03-04-2009, 11:09 AM

Yesterday I got a iMac G3 from somebody who tried to install Linux on it but it failed. (it freezes on booting)

Now I would like to reinstall OS 9 on it, so I inserted the disk, hit "C" and the screen flashed to grey...

Suddenly I saw a mouse pointer and a floppy disk with a question mark blinking in it. It just keeps blinking there.

What does this mean? Does this mean the CD is loading? It kept blinking for 15 minutes, I had to go afterwards so I didn't have the time to keep it running.

Or is this a hardware issue? (that's why I posted it here... Really had no clue... If its still wrong, I'm sorry)

Some help would be nice

03-04-2009, 12:47 PM

The floppy disk icon with the flashing question mark...means that the hard drive has no Mac OS (operating system on it).

You did the correct thing trying to install an operating system.

Some things to remember:

- some G3 iMacs have a CD drive & some have a DVD drive. If you happen to be trying to install an operating system from a DVD, but your G3 iMac only has a CD drive...then it won't work.

- also...you cannot use an install disk that's for a specific Mac model...on a different model Macintosh. For example, you cannot use an install disk meant for a G4 Powermac on a G3 iMac.

It's also possible that the hard drive on this computer has problems.

What I would try is...make sure that the install disk you are using is not for a different model Macintosh...instead of installing OS 9...try installing an older version of OS 10.

- what's the processor speed of the iMac? Do you know if your G3 iMac has a CD or DVD drive? If you don't know, make sure your install disks are CD's, not DVD's.

Good luck,

- Nick

03-04-2009, 01:21 PM

Well I tried installing it from a CD. The CD was a copied version though from an original version I borrowed from someone. (There was no Official CD when I received the iMac). So I'm not sure if that CD was for the iMac G3.

But that was OS 9... You are saying I should try to install OS Cheetah or something? (It has 256RAM, not sure which processor speed) I do have an original OS X cd here somewhere, but not sure if that's an older version.

Is it possible to format the hard drive trough the programmer program? (Not sure if this is the correct word for it, but when I boot it and press the little button on the side, it goes into programmer mode or something?)

EDIT: I read that only the 400Mhz versions had the Firewire port? Then I believe it must be 400 or + because this version has a Firewire port

03-04-2009, 02:00 PM

Originally Posted by BlackDesign

Well I tried installing it from a CD. The CD was a copied version though from an original version I borrowed from someone. (There was no Official CD when I received the iMac). So I'm not sure if that CD was for the iMac G3.

But that was OS 9... You are saying I should try to install OS Cheetah or something? (It has 256RAM, not sure which processor speed) I do have an original OS X cd here somewhere, but not sure if that's an older version.

Is it possible to format the hard drive trough the programmer program? (Not sure if this is the correct word for it, but when I boot it and press the little button on the side, it goes into programmer mode or something?)

EDIT: I read that only the 400Mhz versions had the Firewire port? Then I believe it must be 400 or + because this version has a Firewire port

Since your G3 iMac is a "dual-boot" machine...you should be able to install either OS 9 or OS 10. But the install disk(s) probably need to be originals, so that if you run into a problem, then you can eliminate the Install disks as the problem (thus a possible hardware issue).

I suggested installing an older version of OS 10 (10.0, 10.1, 10.2) if you have one...because it's more likely to be on CD rather than DVD.

Since if your G3 iMac has only a CD drive...you won't run into any issues trying to install from a DVD on a possible non-DVD computer.

If you successfully boot from the install CD...then you should be able to format the drive.

Hope this helps,

- Nick

p.s. One other note...since this is a older computer, the PRAM battery is probably dead, and you will most likely need a new one. This is not ABSOLUTELY necessary...but it keep you from always having to reset the date, time, and other user settings.

03-04-2009, 02:41 PM

What do you mean that this is a dual boot system? Because I assume only linux is installed on it. (I know what dual boot is, but I'm hoping you want to say that the old OS is still on there)

Because when I enter the programmer's section it says the last save time from 2001 (or last install time).

But the person who owned it before me, tried to install linux on it, which failed (so it doesn't even boot at all).

Anyway, I'll try to find the original OS X CD, hope it works after that

03-04-2009, 03:33 PM

Originally Posted by BlackDesign

What do you mean that this is a dual boot system?

"Dual Boot" means that the computer can either boot into OS9 or OS 10 (both need to be installed to do this).

Later computers could only boot into OS 10...but could run OS 9 in emulation mode in a program called "Classic".

And later still...Apple dropped support for "Classic"...and these computers could only boot into OS 10, and could not run "Classic" (OS 9 stuff) at all.

- Nick

03-04-2009, 03:54 PM

Back to original point, is the OS 9 media bootable and did you just hit the C key or did you press and hold the C key while the system tried to boot?

Because you are trying to boot from a CD/DVD media it take longer to read than it does from a hard disk. That is the reason for holding down the C key on boot.

03-04-2009, 04:10 PM

Originally Posted by rman

Back to original point, is the OS 9 media bootable and did you just hit the C key or did you press and hold the C key while the system tried to boot?

Because you are trying to boot from a CD/DVD media it take longer to read than it does from a hard disk. That is the reason for holding down the C key on boot.

I fired the Mac up... and held the C key down until it said: Boot from CD...

03-04-2009, 11:26 PM

You have to upgrade the firmwear to boot rom 4.1.9 before you install 10 on it,
or you can cook it.The unix code can damage the video chip. Or it my not restart.