SOLVED PowerMac G4 Boot issues

[Jdizzle42]

Hello,
I have a powermac g4 that I acquired recently and I'm having alot of issues getting it to boot into an OS. I feel as though I've tried everything and have read through a ton of forums looking for something to help, but nothing I try is working. I've tried booting from all the PPC G4 original CDs. MacOS 9 is the closest the computer came to booting into an OS. It goes past the first screen, and then goes to the next that says starting up, but then the screen goes black. I've retried it with 2 different disc drives, used a few different hard drives, opened the firmware and ran a bunch of commands I saw in forums. I'm at a loss. Hopefully someone here still knows something about power macs. Please help

Thanks

 

[MacsBug]

Hi there, and welcome to the forums..

Which G4 do you have? Have you replaced the battery in the G4? The original battery in most of the G4 towers is a 3.6v 850mah Lithium cell which I don't believe is available anymore. I have found that this battery at amazon (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F9AEWVO) works well in the G4's.

Another thing to note is that after OS X came out, I believe it was in 10.2 that came with a firmware update that after applied several of the G4's would no longer boot into OS 9. Best thing to do is try to boot with a Mac OS X 10.3, or 10.4 disk. If you don't have one of these, you can download them at https://www.macintoshrepository.org. Try locating a disk that is an ISO unless you have a Mac that has Roxio Toast installed.

Also note that G4's will only boot from internal drives or external Firewire drives. Booting from USB is not supported on the G4's.

 

[Jdizzle42]

I have the m8570 MDD.
I also tried the original G4 mac osx 10.1.3 disc and it gave me a weird symbol and just wouldn't boot into it.

 

[Jdizzle42]

Also it's the original disc drive that I have 2 of hooked up through ide on the motherboard. No USB

 

[MacsBug]

I believe that in the G4 MDD if the battery is too low or dead then it may not boot. You shouls check the battery. It should read as 3.6V. If it is under 3.2V it needs to be replaced.

In your 1st post, you mentioned that you tried a few open firmware commands. Not knowing what you tried there I would recommend resetting the PRAM and NVRAM .

To do this hold down the Command Option P R keys. After you hear the 3rd chime you can let go of the keys.

Then, boot into the Open Firmware by holding down the Command Option O F keys. Then type in the following 3 commands.

reset-nvram
set-defaults
reset-all

The computer will reboot after you hit Enter after reset-all.


To boot from the CD/DVD you would hold down the C key as soon as you hear the chime.

If the CD/DVD has diagnostics on it, you can boot into the Diagnostics by holding down the D key.

 

[Jdizzle42]

I just ordered a new battery, will be a week before it gets here. Thank you so much for answering so fast, it's a lot of helpful information. Will post here again if I get stuck

 

[MacsBug]

Let us know if replacing the battery resolves your issue.

 

[Jdizzle42]

Sad news. The new battery and firmware commands didn't change anything. Still having the exact same errors. Maybe it's something wrong with these disc's I bought? But they seem totally legit. Hopefully you still have a couple tricks up your sleeve MacsBug, because I refuse to give up on this thing.

 

[MacsBug]

If you have access to another Mac you may want to download and create a new set of install discs. Also, if you do have access to another Mac, the G4 can boot from an external Firewire drive if you are able to install an OS on one.

It may just be that the install media that you have is bad.

 

[Jdizzle42]

I unfortunately do not have access to another Mac
Could I use a windows pc to burn an iso file to a cd?

 

[Jdizzle42]

I apologize if I sound stupid about this stuff. I've always been a windows user, and just out of the blue decided to buy this G4 for a project and delve into the world of macs. I was only about 3 years old when this one came out

 

[MacsBug]

No need to apologize..

Yes, you can burn a mac image on a Windows PC as long as the image is a .iso. I have also had some luck burning a .dmg by changing the .dmg to .iso. but, this will depend on how the .dmg was created.

Also, in the past I have had issues using -RW media. When burning you should use CD-R or DVD-R depending on the size if the image.

 

[Jdizzle42]

Another thing to mention, as I feel this could definitely affect a lot of things, is that I'm running this off an ATX power supply. I have the correct adapter for the power connection, but it could still be causing issues or something.

 

[MacsBug]

Hi there,

After my last post, I decided to test what I told you about burning a disk image using Windows.

In order to burn a Mac disk image in Windows, you will need to download anyburn free (http://www.anyburn.com/download.php). The built in Windows Burn to Disk will not read a Mac Disk image, even if its an ISO.

Anyburn will burn Mac .dmg format disk images. I tested this in Windows 10.

Just note that earlier releases of the G4 MDD will boot from 10.2 through 10.5.8, and the later releases will only boot from 10.3.2 thru 10.5.8. If the CDs that you got were for the earler released G4 MDD and you have a newer version that may be why your CDs won't boot properly. So I would recommend installing either 10.3, 10.4 or 10.5.

If you cannot find disk images for the version of OS X that you want to install let me know what version of OS X you want, and I will upload them and send you a link. Also 10.3 is a multi CD installer, 10.4 is either a multi CD or a DVD installer, and 10.5 is a DVD installer.

As for the ATX power supply, if the power supply is good, and you got the correct adaptor cable, this shouldn't be a problem

 

[Jdizzle42]

I have successfully installed MacOS X 10.5.
I bought a legit copy of it, went great. Thank you for the suggestion to try a different OS version.

 

[MacsBug]

awesome.

Glad that you are up and running.

 

[Jdizzle42]

I have a new issue sir, and I'm curious if you can help. I'm trying to set up file sharing between windows 10 and this ppc g4 running on os x 10.5 leopard. For some reason when I turn on file sharing, it just simply won't show up on my windows pc.

 

[MacsBug]

You need to make sure that you checked Shared Folder in the Get Info window of the Drive or Folder that you want to share.

Next in the Sharing System Preference Pane, if you select File Sharing, you should see a button called Options on the bottom right of the prefs. Make sure that you have "Share files and folders using SMB" is checked.

 

[Jdizzle42]

I checked the folders I wanted shared under get info, and turned on SMB file sharing under the sharing system preferences. Nothing pops up on my windows 10 pc besides my smart tv

 

[MacsBug]

Have you enabled SMB on Windows 10? Here is an article on how to do so.

https://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/enable-smb-on-windows-10