old imac hangs after OS X install

I'm a long time PC user whose always wanted to try a Mac. I recently traded a guy for an older blue iMac running OS 9.3. The machine worked fine, but I was having trouble finding a usable browser. I ended up buying a used OS X Panther 10.3. I installed it, everything went fine and it asked me to reboot. After reboot, all it does is hang on the gray screen with the Apple in the middle. Nothing I can do changes this (mind you I don't know what the heck I'm doing).

Before the install, I made sure the iMac hat the latest available firmware update.

The machine, from memory, has a 20 gig HD, 384 megs ram, 16 megs video ram. Zero software on disk came with the machine other than the OS X package I bought. Any suggestions?

It might have something to do with the Panther disc you bought. it needs to be a retail disc and not the install disc that came with a particular Mac.

Agreed with Pulse, where did you buy the 10.3 CD?

Is it a full install or a restore or machine specific?

It looks to be a retail version and says right on the box that it's good for Power PC G3, I just noticed it also says 600 mhz processor. I have a sick feeling mine is 500 mhz...gulp. Would that cause this mess?

I've just been searching for images of the two different Panther install discs to no avail (or just didn't try hard enough) so I'm glad you stepped in dtravis7 ...

dtravis7 said:

Agreed with Pulse, where did you buy the 10.3 CD?

Is it a full install or a restore or machine specific?

Click to expand...

Looks like a full install. Picked it up used from a local guy who bought a new Mac with a newer OS X included.

I't's for sure not the CPU speed. I have a Retail Panther 10.3 here installed on my iMac G3 333Mhz Grape. That is a much slower machine than yours and it works great. Not blazing speed, but good enough to do basic everyday stuff and get used to OSX. I only have 256 Megs RAM in the 333. I am wondering if there is a problem with the Hard drive and maybe some bad sectors or the install went bad. I have had issues with some older imacs where the CDROM drive was not that great and caused errors reading the CD. Other than that not sure. Could you try a reinstall and see if that maybe helps? Also try booting right after you hear the chime by holding down the shift key till it starts to boot. That will boot OSX in Safe Mode. See if it boots then.

Even Tiger runs fine on a 233Mhz G3, so it's not a speed problem.

I'd try the suggestions above, and maybe try reseating your RAM as well.

None of the above suggestions work. The install went without a hitch then on the reboot it hangs on the gray apple screen no matter what you do. It does the chime and then you get to the gray screen. The computer spits out any of the OS X Cd's from the gray screen. I tried the Apple key and S key on bootup and it changes to a screen of "can't load..." and "failed to load..." then locks up. Holding the shift key or any other combinations does nothing.

Hmmm, Thanks anyway...I guess...