Power Mac G3-can't do anything

VA Supremacy

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 18, 2009
Messages
475
Blue and White PowerMac G3 Zip CD 6GBHD ATI Rage

I installed 2 updates from Apple, Security and Java for Tiger and the logo stayed there not logging on or anything so i thought I would finally switch to the bigger hard drive and reinstall everything.

I don't get anything only a gray screen for a brief moment had OS 9 from Disk working but did not recognize the larger drive (82GB-Hitachi) nor the 6GB Western Digital which both showed up when using Tiger before.

Now I can't seem to erase the hard drives in Vista Home Pre SP 2 since they won't show up in the disk management tools. How can i get this back again? I want to use my Hitachi 82GB as the main and possibly the 6Gb as an extra for random nonsense that i can transfer to the Win Machines to burn on CD or DVD..

Thanks..
 
The drives won''t show up in Windows as they are HFS formatted which isn't Windows compatible.

Connect the 82GB drive to the Powermac and boot from the Tiger disk. Run Disk Utiity from the disk and erase the drive.

Install Tiger.

Install second 6GB drive and erase it from within the OS.
 
The drives won''t show up in Windows as they are HFS formatted which isn't Windows compatible.

Connect the 82GB drive to the Powermac and boot from the Tiger disk. Run Disk Utiity from the disk and erase the drive.

Install Tiger.

Install second 6GB drive and erase it from within the OS.

Even with HFS it should show up in the disk management. Comes up as an unrecognized file system.

On the apple zap its pram and nvram and see if it boots to the optical drive after that so you can load the drive.
 
what the hell is pram and nvram on it? i hardly mess the inside of Macs even still i have no idea what those are in all my life using System Software 7 (i think..maybe 6) and MS-DOS in Elementary School.

anyway it comes up in device manger but can't in the management area for some reason.
it usually comes up though.
 
See Below

Resetting PRAM and NVRAM

1. Shut down the computer.
2. Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
3. Turn on the computer.
4. Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
5. Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
6. Release the keys.

Your computer's PRAM and the NVRAM are reset to the default values. The clock settings may be reset to a default date on some models.

Additional Information
Resetting NVRAM in Open Firmware

If your computer is Open Firmware-based (Power PC) and you are unable to reset NVRAM as described above, you may alternatively reset the NVRAM and Open Firmware settings using the steps in the Solution section of Message “To continue booting, type 'mac-boot' and press return”.

In some cases, an Open Firmware-based computer may not respond to the keyboard commands noted above, and may not allow starting up into Open Firmware by pressing and holding the Command, Option, O, and F keys during startup. If you are unable to get to an Open Firmware prompt (and your computer supports doing so), try powering on the computer with the power button held down continuously—as if you were doing a firmware update. This should force the computer into Open Firmware, allowing the steps in the article noted above to be used.

Resolution

If this happens every time you turn on your computer, reset the computer's parameter RAM (PRAM).

If the message still appears after you reset PRAM, reset the Open Firmware settings:

1. Instead of typing "mac-boot" at the Open Firmware prompt, type: reset-nvram
2. Press Return.
3. At the Open Firmware prompt, type: reset-all
4. Press Return.
 
Just wondering but I hoping to start off with OS 9 and get classic again I had to delete some files on the 6GB every so often and really want classic so do i have to use Tiger?

OS 9 works but doesn't show the 82GB. is there a way to install OS 9 or i just have to straight to Tiger?

Tried both and the 82GB isn't showing up so any suggestions?

thanks.
 
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So its working now having to use a hard drive that I have lying around since those 2 weren't working well.

Installed OS 9 but its UK which works and my Tiger copy doesn't want to work since its US though. Does it matter if which country? Aren't they inherently the same thing? Or just erase that and install OS X Tiger directly but I can't play Zork Nemesis which is why I'm going the OS 9 to OS X Tiger route instead of Tiger directly.

I know i'm trying to be vague here not to go against rules
 
So its working now having to use a hard drive that I have lying around since those 2 weren't working well.

Installed OS 9 but its UK which works and my Tiger copy doesn't want to work since its US though. Does it matter if which country? Aren't they inherently the same thing? Or just erase that and install OS X Tiger directly but I can't play Zork Nemesis which is why I'm going the OS 9 to OS X Tiger route instead of Tiger directly.

I know i'm trying to be vague here not to go against rules

I've never tried to install 2 different country's versions of mac os so I don't know if it could be a problem. Hell I don't think I ever saw that when I was a mac tech either. Everyone had the os 9.2 disk so they could load 9 on top of whatever version of 10 they wanted.
 
I've never tried to install 2 different country's versions of mac os so I don't know if it could be a problem. Hell I don't think I ever saw that when I was a mac tech either. Everyone had the os 9.2 disk so they could load 9 on top of whatever version of 10 they wanted.

aww hell I goofed damn i keep searching then.

Anyway what's the deal with the size on the hard drive? I've installed using a WD 160GB and it showed up only as 128gb? I was using the Disk Utility in Tiger so I could format in Mac Journaled with OS 9 recognizition. which is how I got OS 9 on there and now trying Tiger.
 
aww hell I goofed damn i keep searching then.

Anyway what's the deal with the size on the hard drive? I've installed using a WD 160GB and it showed up only as 128gb? I was using the Disk Utility in Tiger so I could format in Mac Journaled with OS 9 recognizition. which is how I got OS 9 on there and now trying Tiger.

