Abbondanza

Hello gang,
I'm working on one of my customer's iMac and I'm stumped, and thought I'd ask. (1.8ghz PPC, 2gb RAM, 200gb HDD, non-iSight model).

I tried to reinstall OS X 10.3.5 on the iMac G5 from the Recovery OS CDs but it doesn't wanna do it. It has been upgraded to 10.3.9, but I don't think it should matter.

Here's what I did...
Booted into current OS.
1 - Put the CD and launch the "Install OS X and related apps", or something like that(I don't have the iMac in front of me).

2 - It asks for password(admin equivalant user id), so I provide it. It goes thru.

3 - It comes up with "Restart" button. I click it.

4 - It reboots, and, while it reboots, it ejects the CD...Back to old OS environment and nothing doing.

I think that it should ask for many other things before the "Restart" window pops up. So I believe some process is "skipped".

Here's another process I tried...
1 - So I put the Recovery CD in it and boot it up. I press "C" key and hold it.(that's what the CD label says).

2 - It doesn't boot or go thru install and just goes thru to the same desktop.

Either steps should've worked. Am I missing something?

Thanks.

sinclair_tm

Stick the CD, then open the System Preferences and click on Startup Disk. Let it sit for a bit, and it should list the CD as one of the items. Click on it and then hit the restart button. If that doesn't work, then put the disk in, restart the iMac and then hold down the option key right when you hear the bong. You'll get a gray screen with icons on it, click the CD icon and then the straight arrow and it should boot from the CD. If it still doesn't then the CD or CD Drive is bad and needs replacement.

Abbondanza

Thanks. I'll try it. I believe CD drive is fine, as I installed apps CD w/o a problem.

I read somewhere, I lost the link, that BIOS(or PC equivalent) needs to be reset? This is using Option+C+P keys while booting? Is that right?

sinclair_tm

It's firmware on the Mac, not a BIOS. It contains the parameter information, like a BIOS. To reset it, hold down the command, option, P, and R keys when you start the Mac. Keep holding them down until you hear the startup bong at least two more times. That will reset the clock, date, startup disk info, and a few other things that will be rewritten to the PRAM once it has gotten to the desktop. This also brings something else up to my mind, if the internal battery is dead, it could also be causing this same problem. Does it complain about the wrong date every time you turn it on?

Abbondanza

Yeah, no date/time complaints there.

Abbondanza

So far, same pattern...It just love to spit out the Recovery CD(during boot).
I'm not Mac guru but this is getting crazy.

I tried both and no difference.

sinclair_tm

It spits the disk out because the Mac can not find a bootable OS on it. It is the OS X Install DVD or CD, or additional install/restore DVD/CD?

Abbondanza

Yeah, this one I am taking a loss on. I'm done.

But I got other PC projects done so not too bad.

I don't know if Disk 1 or Apps Disk is bad, but it just seems that it's "trained" to reject the disks. Can it be the keyboard? It's Kensington wireless keyboard. Mouse is same also. I doubt it. I did select bootable media in OS.

Oh well. Thanks for your help. Now we both don't know the cluprit.

sinclair_tm

Ditch the wireless keyboard and mouse and use your basic USB ones instead and try that.

Suzmac

I know this issue was sort of resolved, but I'm having the exact same problem. I am trying to reformat my hard drive (iMac G5 with iSight), and I have both the original 10.3 discs and a set of 10.4 discs. The CD drive reads the disks fine, but when I try to boot from either set, it cannot find the system software on the 10.4 set, and on the 10.3 set it starts booting and then I get a "do not enter" circle with a slash through it instead of the apple at startup.

When I go to Startup Disk, it sees the system on the disks and lets me select them as my boot disk, but once I restart it just fails unless I go back to my existing system.

Is there any way to force it to see the system on the CD? Or can I boot from a disk image, somehow? Why is this happening? I'd really appreciate some help. (And I am using the standard USB keyboard and mouse, so that's not it either. :-) )

sinclair_tm

Are you sure that all the disks are for a PowerPC Mac, and not an Intel Mac?

Suzmac

I'm positive that the 10.3 disks are for the PowerPC, because they're the ones that came with the computer. The 10.4 disks I'm not positive about, but I think they're for PowerPC.

sinclair_tm

What version of OS X does the iMac have on it right now?

Suzmac

It's running 10.4.11 now.

sinclair_tm

Well, I'm sure why it won't boot from the disks, unless the disks or the disk drive is bad. Being it's an iMac, you can't have hardware issues. You have everything but the keyboard and mouse unconnected, correct? If so, I think you need to take it to Apple and have them look at it.

Suzmac

Well, thanks anyway.