Mac OS 9 Lives
Mac OS 9 Discussion => Hardware => Topic started by: keithiepoo on August 26, 2025, 12:39:48 PM
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Hello folks, last night I started up my turquoise iMac, twice, and both times it froze before extensions started loading up. I've attached a screen capture.
I know someone in my area who might be able to do something about it, but he just rose my IIcx from its coma, free of charge, so I figured I'd ask here to see if this might be a simple fix.
Thank you guys.
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Reset PRAM. Hold the keys for a few seconds after turning on the Mac before rebooting -- Control + CMD + F + O
Boot Mac OS without extensions -- Hold Shift.
If this does not help, you can try to boot from the CD, for example, the OS9 image prepared by the community is perfect for this.
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Alright. I'll give these a try and see what happens. Thanks ;D
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Reset PRAM. Hold the keys for a few seconds after turning on the Mac before rebooting -- Control + CMD + F + O
Boot Mac OS without extensions -- Hold Shift.
If this does not help, you can try to boot from the CD, for example, the OS9 image prepared by the community is perfect for this.
Question (it's been a long time since I last did this): Do press Control + CMD + F + O before or after the opening chime? And, what about the shift key for extensions?
Thanks.
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I don’t even wait for the chime. As soon as you press the power button, then hold down the four keys together and that’s… Command + Option (alt) +p+r (Not F+O or f+0, unless you’re shooting for an Open Firmware boot.)
(http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=7639.0;attach=15882;image)
And some wait for only two chimes, I go three… before release. Then you can quickly release the four keys and hold down the Option + Command keys together, immediately afterwards, to rebuild the desktop.
OR… only just the shift key afterwards, if you then want to boot with extensions off.
NO Control key used at all.
(Guess I'd better go look at a Windows keyboard maybe?).
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Wow, that was thorough! Thank you!
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Yes, it's my terrible mistake. I confused the reset RPAM with the Openfirmware input. :o
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Yes, it's my terrible mistake. I confused the reset RPAM with the Openfirmware input. :o
Terrible mistake??
Bro, you gave me a keyboard chart!!! For crying out loud, most people don't go that far to help a stranger out.
Thank you again ;D
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Well, I tried both recommendations. My conclusion? The machine’s sick.
Resetting the PRAM and rebuilding the desktop only resulted in a freeze at the same point in the startup procedure as in my original screen photo.
Booting with extensions off got my machine through the boot-up process, but I was greeted with a dialogue box that read, "This disk is unreadable by this computer. Do you want to initialize the disk?" It then gave me two 14.9GB formatting options, which makes no sense since the disk in there’s only 6GB.
Anyway, not wanting to reinitialize anything, I tried a hard shut-down. But, that didn't work. In desperation, I hit command-option-escape, and the dialogue box disappeared. But, while my icons were there (and rearranged), the desktop background was not.
I tried an old CD I have for Conflict Catcher, but it wouldn’t mount. I tried my Disk Warrior CD, but it wouldn’t mount either. I tried a third CD, same result. A result of extensions off maybe?
Anyway, I’m suspecting a main HD problem. I may have to have a local Mac techie I know open him up.
Anyway man, thanks.