

Mac OS X Tiger and later requires 256MB RAM. Your System only has 128MB RAM. But your install cd should boot anyway

 

If you're getting really desperate, install Linux on your PC, put the Mac's hard drive in your PC, and use PearPC with native hard drive mode to install Tiger on the HD. Then, it should work fine.