Help, Cube won't boot into OS 9

My Cube (G4 500 MHz) will no longer boot into OS 9, from any device whatsoever (OS 9 installation CD, internal HD, FW HD). What happens is it freezes at the 2nd gray screen (before it gets to the blue smiley-face screen).

It boots fine into OS X (10.3.9) from all of those, and Classic runs fine. It boots into the Apple Hardware Test CD, but it finds no problems.

Ideas?

If you have the ability to do so, open the cube and disconnect the internal HDD, if the same thing happens, you have a hardware issue. I've had a problem similar to this before and it ended up deing the HDD controler.

baggss said:

If you have the ability to do so, open the cube and disconnect the internal HDD, if the same thing happens, you have a hardware issue. I've had a problem similar to this before and it ended up deing the HDD controler.

Click to expand...

Thanks. Already tried that. The problem is still there without the HD (can't boot from OS 9 CD). So I bought a new motherboard (without CPU). Problem is still there. I've tried switching out lot's of components, but obviously not the right one.

I wish I could re-apply the Cube Firmware update and/or DVD-ROM firmware update, but it has to be booted into OS 9 to run the updaters!

I'd say it may be time for some profesional help....

Yeah, I tried that too. The shop is supposed to be Apple-certified, but the "professional" sounded like a green kid who just took a course or something. His solution was "replace the motherboard" for > $ 600. He provided no justification. I got a new motherboard without CPU for $140, but that didn't fix it. Maybe it is the CPU, but I doubt it is both, meaning that the guy didn't know what he was doing.

I could try an Apple Store, but that might be big money too.

The only other thing I can think of is bad RAM. If can find some, try some different RAM.

Eureka! Video card went bad! I think. Anyway, I shutdown OS X, unplugged ADC monitor, pressed power button, and held down "C" key with OS 9 installation CD in drive. That's right, no video; flying blind! (Can't use my PM 8600 Apple-plug monitor. Can't use my integrated iMac G5 monitor.)

The CD/DVD drive went to town! All of the full, normal CD chugging sounds. When it finished making noise, I tried to imagine what the screen looked like if it had successfully booted. There should be a Finder window containing the installer files. I pressed the "I" key to go to the "Installer" icon, hopefully. I pressed apple-O (it's gay to say command-O) to launch the installer. More CD drive chugging away! I kept pressing "return" and getting more CD chugging. But then I hit the "Disagree/Agree" wall. I can find no keyboard keys to click "Agree".

Doesn't matter. The culprit is outed.

You might ask if the problem could be the monitor. I didn't give the monitor to the "professional" Apple shop that tried to find the problem. They used their own monitor and still had the problem (and no solution).

But is it only the ADC port or the entire card? I'll have to borrow a VGA monitor to test the VGA port.

How can the video card be bad in OS 9 but not OS X? WhTF knows.

Yes baby! Months of *** are now over! (I think. I hope. Please God!)

Unsupported video card or bad driver in OS9?

Glad you got it working though...

I only have the stock video card that came with it. Maybe I slightly messed it up while changing out the hard drive. I say "slightly" because it still works fine with Mac OS X. Maybe I can reload the video card firmware.

Almost sounds like an OS9 video driver issue....