Imac 800 problems

[Jason P]

Hi there,

I have an Imac 800 flat panel, with 512mb Ram/60 gig HD and has been running OS10.1.5 flawlessly for 2 years.

Last week my printer died - and so I bought a new Canon IP4000. Problem 1 - no drivers for 10.1, only 10.2 and above. Ah well, time to upgrade the OS i guess - so I bought Panther from my local reseller.

After backing up, I tried to upgrade - but it got to the end of the upgrade process and just stopped with the message 'There were some errors during installation - please restart your computer'

This helpful and informative missive appeared every time I tried to install - first upgrade, then archive/install, then low-level format and install. No joy. As a bonus OS10.1 won't install now (I was hoping it would so I could at lest get the machine working) which is odd as it was fine for 2 years previously!! The install process works through to the end, then comes up with the same message as above with the addition of 'could not write file'

Hardware test revealed an error - memory_2/_4. I can't find reference to this on any internet forums or sites. All other hardware tests were OK, logic board and disk. I did notice that the memory chips are different. One is a PC100 (Kingston) and the other (factory installed) is a PC133.

I've removed the Kingston (user accessible) DIMM, and the error still persists, suggesting it is the internal memory.

If anyone could shed any light on this, with possible solutions, I'd be most grateful!

Cheers,

Jason

 

[Padawan]

Jason,

Is that the complete error message that you receive? I found an article here that seems to discuss similar messages, and might have a bit of info for you if there is an additional portion to the message you receive.

 

[Macman]

its possible the original internal memory could be old, and has gone bad. that would cause the problem. and your ram, the kingston too, should be pc133. have you tried an erase and install? if its the internal ram, I don't think it can be replaced, or at least its not very easy. I'd suggest that if you have access to another mac, try booting using target disc mode, and use the other mac to install panther on the imac.

 

[Jason P]

Thanks chaps.

Padawan - no other message - though the thread was interesting, I'm hoping it's not that bad though.

I'm kinda stuck now in not wanting to spend ££'s on RAM that might not work, but having a useless paperweight unless I do. Ahh well, the joys of Macs I guess.

Thanks once again


Jason