g4 boots to open firmware

I just bought an old G4 gigabit 400 mhz. Came w/ no ram and no hdd. I put 2 x 128 pc133 ram and a 40 gb hd w/ os X 10.3.9. When I turn on the tower I get 1 long beep, followed by 3 short beeps (ram?) - the g4 will then boot to open firmware. If I enter "mac-boot" the box will boot to OS X off of the hdd. Why won't it boot directly to the HDD??? BTW - I am a mac newbie....

Welcome to Mac-Forums, boomer202. I hope you stick around! :girl:

Ok first thing to try is Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM.

Thanx MHC - I will try it. I have an up and running G4 and bought this one as a builder. It appears to be a frankenstein box. Supposed to be a g4 450 but processor is a 400. Looks like a collection of parts. But I can get it to boot and runs well once booted......I have a lot to learn.

No problem! I hope this fixes it for you! If not post again and we'll try to figure something else out.

reset the pram and nvram - to no avail. Noticed that when I plug in the G4 the power light on the fron panel illuminates immediately (without having pressed the power button) - the logic board plugs directly into the logic board. Anybody have a clue? If I turn the tower on/off (plug and unplug) several times it will finally boot to the open firmware prompt - if I do a mac-boot the box will boot and I have no problems...but when I power it off the problem starts all over again. Logic board toast???

oops - I meant that the front panel board plugs directly into the logic board....

Funny thing. I was looking up something else at Apple Support yesterday and stumbled upon this article: Apple Hardware Test CD: Computer Starts Into Open Firmware. I bookmarked it in case you'd still need help.

Probably the previous owner ran the older Hardware Test and got stuck in this somehow?

Or try Resetting the Cuda Chip.

Worth a shot - BTW I have already reset the cuda chip. I will call Apple and see if I can get a hardware test cd v2.0.1 and go from there - thanx for your thoughts on the matter. I'd hate to think I would have to trash the logic board entirely - when I can get it to boot it works great.

Good luck, boomer!

boomer,

In case you're still having the problem and still monitoring this string, try checking for a 1/2 AAA 1.5vdc Lithium battery (shaped like a barrel, probably) somewhere on the logic board.

The problems you're having with boot sequencing seem reminiscent of the dread-dead-battery syndrome.

Just a thought. . .

You can probably find a replacement battery at any Computer store, such as CompUSA or Circuit City. Wally-world has a lot of batteries, too.

Call first?

I changed out the logic board battery 1st thing....didn't help. Thanx for the suggestion though.