Got problems...

Ok so I am new to Macs (well I used the old Apple II in grade school, but that doesn't count) and are having some issues. Sorry this is long winded but I wanted to include all the details...

Details:
Got an old PowerMac G4 single 350 MHz processor, 128 MB RAM (will get more soon), ATI Rage 16 MB graphics, 10 MB HD.

A Mac friend loaded OS 10.2.8 for me and everything works great except...

So I got an additonal ATA 250 GB HD, but also need an ATA PCI card to see all 250 GBs. And then got a Belkin Wireless G network card (F5D7000 Ver. 4).

First started Mac to make sure everything is OK without any additional hardware and it checked out ok. So I added the 250 GB hard drive and like the motherboard should only recognized 130 GB, but at least it recognized it.

Then installed the ATA PCI card, but only attached the original OS (10 GB) hard drive. Everything booted up OK, gave a quick Mac smiley face and "?" and then loaded the OS (I assume it loaded the ATA PCI card). Looked at the System Utility and it recognized the new card just fine.

Shut things down and then added the new 250 GB hard drive in the same sequence as I tested before but now connected with the ATA PCI card. Started things up and everything is fine, went to the System Utility and it saw the new HD. I had to run a quick erase on it for it to show up on the desktop and seeing all 250 GB (in reality like 239 GB). Once again everything OK.

I then tried to copy the main HD to the new one, but the image didn't come out as expected so I erased the 250 GB again deciding to keep the OS on the 10 GB and leave the 250 GB for pictures and movies.

So now I shut down and install the Belkin Wireless. Started things back up and everything starts up fine, but I can't seem to get the wireless card to work, but the System Utility recognizes it as a PCI device.

At this point it was late and went to bed...today I started it up and everything is fine. Shut down and came back a few hours later to start it up and now it hangs on the Apple Smiley face and "?". So I removed the wireless card...no luck. Moved the HD cable back from the ATA PCI card to the motherboard...no luck. Removed the cable from the additional HD...no luck.

Lastly I tried the old ATA cable, since I used the new longer one that came with the ATA PCI card, with no luck.

Could the main HD just failed crashed and burned??? It sounds funny, but not out of the ordinary.

Any suggestions?

I suppose it could be a coincidental hard disk crash, but that's not a conclusion I'd jump to just yet.

Go through the usual Flashing Question Mark troubleshooting process and see where that gets you.

technologist said:

I suppose it could be a coincidental hard disk crash, but that's not a conclusion I'd jump to just yet.

Go through the usual Flashing Question Mark troubleshooting process and see where that gets you.

Click to expand...

I'll give it a shot tonight...thanks.

MacInMn said:

I'll give it a shot tonight...thanks.

Click to expand...

I decided to use the ATA PCI card to manage the HDs so both are plugged into this card.

So I fianlly tried the OS CD and it booted to it fine, but it only saw the new 250 GB HD as an installation location. The 10 GB HD wasn't even listed...

So I went into the Disk Utility and it did see the 10GB HD but said it wasn't mounted properly. I checked all the connections to the 10 GB HD and they seemd ok, but still no access to that HD.

Any thoughts from the forum?