Beige G3 Problems

[george]

Beige G3 tower
Machine ID 510
OS 9.2.2
Memory 384mb's
Hard drive 12gb IDE
CD-ROM Mashita Ver 1.4.7
This my experimental machine.
I clean installed OS 9.2.2 about three months ago and since then I have had problems getting the machine to start properly.
Switch on monitor. switch on machine, some activity from hard drive and then 15-20 seconds later a loud 'SPLAATT' and then nothing, this happens at least 8 out of 10 times, then following the same procedure it  behaves as it should.
I have zapped the pram on numerous occasions to no avail.
I have connected it along with my G4 (mirrored doors) and PC to my newly aquired Netgear router and it all works wonderfully well.
 Which Samaritan is on duty today?
George.

 

[Gregg]

Bad cable somewhere?  

Is the unpleasant sound coming from the CPU or the monitor?

[kelly]

Yeah George.

Check your Hardware. Reseat your RAM. Check Cables etc.

If your Hardware is all ok consider a Clean Install and see what that does.

Mac OS 7.x - 9.x: Troubleshooting Startup Issues

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=16473

[kbeartx]

George -

Is the HD partitioned?

Beige models have a quirk that if the system is not within the first 8 GB of the HD, the computer will have trouble finding the system and not boot reliably, take a really long time about it, or exhibit other weirdness.  

Since they shipped with 4 and 6 GB drives, most people never find out about this until they upgrade to a HD larger than 8 GB.

If this is the prob, the only fix is to copy the data off the drive (to another drive, another computer, to seedies, to zip disks, or a tape drive), boot to a seedie that contains a system (bootable OS seedie), reformat the drive into two or more partitions, re-install the system onto the first partition (which must be 8 GB or smaller), and copy the other data back onto the HD (the non-system data can go anywhere).

[Al]

I'm wondering if the PRAM battery is dead?

Isn't the beige first 8GB thing for OS X installs?  Some one confirm this, please.

[Gary S]

Al,

QUOTE

Isn't the beige first 8GB thing for OS X installs?

I think any System that your going to boot from has to be in the first 8 gigs.

[Al]

Just to clarify on that 8 GB anomoly....

http://www.lowendmac.com/ppc/g3b.shtml

http://resale.headgap.com/osxnotes.html

http://resale.headgap.com/osxreadme.html

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?sto...030506195854607

QUOTE

From OS X read me file

Installing on a PowerBook G3 Series, and original Power Macintosh G3, or an iMac                               

If you see a message when you select the destination disk that you need to install Mac OS X on a partition completely within the first 8 GB of disk space,choose Open Disk Utility from the Installer menu,then click Partition to see the partitions of your disk.The first partition is the top one. Select it and make sure it is 8 GB or less in size.                               

If the first partition is larger than 8 GB or your hard disk only has one partition that is larger than 8 GB,you need to partition your disk again.Partitioning the disk erases the entire hard disk,so be sure to back up your files first.

[george]

Kbeartx, the HD is partitioned, the main partition size is 11.85gb the smaller partition is 31.3mb and that contains one empty system folder.Would that create problems? your suggestion that I should transfer data etc., assumes that I am cleverer than you think, I am still on the steep learning curve of all things  Mac
Al, I renewed the PRAM when I cleaned installed 9.2.2 three months ago.
Kelly, I will start off  with your suggestion and reseat all reseatable ram, cables etc., and get back to you in a few days.
George.
  and again  

[kbeartx]

In my direct empirical experience, whatever OS is used to boot a beige G3 must be contained w/in the 1st 8gb of the HD on which it resides in order to boot w/o probs.

 - kbeartx

[Al]

From XLR8yourMac

QUOTE

Updates/Notes:  OS X Install Notes: If you're not installing OS X, you can use a single partition drive of any size (80GB, 100GB, etc.). However if you are considering installing OS X, the Beige G3 is one of the macs that has the requirement that the volume that  OS X is installed to must reside fully within the first 8GB of the drive. (For a large drive, you'd need to parition the drive with the first partition being 8GB or less, for use with OS X.

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/G3-ZONE/IDE/

[george]

Kelly,
as you suggested process of elimination and sure enough when I removed each stick of ram the two new ones that I had added were the cause of the problem.
What I do not understand is that the twos new sticks visually are the same (sdram pc133) as as the one supplied with the G3.
Am being naive or stupid ?
George.
 

[Barticus]

George;

Not to be a jerk or anything, but are you sure the machine came with PC133 memory?  I was under the impression the first macs to use it were the Graphite G4's.

B

(I'm sure I'll be suitably chastised if proven incorrect   )

[george]

you may well be right B .............at this precise moment the G3 is playing up in that I can now not get online, i'll get back to you.
George.
 

[kelly]

Yeah. It probably came with PC 66.

The 133 was either added or a mis-statement.

Did you press the Cuda Switch?

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/G3CARDS/OWCmerc...y/CUDAreset.jpg

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/G3-ZONE/trouble.html#start

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/G3-ZONE/

[george]

Hi Kelly, the only identification on the memory stick that came with the m/c (not new) is pc133 128mb sdram and the name on the eight chips is PLUSS.
Your question "did I press the CUDA switch?"  looking at your link there does not appear to be one on this board.
George.