Dear Captain Havoc,
Gosh do we all hate that
taunting happy Mac face, here. AND that Mouse Suicide plunge +
freezy too. First I wonder if you’ve a non Apple mouse / keyboard… but if it was working under 10.4 - perhaps not the issue?
Shouldn’t need to revert to earlier V.8. Stay the course with V.9.
Tried “c” key boot? (Yes IIO, lower case “c” there.)
Tried “option” key boot?
Then there’s the ol’ Open Firmware boot to try as well.
http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,4658.msg33605.html#msg33605(Substitute “V.9 disk” where it says “Universal Install” in the above post.)
You might have a slight “bad burn” disc if none of the above works.
Best of luck.
*Blow dust out of the CD/DVD drive?
**No thumb drives or any other non-essential connections.
***Can you boot from any (other) OS X installer disc?
If you can get it to boot from the V.9 disc, format your HD
before the install.