upgrading old iMac g3

Joined
Oct 25, 2007
Messages
14
Reaction score
0
Points
1
hey ppl.. i'm new to the forums...

ok so i just acquired an old iMac G3 (350mhz/slot loader). It had a 6gb hdd and could barely hold OSX tiger. and was kinda slow. I had extra ram sitting around and an extra 80gb hdd as well so I decided to replace the old hardware. After a bit of trouble getting the iMac open and closed, everything was in. The installation for tiger began and it seems to freeze at the "Finishing Installation" part of the installation. It freezes at the same part every time. I've tried 3 times already. The computer isn't frozen, the progress just stops. :Confused:

I checked the Installer Log and the last entry is "Optimizing system performance"

I tried ejecting the cd and rebooting, but it keeps going back and asking for Disc 2. If I insert disc 2, it just starts the whole installation process over again, then gets stuck at the Optimizing system performance again.

The only thing I can think of is the hdd is corrupted somewhere, but I was using it in another computer without ANY trouble before putting it into the mac.

AHHH this is frustrating. What do I do?
 
Joined
Feb 2, 2007
Messages
3,978
Reaction score
99
Points
48
Location
Chicago, IL
Your Mac's Specs
Quad 2.8GHz Mac Pro, Edge iPhone
My cousin had problems when he went to install Tiger on his eMac, which is similar to the iMac. It would quit or freeze and would never finish installing. We thought it was the disc. Before he installed the new HD he also installed some RAM he had laying around. He doesn't take good care of his computer stuff so when I saw him walking around his carpeted room with the RAM modules in his had, I knew the deed was already done (he fried them.)
He installed the RAM and then installed Tiger and the above happened.
I told him to uninstall the RAM and reinstall the old module back in. Sure enough Tiger installed beautifully after he put good RAM back in his computer.
Point is, make sure the leftovers you are using (HD and RAM) are good. Also, a lot of downloads you find on torrents for Tiger are bad. If you make a copy from a torrent, that's possibly why you can't fully install it. Make sure your copy is legal, trust me.
If you don't not have the recommened RAM, Tiger will not install. I can't remember if the 350MHz has firewire. If the iMac doesn't have firewire, it won't finish installing. My cuz tried that on an old iMac I had. He didn't know Tiger needed firewire and kept trying to install it. Around disc 3 or 4 it would just stop.
 
Joined
Jul 22, 2007
Messages
65
Reaction score
3
Points
8
Location
Colorado
Your Mac's Specs
iBook 300MHz 288mb RAM Mac OS X (Panther), iMac G3 500MHz (Panther), iMac G3 350MHz (Tiger), iPod
Finally, someone in my ball park,"G3's". I like to do a fresh install, when the installer first opens go to (disk utility) on the finder bar. Once that comes up, go to erase and select your drive. After all that is done, install tiger. This should do the trick, if not; I'd try a different OS X, like 10.3 or 10.2...

Let me know!
iMacKid500
:D
 
Joined
Jul 22, 2007
Messages
65
Reaction score
3
Points
8
Location
Colorado
Your Mac's Specs
iBook 300MHz 288mb RAM Mac OS X (Panther), iMac G3 500MHz (Panther), iMac G3 350MHz (Tiger), iPod
My cousin had problems when he went to install Tiger on his eMac, which is similar to the iMac. It would quit or freeze and would never finish installing. We thought it was the disc. Before he installed the new HD he also installed some RAM he had laying around. He doesn't take good care of his computer stuff so when I saw him walking around his carpeted room with the RAM modules in his had, I knew the deed was already done (he fried them.)
He installed the RAM and then installed Tiger and the above happened.
I told him to uninstall the RAM and reinstall the old module back in. Sure enough Tiger installed beautifully after he put good RAM back in his computer.
Point is, make sure the leftovers you are using (HD and RAM) are good. Also, a lot of downloads you find on torrents for Tiger are bad. If you make a copy from a torrent, that's possibly why you can't fully install it. Make sure your copy is legal, trust me.
If you don't not have the recommened RAM, Tiger will not install. I can't remember if the 350MHz has firewire. If the iMac doesn't have firewire, it won't finish installing. My cuz tried that on an old iMac I had. He didn't know Tiger needed firewire and kept trying to install it. Around disc 3 or 4 it would just stop.

That is totally not true, I have a iMac 350MHZ running Tiger just fine. An the 350MHZ doesn't have firewire.

