Mac Os 9 booting on: G4 Tower MDD FW800 (Detailed Posts)

[IIO]

you can only boot from firewire if there is a another computer within your reach.

[DieHard]

you can only boot from firewire if there is a another computer within your reach.

Are you implying that we have accepted a member that owns ONLY 1 Mac ?!

This upsets me greatly...hehe

[darthnVader]

you can only boot from firewire if there is a another computer within your reach.

Are you implying that we have accepted a member that owns ONLY 1 Mac ?!

This upsets me greatly...hehe

I don't think I can run a FW cable that far, seem to recall there being a limit to the length of a 1394 cable.

Tho I think I could setup an ad-hoc wireless network for quite some ways.

[IIO]

Are you implying that we have accepted a member that owns ONLY 1 Mac ?!

This upsets me greatly...hehe

no, i was more thinking about the members which have so many macs in their factory hall that afirewire cable might not be long enough.

joke aside, plugging cables can be a real pain depending on the situation. thee more minis you have, the more you will feel the need to build a custom case, and even in my living room there is so much gear on my tables that all my cables are led behind it.

[DieHard]

joke aside, plugging cables can be a real pain depending on the situation. thee more minis you have, the more you will feel the need to build a custom case, and even in my living room there is so much gear on my tables that all my cables are led behind it.

Yeah, every room, garage, work, home... there is no escape from the plethora of "stuff" we have accumulated. Old macs never die, they just wait on shelves, to be loved once more.

[darthnVader]

Are you implying that we have accepted a member that owns ONLY 1 Mac ?!

This upsets me greatly...hehe

no, i was more thinking about the members which have so many macs in their factory hall that afirewire cable might not be long enough.

joke aside, plugging cables can be a real pain depending on the situation. thee more minis you have, the more you will feel the need to build a custom case, and even in my living room there is so much gear on my tables that all my cables are led behind it.

My den looks like the storage room at a computer repair store. Tho I don't take tech in my bedroom, not ever a phone or a clock, just a some detector and a light.

[IIO]

i wonder what kind of "detector" you have in your bedroom but maybe it is not my business.

[DieHard]

Just guessing "some detector" = "smoke detector"

[IIO]

iWarn

[Trace-Elliot]

Fantastic ! What a great masterpice!
For my ( Basic User Level ) it was easy to install os 9.2.2 on my 10 years unused G4 fw800.
Now the G4 is booting native os 9.2.2

One question , is it possible to Clone a Mac Boot Volume ( normal G4 Not fw 800) with the ASR Software on the CD Rom ?

[DieHard]

One question , is it possible to Clone a Mac Boot Volume ( normal G4 Not fw 800) with the ASR Software on the CD Rom ?

Yes... Of course

[Greystash]

I finally got my hands on a MDD FW800 1.4Ghz which came with lots of goodies (Media 100 cards + adapter etc.), and boy are the fans noisy!! I installed OS 9.2.2 easily with the ISO available on this site but have run into a few problems. OSX wouldn't sleep because of a USB card (even though it has a NEC chipset), so I removed this since I can't find any USB drivers and it's an unbranded card. The card still works on both systems but it was too annoying keeping it in and having the computer lock up after each wake.

OS9 still crashes every time it wakes from sleep and I can't figure out what's causing it. I've removed every card and only have the OS9 HDD and CD drive attached. I've tried sleeping with all extensions on and off but still get the same results. The machine goes to sleep but is unresponsive to the keyboard and mouse, and will only power up if I press the power button. When it wakes there is no display (black screen) and nothing happens. I've tried three different Video cards (tested in my quicksilver) and got the same results.

Has this happened to anyone else? Any suggestions?

[DieHard]

I hate to sound like a broken record... but the absolute 1st step (with a new G4) is to run the Apple diagnostics or tech tool diagnostics or both

AHT (Apple Hardware Test) FOUND HERE:
http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/board,33.0.html

Also, as discussed, if possible, BEFORE the diags...

1. Blow out all dust (No Vacuum, it will generate static, insert a small wire in fans while using a compressor, this prevents high speed rotation) 
2. Test MB Battery (anything below 3.4V, change it)
3. Clean all RAM contacts with automotive electric contact cleaner and paper towel, blow off paper bits
4. inspect Board (look for corrosion, battery leakage, water damage)
5. Remove all extra cards
6. inspect USB and other ports for damage
7. Arctic Silver CPU board if technically proficient

[Greystash]

Thanks for your reply DieHard.