That mac is old enough it doesn't support hard drives over 128gb. Same way PC's from that time period only supported it. Even XP didn't support bigger drives out of the box. Need 48bit addressing for over 128gb.
 
i so can't believe i forgot that. Thanks I'm so use to everything large now which is why I can't figure out why Steve shipped those with such a small drive. It should of been at least 20GBs or something not 6GBs.

I'm thinking now to install OS 9 on a spare hard drive and install OS X Tiger on the 160GB. That should work shouldn't it? I know i can't run them at the same time but I could use one for older apps and games like Zork Nemesis.
 
i so can't believe i forgot that. Thanks I'm so use to everything large now which is why I can't figure out why Steve shipped those with such a small drive. It should of been at least 20GBs or something not 6GBs.

I'm thinking now to install OS 9 on a spare hard drive and install OS X Tiger on the 160GB. That should work shouldn't it? I know i can't run them at the same time but I could use one for older apps and games like Zork Nemesis.

You can run 2 drives. You can also always get a cheap ata or sata card that works with mac os 10 and run a large drive off it.
 
You can run 2 drives. You can also always get a cheap ata or sata card that works with mac os 10 and run a large drive off it.

Like a PCI card that can run 4 hard drives or devices? I have one for the other machine I could never get that to work in Vista 64 bit. i think there wasn't any good driver or something so i gave up. how would that work then? are the slots ISA? they can't be PCI since its a PowerMac before Intel-based.

Is there like an OS switch like running XP and Vista and you can choose them at the start?

i must be bugging you with all this;) thanks a million
 
Like a PCI card that can run 4 hard drives or devices? I have one for the other machine I could never get that to work in Vista 64 bit. i think there wasn't any good driver or something so i gave up. how would that work then? are the slots ISA? they can't be PCI since its a PowerMac before Intel-based.

Is there like an OS switch like running XP and Vista and you can choose them at the start?

i must be bugging you with all this;) thanks a million

The blue and white g3 has pci slots.
 
Yes, the B&W Powermac G3s had 64 bit PCI slots, so they were longer. Standard PCI cards go right in there, so you shouldn't have a problem.
 
I have a strange urge to pick up a B&W Powermac G3. Are these quiet machines?
 
I have a strange urge to pick up a B&W Powermac G3. Are these quiet machines?

For the most part. Not really worth much of anything anymore.

If you were in VA I'd give you mine. I have a 450mhz(fastest one they made) sitting around here with like 640 megs of ram. When it came out the sucker was nice.
 
For the most part. Not really worth much of anything anymore.

If you were in VA I'd give you mine. I have a 450mhz(fastest one they made) sitting around here with like 640 megs of ram. When it came out the sucker was nice.

if I was still in Fairfax I would so bring it to you. I'm not that good with macs as you are. Macs were only at school and that is about it.

what are so good brands for the PCI controller cards for Mac?
 
even if there only for PC? wouldn't it need Mac Firmware? or something simliar?

Video cards need to support open firmware. Everything else for the most part isn't an issue. That being said mac os needs to have support for it. Chances are you will need to boot OS9 off either a scsi drive or an ata drive hooked directly to the board. Tiger has better support and should be able to boot off a card.
 
Video cards need to support open firmware. Everything else for the most part isn't an issue. That being said mac os needs to have support for it. Chances are you will need to boot OS9 off either a scsi drive or an ata drive hooked directly to the board. Tiger has better support and should be able to boot off a card.

i've got a Rosewill RC-288 ATA 133 2 port PCI adaptor without RAID card would that work? I couldn't get to work in Vista 64-bit and just kept the damn thing.
 
If you were in VA I'd give you mine. I have a 450mhz(fastest one they made) sitting around here with like 640 megs of ram. When it came out the sucker was nice.

I wish I was in VA! :p

I want an old Mac to mess around with for some reason. (I'm done de-railing the thread btw)
 
the Hitachi 82GB hard drive
volume check failed
Error the underlying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
1 volume could not be repaired becasue of an error

so is it dying, dead or can i fix it?
 
Nothing using the card so i guess i could search for another card. I'm assuming the same type of thing but just mac only though? i mean would it have a greater chance if its specially for Apple Macintosh than for Windows-based computers?

can there be anything done to save the Hitachi? or is it a lost cause?

thanks swatbat for your help.
 
thanks. now i'll have to figure out ordering that. i hate not having money.

unless could I find that at in a real store? like offline? the FirmTek brand or something like it
 
Finally now I got OS 9 UK on one part OS X Tiger US on the other luckily i had an an extra Segate 80GB.
this is so going to be fun using this now more than before:D

now i just have to figure out the memory and that card to use a damn bigger drive.

Thanks for the help swatbat
 
here's the screen grab of it.I'm currently having trouble with the font so maybe that's the Monitor though.
If i could find a screen grab feature or program for OS 9 I'll take that.

Only tripod could hold it as far as the places i use. maybe since its large;)

http://i-o-s.tripod.com/smurf1.jpg.tiff
 
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Didn't there use to be a Mac Desktop thread?
Same hard drive, same G3;)
Picture1.jpg


Picture2.jpg
 
Now I seem to have trouble with OS 9 starting up and mainly working when shift is pressed to turn off extensions however I can't restart or shut down from OS 9. Even after choosing Start Up Disk

OS X Tiger disk utility freezes/stalls

maybe both are connected i'm not sure. Anyone know? would i have to re-install both OSes or put the discs in to repair them or something?

Thanks.
 
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