Hello! I am new here, but not so new to Macintosh computers. The reason for this post is that I am developing a CD and some associated documentation for people that have corrupted the Open Firmware in their iMac DVs by some means or another and I would like to help people that might need it, while they help me to test my findings.
I know that this is probably an old, well-documented problem, and the affected machines are probably in landfills or in the hands of those more knowledgeable or with more time to "play," but I have bought one of these machines and thought that it would be a fun last-day-of-vacation project to make a bootable CD that would magically fix it in one easy, electrocution-free step.
The machine has not arrived yet, but I am characteristically impatient and also would like to help anyone else who might be having this problem.
Now for the details:
The problem - iMac DVs that were upgraded to a version of OS X without having been upgraded with a 4.1.9 firmware lose their video. You would not think this would be a common occurrence, but for some reason (possibly a Jaguar bug?), it is.
My solution - with a lot of help from some NetBSD/macppc documentation, I was able to create a bootable HFS CD which injects the forth code required for the OF upgrade. I had some knowledge of this from the past, because I have a bad habit of losing my Mac OS 9 CD *after* I format the hard drives of old iMacs... This solution takes the CD that I created for that problem a step further by (hopefully) not requiring any Open Firmware interaction.
Anyway, if this situation applies to you, I'd be more than happy to help you to get up and running so that you don't have to sell your still-full-of-life iMac for parts. Let me know and I can send you the link to a small wiki page I've created with the files and details.
And, if this topic has been addressed previously in better detail, I apologize for repeating it. I just wanted to provide a concise, reliable fix for myself and others.
I know that this is probably an old, well-documented problem, and the affected machines are probably in landfills or in the hands of those more knowledgeable or with more time to "play," but I have bought one of these machines and thought that it would be a fun last-day-of-vacation project to make a bootable CD that would magically fix it in one easy, electrocution-free step.
The machine has not arrived yet, but I am characteristically impatient and also would like to help anyone else who might be having this problem.
Now for the details:
The problem - iMac DVs that were upgraded to a version of OS X without having been upgraded with a 4.1.9 firmware lose their video. You would not think this would be a common occurrence, but for some reason (possibly a Jaguar bug?), it is.
My solution - with a lot of help from some NetBSD/macppc documentation, I was able to create a bootable HFS CD which injects the forth code required for the OF upgrade. I had some knowledge of this from the past, because I have a bad habit of losing my Mac OS 9 CD *after* I format the hard drives of old iMacs... This solution takes the CD that I created for that problem a step further by (hopefully) not requiring any Open Firmware interaction.
Anyway, if this situation applies to you, I'd be more than happy to help you to get up and running so that you don't have to sell your still-full-of-life iMac for parts. Let me know and I can send you the link to a small wiki page I've created with the files and details.
And, if this topic has been addressed previously in better detail, I apologize for repeating it. I just wanted to provide a concise, reliable fix for myself and others.