Launching DVD on startup

As a newbie I'm having difficulties installing a new op system on my G4 400MHZ. My new op system is OSX 10.4 and is on a DVD. I hold down the 'c' button and I used to get a flashing "?" but this has stopped happening. I have also tried holding down the 'option' key - and it only shows the HDD and an arrow. I currently have OS 9.2 on the mac.


Is there a way of accessing the motherboard to see that the computer has DVD has first priority boot, as in windows? Any help would be geat as I am tearing my hair out. I am sure the operating system on my DVD is not corrupt.
Thanks!

Is the Optical drive in that G4 400 for sure a DVD ROM? If so maybe the drive has issues reading DVD's.

Yep. It's a DVD rom okay. I used another DVD ROm (from a PC - I think PC DVD roms are compatible????) and still no response form the DVD...I am confused!

You can try resetting the PRAM. Not sure if it will help but seen it solve that problem a time or two. Hold down Apple-Option-P-R all at the same time when you hear the chime. Keep it all down till you hear 2 more chimes then let go. See if it then works.

Is the Tiger DVD a factory?

I tried resetting PRAM, but may not have done it properly. As for the DVD, I got it from a friend. Does not look like an original though but the contents look correct. Other thing is I had some extra ram I threw in - someone said that can screw it all up - so I have now taken out the extra ram and have just the ram that came with it...thing is - when I first put another DVD in it I was able to get the "?" at startup and now its gone!

Oh and one more thing. I notice that when I start the computer , hold down 'c' button, it can't find the DVD, starts up OS9.2, and then when I try to get the DVD out of the dvd drive, it won't come out. Not until I switch the off button - then it released the DVD from the carraige. hHis might be a clue as to whats wrong???

Is there some way of setting the boot priority in MAC, as you can in windows? Perhaps its not set to boot from the DVD???? Sorry, I'm a windows guy lost in an apple orchard!

boot all the way into OS9.2 and click on the Apple in the top left corner and control panel and startup disc. When Startup Disc comes up, have the Tiger DVD in the drive and see if it shows there. If so click on it and click Reboot.

hmmmm....did that, and it does not show up.

I think the fact that I cannot eject the DVD says a lot - but what? Any thoughts dtravis?

The question has not been answered are you sure you have a DVD drive, instead of a CD drive in your system?

Well, it says DVD ROM on the front of it, so I'm sure thats okay. The G4 400MHZ is intel-based, right? Is the installation disk different for intel-based Macs? Hopefully thats not too stupid a question! Maybe I'm puttingt he wrong kind of op system, on this mac?

lazerweb said:

Well, it says DVD ROM on the front of it, so I'm sure thats okay. The G4 400MHZ is intel-based, right? Is the installation disk different for intel-based Macs? Hopefully thats not too stupid a question! Maybe I'm puttingt he wrong kind of op system, on this mac?

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A G4 is a Power PC. TOTALLY different CPU. G3, G4, G5 are All power PC CPU's. Will not run Windows or any X86 OS. Intel and AMD are X86 CPU's. Tiger for the Intel Macs is X86 and will not run at all on a Power PC Mac. Some were quite mad when Apple went with Intel and ditched the PPC CPU but there were reasons I can understand.

If that is a copied version of OSX Tiger, that kind of thing is very much looked down here on Mac Forums. You need to purchase a copy of OSX Tiger 10.4 for PPC. There are many on Ebay and for quite low prices now a days. I had a feeling that was what was up but did not want to say anything till I was sure.

I honestly don't know if it is a pirated version. I am not one to support piracy and will immediatly purchase a PPC version (now that I know whats going on!). Thanks for your help on this - we finally sorted it out. WIll report back when I get a PPC version.

lazerweb said:

I honestly don't know if it is a pirated version. I am not one to support piracy and will immediatly purchase a PPC version (now that I know whats going on!). Thanks for your help on this - we finally sorted it out. WIll report back when I get a PPC version.

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Cool! Do that. It's hard for me to get used to the fact there are 2 kinds of Macs now with 2 Tigers (PPC and Intel)! Will be here should you need any help.

new mac

HI dtravis! I went online at Ebay and am bidding on what I think is the correct operating system for my G4 400MHZ Mac. Could you have a look at this item and confirm that it is the correct one please? It's here. Hopefully you'll be able to see this URL:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...Sell_LogicX&refwidgettype=cross_promot_widget

lazerweb said:

HI dtravis! I went online at Ebay and am bidding on what I think is the correct operating system for my G4 400MHZ Mac. Could you have a look at this item and confirm that it is the correct one please? It's here. Hopefully you'll be able to see this URL:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...Sell_LogicX&refwidgettype=cross_promot_widget

Click to expand...

Oh my, that is way too old. That is like the first OSX or around. You want at least Jaguar 10.2 but better 10.3 Panther or 10.4 Tiger. Panther and Tiger would be the best with the best support for new applications and Safari is night and day also. I guess it really depends on what you want to spend. On that machine even Tiger 10.4 will run fine if you give it 512Megs RAM or more.

Here is a Jaguar complete that looks good.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Mac-OSX-10-2-Ja...ryZ80258QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem


Here are a couple of Panthers 10.3.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Mac-Mini-OSX-10...goryZ171QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/Mac-OSX-10-3-Pa...ryZ80258QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

And here is Tiger 10.4

http://cgi.ebay.com/MAC-OSX-10-4-Ti...ryZ80258QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Hope this helps. Don't get that older one. Won't give you a good idea about OSX.

thanks

Thanks for that. I am currently unemployed and cannot afford to pay much, but will take your advice. I'll let you know how it goes! Thanks again

lazerweb said:

Thanks for that. I am currently unemployed and cannot afford to pay much, but will take your advice. I'll let you know how it goes! Thanks again

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Know that feeling. Don't have a lot of $$$ either. Take care!! Good luck.

i have an old OS hanging around, i think it is 10.3 ill think about selling it toyou if you PM me on the forums...only way i will remember about i t....but i wont be around again until monday.

good luck
-chris

HI Dtravis, in the end I actually bought that op system which you say is way too old. However I am VERY VERY happy with it and it was real cheap. I'll buy a new mac when I start my new job. Thing is, I really just wanted to get a simple system so I could learn the mac, and this is perfect. (a bit like starting off with the history of MAC lol!). I'm loving it! Now I'm just trying to get it networked with my other computers (three on Windows and two on Suse linux). Now that's a challenge. It seems not to see the network. I'm running DHCP which dishes out IP addresses...any ideas? Thanks for your guidance with all this stuff.

Chris I really appeciate your offer, but I'm happy with what I have now. Thanks again