iMac G3 - flashing question mark

Hi, I have an imac g3 and I just bought a new dvd rom for it and after I had installed it and turned the computer on it would start flashing between the macintosh symbol and a question mark. It worked fine before. Does anyone know what I did wrong. Thanks

You had it installed or did it yourself? First up crack her open and check all cables are securely attached and that the jumpers have been set correctly.

I installed it myself and from what i can see their is a cable that goes from the HD to the dvd rom and finally to the computer itself, and then another cable that gets power to the HD. Are their any other cables that I missed. Thanks

And you never ever give model details, some run the optical drive off the hard drive. Hard drive must be set to master and optical to slave using the jumpers.

Apple - Support - Discussions - iMac G3 Rev.A fails to recognise a ...


Jumpers

For some reason my new dvd drive does not have a slave-master switch but i see where it should be. My old cd drive Does have a slave-master switch. would this have anything to do with my new drive not having an adaptor and having to use my old one? Thanks

I do not know of any IDE drives with out a jumper. If its not on the back,look on the bottom of the drive. They will be much smaller than the standard size jumper thats on the back. They may say PK instead of master. If you can not set the jumper the same as the old drive you will need to find another drive or its not going to work. You can always use an USB or Firewire external.

I can see where the switch should be, their is a hole and the words slave-master on it but no switch, which is weird. also do you know if having to use my old drives adaptor would make it not work. Thanks

It is not an actual switch merely tiny metal posts on which the plastic coated jumper sits. Look at the photo in this link and you ill see the white jumper marked as Master/Slave:-

Anatomy of an Optical Drive | Hardware Secrets

Ok I looked at the jumper and from what I can see it is all ready set to master. when I start up my computer it doesn't recegnize the HD at all, like if I start it up with out the HD or the dvd drive pluged in I does the same thing, and when I plug my old cd drive and the HD in it starts up fine. Is the adaptor I put on on new drive from my old drive the problem or what? Thanks for the help

Powermac said:

Ok I looked at the jumper and from what I can see it is all ready set to master. when I start up my computer it doesn't recegnize the HD at all, like if I start it up with out the HD or the dvd drive pluged in I does the same thing, and when I plug my old cd drive and the HD in it starts up fine. Is the adaptor I put on on new drive from my old drive the problem or what? Thanks for the help

Click to expand...

Here's something to consider. You never mentioned what model G3 iMac you have...but the early G3 iMac's did not have a DVD drive (it was a CD only drive)...so trying to install a DVD drive may not be compatible in some way.

This may be a long shot idea...but something you could look into.

- Nick

My computer is a 400mhz imac g3 ruby slot loading, with 10gb HD and 256mb ram, runing on os x 10.2.

Ok I looked in to it and I think it would normally work but I think I am going to return the dvd drive, and maybe get a diffrent one somewhere else.

Thanks to all!!!

Powermac said:

Ok I looked in to it and I think it would normally work but I think I am going to return it, and maybe get a diffrent one somewhere else.

Thanks to all!!!

Click to expand...

Are you returning the DVD drive or the iMac?

It must be remembered that although Apple & Wintel computers share a lot of common hardware these days...there was a time when hardware made for "Wintel" computers WAS NOT compatible with Apple computers.

So it's quite possible that the DVD drive that was purchased is not compatible with an iMac G3...that is somewhere in the neighborhood of 8-9 years old.

Good luck,

- Nick

Once you find a drive that works with your Mac. The jumper needs to be set to slave as the Hard Drive will be the master. There on the same ribbon and can not share the same id. Many slot load Imacs came with DVD drives. Take a search on Ebay for one.
eBay