A quicksilver that seems to refuse to install any version of OSX (but loves OS9)

[part12studios]

Hi everyone, so from my prior thread i was trying to do dual booting Leopard / OS9..   now this had to do with SSD bridges and all that but then i went original and was trying to get dual boot to work with a 20gb spinner.  The drive is fine.  Perfectly healthy and came from a working sawtooth machine running Tiger. 

However this same Quicksilver has been running fine with OS9 for a long time.  It was running on an SSD with it partitioned into two parts.. the 2nd part being reserved for "media"

So as it stands, I can get any number of OSX versions to boot..  cheetah, jaguar, tiger, leopard to boot.. they can run disk utility and format drives, etc..  the installation begins and it's during the part where you've done all of the options to start the installation is when this screen comes up after a few minutes of file copying:



if image trouble, its simple black screen with white dos text saying:
the installer has quiet do to an unexpected error. (exit code 0)  please restart your computer

in some cases i've gotten the gray power button of death display with certain attempts. 

It just seems that this quicksilver has a pretty much irrational dislike of OSX..  note this machine used to have OSX Tiger when I got it..   barn spoiled running OS9 for the last year or so? 

NOTE: I have also tried even installing OS9/tiger on my sawtooth and move that hard drive over to upgrade to Leopard.  NOTE: the QS did run the Sawtooth install of OSX and OS9

"why are you trying to get leopard then Caleb?"  well I need Leopard for the M-Audio Profire 2626 which only has drivers that go as far back as leopard. 

Thanks!
Caleb

[IIO]

installing it from elsewhere is a proper solution.

but check for faulty RAM.

[part12studios]

oooooo yes FdB had mentioned that in our private chat.  but i forgot to try that. 

mind you this same machine has been running OS9 flawlessly for at least a year.. BUT i definitely agree it's worth a try.   Is there something known about OSX being more ram temperamental perhaps? 

[IIO]

yea but that can happen. in OS9 you might run apps for ages without problem (except maybe 3 missing pixels in photoshop documents) but the OSX installer includes a full check and fail to install without proper warning message. i am just guessing, but it is the only reasonable explanation i can imagine (and which i have seen myself).

[part12studios]

fantastic, easy to try AND something I haven't done yet! 

[FBz]

Seems to have been some concern considering whether or not 10.5 (Leopard) was a full install or an “Upgrade”… and even while considering that - might want to read this: https://www.cnet.com/news/failure-to-boot-after-installing-leopard-mac-os-x-10-5/ Too bad Leopard is needed for for the M-Audio Profire 2626… as I normally only go as high as 10.4.11 on the G4’s.

[Only one version of Leopard actually installed here… on a G5 - for a video app.]

I might try another install of Leopard on a G4 (ST, QS, MDD) here after reading the c/net article above but even if possibly successful with that new info, it’s rather doubtful that Leopard would be retained here.

Odd that Caleb’s QS WILL install Tiger - but falters with Leopard?

NOTE: "choose Archive and Install or Erase and Install options".

[Greystash]

Definitely check the RAM. I had some trouble with one of my PowerBook G4s recently, OS9 would install and run fine but I couldn't install OSX. After booting any OSX CD the system would crash after clicking the 'Continue' button when selecting a language. I found that often the errors were different each time but it happened consistently after a particular point in ALL OSX CDs (10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5). After booting in verbose mode I got more detailed errors at the time of crash and it specifically stated that there was memory corruption. I think there may have been one system that installed correctly with the bad ram but would then crash on boot.

Mac OS 9 never reported any memory problems, even when doing the boot memory checks. After removing the problematic memory stick OSX installed fine and I had no issues.

[IIO]

yea the verbose ram check on the apple tech CDs (whats the correct name?) might not "find" issues.

so just remove one by one and see if OSX install suddely is allowed again then you knwo who was the bad man.

[part12studios]

I think that did it!  I was able to install Leopard on my Quicksilver without a hitch.  I took 2 of the 3 sticks out..  so this is very encouraging.

Now to try it again with the SSD I have. 

Question though.  Is there a way to do a comprehensive ram check to identify which of the 3 is bad without something like i'm doing now, installing OSX on a system till it crashes?

[FBz]

https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/mac/how-test-for-bad-or-faulty-ram-on-mac-3640485/

DieHard’s absolute first suggestion (always) and rightly so:
Apple Hardware Test (AHT) for PowerMac G4 (2000)
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201257
Download: http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/board,33.0.html

TechTool Pro
Think there’s a copy on MacTron’s Rescue CD
But definitely here: http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/board,33.0.html

Ye olde Process of the Elimination.

/Thanks IIO!

[part12studios]

Yes memory was the issue!  I took out some ram and Leopard installed fine on the first try with a spinner.. i'm installing OSX / OS9 on an SSD now (from the other forum thread about trying to get two SSDs on the same IDE chain) which as a single drive (all i need) should be fine. 

I may invest in some of those higher quality master / slave selectable adapters but for now i'm going to have just the one SSD and instead invest in some external Firewire storage for music / video ..  I have a OWC Mercury Elite Pro that I think I'll invest in a 128gb-256gb SSD to put in there to keep noise down and even a little less drain on the psu of the external drive. 

Thanks everyone for your help on this!  i SMH thinking i could have removed excess ram..  much like i forgot to remove all of my PCI cards before that which did cause other issues (like Cheetah CD booting)

[part12studios]

To be clear qs would not install tiger. I used my ST to install tiger and then brought over the spinner to then install leopard on the tiger install.  At that point it would still failcwhen upgrading!  But interesting for those who ever wonder, yes the qs ran the st tiger install without skipping a beat.  Didn’t bitch about drivers or even appear to need to auto install alternate drivers for things like video card.

I did realize i own both a upgrade leopard AND a full install disk (thank you mac museum)  I am hsing yhe full install disk on ssd attempt now. Os9 will come tonight to see once and for all that its working.

Early on i thought it was the ssd but when failures happened on all osx. Puma i the only one i have not burned a disk of.

[IIO]

Question though.  Is there a way to do a comprehensive ram check to identify which of the 3 is bad

well, try to install OSX with 2 out of 3 and you will know

[part12studios]

don't think i didn't think of doing that, but figured that had to be a cooler way to do it than that