:|
 
OP
A
Joined
Oct 25, 2007
Messages
14
Reaction score
0
Points
1
My cousin had problems when he went to install Tiger on his eMac, which is similar to the iMac. It would quit or freeze and would never finish installing. We thought it was the disc. Before he installed the new HD he also installed some RAM he had laying around. He doesn't take good care of his computer stuff so when I saw him walking around his carpeted room with the RAM modules in his had, I knew the deed was already done (he fried them.)
He installed the RAM and then installed Tiger and the above happened.
I told him to uninstall the RAM and reinstall the old module back in. Sure enough Tiger installed beautifully after he put good RAM back in his computer.
Point is, make sure the leftovers you are using (HD and RAM) are good. Also, a lot of downloads you find on torrents for Tiger are bad. If you make a copy from a torrent, that's possibly why you can't fully install it. Make sure your copy is legal, trust me.
If you don't not have the recommened RAM, Tiger will not install. I can't remember if the 350MHz has firewire. If the iMac doesn't have firewire, it won't finish installing. My cuz tried that on an old iMac I had. He didn't know Tiger needed firewire and kept trying to install it. Around disc 3 or 4 it would just stop.
the ram is fine because I had added it before replacing the 6gb hdd and it doesn't have firewire either, and I successfully installed tiger onto the 6gb.

Finally, someone in my ball park,"G3's". I like to do a fresh install, when the installer first opens go to (disk utility) on the finder bar. Once that comes up, go to erase and select your drive. After all that is done, install tiger. This should do the trick, if not; I'd try a different OS X, like 10.3 or 10.2...

Let me know!
iMacKid500
:D
I aready did that the first time around.

Is there some kind of program that I can run to check for any errors on the hdd? I tried to use the verify and repair features in disk utility (from the tiger installation), but it says the disk is fine.
 
OP
A
Joined
Oct 25, 2007
Messages
14
Reaction score
0
Points
1
how can I determine what firmware I have installed. I remember when I originally went from OS 9 to panther, I had to upgrade the firmware, but I dont remember what version I upgraded to.
 
Joined
Sep 18, 2007
Messages
1,004
Reaction score
39
Points
48
Location
Guam
Your Mac's Specs
Gateway2000 P5-60. 66Mhz and 128 MB RAM.
Go to http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75130 this is the firmware download. There are also instructions on how to do it. It's really easy. You can only update so far so downloading this and doing it wont hurt anything.

Also, Welcome to the forums. There are a lot of helpful people here and if you have questions just feel free to ask (although I would do a search first)
 
OP
A
Joined
Oct 25, 2007
Messages
14
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Go to http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75130 this is the firmware download. There are also instructions on how to do it. It's really easy. You can only update so far so downloading this and doing it wont hurt anything.

Also, Welcome to the forums. There are a lot of helpful people here and if you have questions just feel free to ask (although I would do a search first)
ok well, looking at the release date of the firmeware (2001-09-25), I'm almost 100% sure that firmware is already applied, because I updated the firmware only about a year and a half ago.

Also, if that firmware wasn't applied, I wouldn't have been able to install tiger on the 6gb hdd.
 
OP
A
Joined
Oct 25, 2007
Messages
14
Reaction score
0
Points
1
ok I was able to hook up the 80gb hdd via firewire to my fiancee's g5 and install directly to the firewire drive. The hdd is now back in the imac g3 now. I've upgraded to the latest tiger and everything works fine now.

thanks to everyone who helped
 
OP
A
Joined
Oct 25, 2007
Messages
14
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Ok so I recently purchased a used G3 600mHz motherboard from ebay. I installed the new board, and when I started the computer, I got an error on the screen:

default catch! code=700 %srr0 ff80d18c %srr0 0000b030

which was repeated over and over throughout the screen. The second time I rebooted, I got a different error (usb related, don't remember the exact error) and the third it somewhat booted, but I saw a lock of the left, a button with a right arrow on the right and a line in the middle. If I click the button, nothing happened. The fourth, fifth, sixth, etc, boot were the same as above (code=700), but different codes.

Not sure what the problem is, but to add to the issue, I swapped out the new 600mhz board for the original 350mhz board, and when I powered on the computer, i heard 3 beeps, which from what I read means "no good banks" (no good ram, right?). So what the heck happened to my RAM?? It was working FINE until now. How could the new motherboard fry my RAM????????

Someone please help!
 
OP
A
Joined
Oct 25, 2007
Messages
14
Reaction score
0
Points
1
ok here's an update:

I have the 600mhz board in. I turn it on andhold down option+command+p+r to clear the PRAM, when I see the folder icon in the middle of the screen i lift command+p+r and only hold option. This brings up a screen with a long, a text field and a button with a right arrow. The text field is for a passowrd, although I do not know what the password is. I've tried several different passwords that I could have set. The wierd thing is I got in with a password (that's not the wierd part, I'll explain the rest after), and it brought me to a white dos screen (i know it's not does, but it's an input screen, like dos) that said type 'mac-boot' to continue booting. So I typed it and got a wierd DEFAULT CATCH! error. I rebooted, while holding down the option key and it brought me to the lock and password screen again (this is the wierd part). I enter the password I used before and it didn't work. I keep trying different passwords and they don't work. Finally it works, but it's a different password than what I used the first time ??? Anyhow it brought me back to the white input screen again but this time, it was constantly printing out indentical DEFAULT CATCH! errors over and voer. I had to turn off the mac for it to stop. When I rebooted again, and came to the lock/password screen, I can no longer enter a working password that will bring me to the input screen ??? ? ***?!!

btw, this is the password screen i see:
106482_2.jpg
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top