- I've burned three copies of AHT but it's not recognised on boot. I did these both with OSX 10.4 Disk Utility and on Toast 5 under OS9. It still wont boot from the CD even after unplugging all other devices, changing the CD drive to master etc. It's also greyed out in Startup Disk. The Mac OS 9 CD boots every time so I don't think there's an issue with the drive.
- I've cleaned the machine + components as much as possible.
- MB battery is at 2.3V, I often take these out of my older machines since they're always connected to power anyway. How much can this effect things? Unfortunately it's not easy to get another one of these in NZ, I will need to order one online.
- The board is in perfect condition, no damage and no dust.
- I've removed every card other than the video card (I've tried 3 different ones), and have also removed all extra components + cables
- Ports appear to be in good condition
- I don't think this is a thermal issue since it happens when the machine is still cold from a fresh boot

Sleeping works fine in OSX which is why I don't think it's an issue with the machine. It only fails to wake under OS9 and there is no keyboard, mouse, or video response. Just the fans and disk drives spinning up. I've been testing with a fresh install from the image on this site, have tried disabling video drivers, installing newer ATI drivers etc. Have also tried several HDs.

I've reset nvram, pmu, pram which has made no difference. Do you think downgrading the firmware as mentioned earlier in this thread could help?

[macStuff]

can we get moer info on the video cards u have used
are they real mac oem or retail cards; or pc flashed cards etc?

[Greystash]

Have mostly been testing on the stock Radeon 9000 Pro AGP (64MB) that came with the machine, and have also tried an ATI Rage 128 PCI (Mac), Radeon 7000 Sapphire  PCI(PC flashed), and a NVIDIA GeForce2 MX PCI (Mac). Same results with each one, and when changing driver configurations.

[macStuff]

hmm i never knew the geforce 2 came in PCI?
 
https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/geforce2-mx-pci.c791
geforce 2 was an amazing card at the time it was released i remember being very happy with it

just keep removing extensions till u find whats causing it i guess?
have u done the whole zap the p-ram thing?

what u could try is removing the battery + unplugging the unit + leaving it over night like that
and then try putting the battery back; it may be holding on to old info in the open firmware somehow?

moderator should really split this topic to a seperate thread for greystash's issue;

[Greystash]

It sure is!

I've tried disabling all extensions except video drivers and there's no difference. Disabling all extensions disables sleep completely because of missing drivers (video).
I've reset PMU, PRAM, NVRAM and am still getting the same results - unresponsive to keyboard + mouse and crash on wake after waking with the power button. Also, after waking it appears that the keyboard and mouse aren't even getting power supplied to them. I'll try out the battery thing this weekend. I'm wondering if this is one of the very last MDD variants which have slightly different hardware and isn't playing nice with OS9??

Yeah sorry this should have gone into troubleshooting... I thought it might have been a quick fix that could have happened to others but it now seems to be a very strange case.

[Greystash]

I've hit a dead end with this after days of trying to figure it out.. For future reference this appears to be video related (will post in hardware section if I ever find out what's actually going on). I got the system to a point where if ALL video related extensions (including Quicktime QuickDraw etc.) were disabled the computer would sleep the display, turn HDs off etc. but the fans would still run. It's became responsive to mouse and keyboard input to wake. Upon waking it would show the "Computer couldn't go to sleep because of missing software etc.". Very close..

When enabling a minimal video extension setup e.g. only the 'ATI Driver', or 'NVIDIA Driver' the sleep crashing happens again (only responsive to the power button for waking, and a black screen on wake).

I think it's something to do with the Mac OS ROM/Firmware version (I think it's 4.6.x?) or a combination since it works fine in OSX, and because of the amount of different cards I've tested. I tried downgrading the firmware using the method in this thread but it wouldn't work, each time I got a message saying the firmware file couldn't be found, and believe me, I tried every combination of ways/setups to try get this working!

[sirenamusic]

I don't know if it's my computer, but when I try to uncompress and burn a cd image of os 9.2.2 and they all seem to be corrupted.