PowerMac G4 400 no boot menu

[Melllvar]

When I hold down Option I just get the ? folder icon.

I picked up a PowerMac G4 400 Yikes.
It booted off the hard drive to 9.1 and I wanted to do a fresh install using the Universal 9.2.2 image.
I burned a CD-R to do the install and through swapping a drive from an eMac I booted onto the CD-R, albeit slowly, I erased the hard drive and then the install failed.

Now I have a LaCie rugged firewire drive that I think has the image on it correctly, but I can't get to the boot options screen. I have tried a cheap Microsoft keyboard and an Apple keyboard. The Apple keyboard boots to the loading screen on the eMac.... soemtimes, but that's another story.

[FBz]

So, now you’ve a hard drive taken from an eMac inside the Yikes?
You attempted to install Universal 9.2.2 on that eMac HD and it failed?

Universal CD-R in the machine & booted with option key / machine doesn’t see CD-R?
How is / are the jumper(s) set on the now newly installed eMac’s HD?

Start over.
Power up the Yikes, holding down on the mouse until CD drive opens.
Place the Universal CD-R into the machine and then power it down.
(Unplug it if you have to.)
With the CD-R still in the machine, then power it up - holding down option / ALT key.
(And if it spits the CD-R back out, push it back in while still holding down the option / ALT.)
Sometimes seems that it does take forever to boot and requires extreme patience.

ALL above with ONLY bare minimum hardware. (Keyboard, monitor, mouse.)
Nothing other than a single video card and no external peripherals, network, etc.

Might check / change where you have your mouse connected too.
Keyboard - OR direct into USB port on the machine.

IF you can then boot from the CD-R… initialize and format the eMac HD again.
And try another install.

If you’re also attempting an OS 9 install on THE eMac, that’s a whole other
can o’ worms which requires the Unsupported OS 9 DL and Open Firmware fun.

[Melllvar]

The Yikes has it's original HD still. I moved the optical drive from the eMac into the Yikes to try to get it to recognize the OS9 Universal CD-R that I burned.

I removed the extra RAM and the Adaptec SCSI drive from it, plugged the keyboard and mouse directly into the two USB ports, and still won't go to the startup-disk screen with Option pressed during boot. Just the ? Folder icon. I can Alt-Z from there to get to open firmware but that doesn't seem to get me anywhere either.

The optical drive opens with the face button and I've tried leaving the disc in at power-up, opening and re-closing the tray. Holding C while booting.

For the eMac I'm trying to just get a fresh install of Tiger on it.

[FBz]

Sounds like a bad burn of the OS 9.2 download via a Windows machine that the Yikes then doesn’t recognize as a bootable disc. (But it did boot from it once for a then eventual, failed install?) Nobody nearby with a Mac that you could get to burn the Universal disc?

Is the eMac still currently bootable / functional? if so, move the (untouched) Windows downloaded Universal file to the eMac and then burn a disk from it there, for use THEN… in the Yikes??? (Worry about  fresh Tiger on the eMac later?)

“Face button”?
That something on a Windows keyboard?
Someone else here (still in the realm of Windows) might be able to guide you through burning there… for the Mac. Not me.

Is there still a SCSI card in a slot? If so, out that comes!

Still think your burned Universal disc is N.G.

You can try the open firmware keystrokes to test / boot from the CD but if that doesn’t work, THEN your CD burn is really suspect.
Reference:  http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,4658.msg33605.html#msg33605

[Melllvar]

Also holding down the mouse button on the Yikes on boot does not open the optical drive tray, it does on the eMac. "Face button" is the physical eject button on the face of the optical drive, as shown in IMG_8218

I am not ruling out that the CD-R is burned incorrectly.

The thing I keep getting hung up on: I hold down the same button on the same physical keyboard and the eMac shows the expected screen with the startup disk chooser (not sure the correct term, see IMG_8215) but the Yikes doesn't show that, it shows the ?/Mac Folder (IMG_8217).

Again, not trying to muddy the waters with the eMac but to show that I'm using the same procedure with the exact same input devices and getting a different result. Even with no CD-RW in the drive, I cannot get to the screen that lets me choose a startup disk.

And I did remove the SCSI card and the extra RAM to get it as close to stock as possible.

[Melllvar]

So, as close to stock as I can make this

Remove SCSI card
Removed extra 256MB ram
Re-installed original optical drive
Pluged Power, VGA NO network, hubs, etc
Plugged Apple keyboard and Apple mouse directly into the two USB ports on the Yikes

Power up the Yikes, holding down on the mouse until CD drive opens.
Doesn't eject when holding mouse button. I used the physical eject button on the optical drive and place the OS9 Lives Universal CD
Place the Universal CD-R into the machine and then power it down.
(Unplug it if you have to.)
Done, did not have to unplug it
With the CD-R still in the machine, then power it up - holding down option / ALT key.
No joy, CD activity light does come on. Only get ?/Mac Folder on the screen (IMG_8216/IMG_8217)
(And if it spits the CD-R back out, push it back in while still holding down the option / ALT.)
Sometimes seems that it does take forever to boot and requires extreme patience.
I've left it like this overnight, still on ?/Mac Folder

[ssp3]

Try these:
1. It never hurts to zap a PRAM - CMD-OPT-P-R
2. Boot from CD - hold down "C"
3. Bypass startup drive and boot from external or CD - CMD-OPT-SHIFT-DELETE

[Melllvar]

Try these:
1. It never hurts to zap a PRAM - CMD-OPT-P-R
Heard the chime, waited until it chimed again. Note I did remove the PRAM battery in case it was old and about to leak/explode.
2. Boot from CD - hold down "C"
Still no luck. Same result. It spins a few times but never boots.
3. Bypass startup drive and boot from external or CD - CMD-OPT-SHIFT-DELETE
Same result as 2

I was able to use asr to make a Tiger install image that did work on the eMac for a fresh install. The same firewire drive doesn't boot on the Yikes :shrug:

[DieHard]

Humor me... burn this diag and see if it boots... if it does run the extended tests
http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,813.0.html

You can also try Mactron's stuff here:
http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/board,33.0.html

[peeperpc]

The internal HDD may be bad. I would try disconnecting it. Sometimes a bad internal drive can block all the process.

[ssp3]

I vaguely remember my DA refusing to boot because of dead battery.

[Greystash]

Have you tried anything with Open Firmware? If you boot into Open Firmware (hold command + option + O + F during boot) you can enter the following enter once the prompt is available.

Code: [Select]

multi-boot This will take you to the boot selector. If that fails you can also set the boot device within Open Firmware.

[Melllvar]

multi-boot gets me

Device list is empty. Init lable-package failed
 can't OPEN: hd:,\\:tbxi