Trouble Installing 10.4

Um Hello I'm new, and I'm having trouble with my first Mac.
My teacher in computer repair class gave it to me, its a Power Mac G4 (Gigabit).
The thing wasn't loading OS 9.2. We assumed because it was installed on a different computer.

Now we are trying to install 10.4 (PPC version of course). Everything seems to install fine no problems up until we restart the computer. It starts acting slow, and the "Welcome to OSX"? video is playing at 3 frames a minute (the sound is alright though) After that it takes at least a minute to recognize we pressed continue, and pretty much freezes any time we attempt to do anything other then move the mouse around.

We also tried taking the hard drive from a Sawtooth G4 that was running 10.4 and using it in this thing, but all we get is the apple logo turning into a ( / ).

How much RAM is in the Gigabit?

dtravis7 said:

How much RAM is in the Gigabit?

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1.5 GB (two 512s, two 256s)
umm some of the other specs so people don't ask later are:

dual 500 Mhz CPU
80 GB hard drive.
Everything else is pretty much stock, what it came with (as far as I can tell)

Then it's not the RAM. That is plenty. If 10.4 works on a Sawtooth decently it should on a Gigabit also. I was going to suggest the hard drive is bad but you said you took one out of a Sawtooth and put it in with same issues.

dtravis7 said:

Then it's not the RAM. That is plenty. If 10.4 works on a Sawtooth decently it should on a Gigabit also. I was going to suggest the hard drive is bad but you said you took one out of a Sawtooth and put it in with same issues.

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Well slightly different issue, the installed hard drive is having a hard time setting up OSX and the sawtooth's hard drive on the Gigabit is not even getting past the apple logo.

Sypran said:

Now we are trying to install 10.4 (PPC version of course). Everything seems to install fine no problems up until we restart the computer. It starts acting slow, and the "Welcome to OSX"? video is playing at 3 frames a minute (the sound is alright though) After that it takes at least a minute to recognize we pressed continue, and pretty much freezes any time we attempt to do anything other then move the mouse around.

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Sometimes a dead PRAM battery on older Mac's can cause problems. Check the PRAM battery for "life". It's located on the logic board...and looks something like this (it may be a different color):



- Nick

Alright, I have class again on Thursday, and I'll check if the battery is dead. Hopefully my teacher has spares.

The battery was in fact dying, (the voltmeter said ~ 1.3 Volts) However the best battery he had otherwise the voltmeter read at 3.2... I'm guessing that isn't good enough and I'll need to buy a new one?
Also this battery really will cause the first setup of the OS to be slow? I mean installing the OS was 100% fine everything worked perfectly, but as soon as it get to that video it just freezes constantly.

Sypran said:

Also this battery really will cause the first setup of the OS to be slow? I mean installing the OS was 100% fine everything worked perfectly, but as soon as it get to that video it just freezes constantly.

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I've personally experienced a dead PRAM battery causing problems on some computer models....specifically freezing...that's why I mentioned it.

It was just a suggestion...your choice whether to pursue purchasing a new PRAM battery ($3.99).

- Nick

p.s. I would have thought that the battery reading 3.2volts would have been good enough...maybe it needs a full 3.6v.

For $4? ehh why not If it doesn't work I'll probably just take a sawtooth that does work home.

Sypran said:

For $4? ehh why not If it doesn't work I'll probably just take a sawtooth that does work home.

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Yes...$4.00 bucks isn't very much (of course there's shipping as well)! If it helps (and if you are located in the US)...if you're in a hurry...I believe (at one time not very long ago) that I've seen these battery's at Radio Shack and Micro Center. But they may cost you more than $3.99.

I also wanted to mention...that when I've experienced freezing on a Mac computer due to a dead or weak PRAM battery...the freezing usually happened in less than 5 minutes...many times less than 2 minutes (sometimes even less).

Because of the number of Mac's I have that use the PRAM battery pictured above...I have 3-4 of them brand new sitting on the shelf.

- Nick

I got the thing working! Thank you everyone!
Anyways turns out something was wrong with the graphics card, cause putting a standard Rage 128 in it worked perfectly. Well no ADC for me (not like I had an ADC monitor so nothing lost)

Congrats!