problems with reinstalling operating system on powermac 3g

[whateveryusayiam]

So I bought this blue and white powermac 3g at a goodwill store, knowing a good share about pc's and nothing at all about macs. It has a blinking folder with a wuestion mark on it ever time I turn it on. I finally decided the only way I'd be able to figure out fixing it would be to reinstall the os all together, but of course it hasn't been as simple as putting the disk in and turning it on....I have no idea what I'm doing and can't seem to find any kind of guide anywhere, could someone help me out please?? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

[Turboladdade]

Blinking question mark folder means no operating system. Power Mac G3s are very very old. You have to have the right version of software for it. Earlier beige G3s will run Mac OS 8.0 through Mac OS X Jaguar (10.2.x). The later blue ones will run Mac OS 8.6 through Mac OS X Tiger (10.4.x). Also, typically the very bottom of the operating system compatibility will require a special disk that only works on the computer in question.

There are 13 different models of Power Macintosh G3, so knowing which one specifically you have would be very helpful. Information about it should be on a sticker on the back somewhere.

In general, if you have a beige system, I would go for a retail copy of Mac OS 9.2.2. If you have a blue G3, I would recommend Mac OS X Tiger.

A G3 isn't going to give you a good feel or impression of what using a modern Mac is like at all, especially if it has Mac OS 8 or 9 on it. Even if you got to know how those operating systems work really well, as soon as you get on a newer Mac you'll be completely lost as if it were an entirely different computer.

[whateveryusayiam]

well, I'm not exactly sure what info to look for in distinguishing which model it is, but it says 400mhz/mb cache/28mb sdram/rage 128 16mb
6gb hd/cd/mdm I got a copy of the tiger os and I'm kinda stumped now as to what to do next....put the disk in, turned it on, and it does nothing but give me the same blinking folder. Any instruction beyond this point would be greatly appreciated!!

[Turboladdade]

well, I'm not exactly sure what info to look for in distinguishing which model it is, but it says 400mhz/mb cache/28mb sdram/rage 128 16mb
6gb hd/cd/mdm I got a copy of the tiger os and I'm kinda stumped now as to what to do next....put the disk in, turned it on, and it does nothing but give me the same blinking folder. Any instruction beyond this point would be greatly appreciated!!

Well, first thing to do is make your G3's optical facilities are compatible with your install disc. As in, if you have a Mac OS X Install DVD, make sure your G3 has a DVD drive. You can try to decipher this by reading the front of the tray when it comes out.

To start from the disc, insert it, restart, and hold down C immediately after you hear the Mac startup chime.

[whateveryusayiam]

ok, so the drive that was in it before was just a cd drive so I swapped it out for a dvd drive, (thats what the os is on) and I turned it on with the disk in, holding down "c" and the same blinking folder is still what I'm getting. The fact that I'm using a pc keyboard wouldn't effect that would it? Not sure what to do now...thought about it maybe being the HD, which I have plenty of but all formatted NTFS, is there a way I could reformat one from my pc for the mac? If so how could I do that? Thanks again for your help!

[Turboladdade]

ok, so the drive that was in it before was just a cd drive so I swapped it out for a dvd drive, (thats what the os is on) and I turned it on with the disk in, holding down "c" and the same blinking folder is still what I'm getting. The fact that I'm using a pc keyboard wouldn't effect that would it? Not sure what to do now...thought about it maybe being the HD, which I have plenty of but all formatted NTFS, is there a way I could reformat one from my pc for the mac? If so how could I do that? Thanks again for your help!

I doubt the PC Keyboard would affect it, but it might. The hard drive being empty, broken or not even there wouldn't affect the computer starting up from an install DVD. Something is wrong with your DVD (is it legitimate?), wrong with your computer's drives (G3 internal busses can be quick finicky), or you're just not holding C down fast enough. There is even a chance you might need a firmware update.

This is really stretching my memory back far, since we're talking about a 1999s machine here.

[whateveryusayiam]

yes, the dvd is legitimate, and brand new so I don't think the problem. Maybe the change of hardware with my swapping out the cd drive for a dvd drive is the problem? Any suggestions on what I could try next? I really do appreciate your help, it's been a long road of issues trying to get this antique up and running, I've spent so much time now I refuse to give up til I get it going lol. I'm on a mission!! Anyway, thank you again for everything and any suggestions would be awesome

[whateveryusayiam]

k so I have an update: As I was looking closer at everything "under the hood", I noticed the cable running to the dvd drive was damaged, so I switched that out...tried again, same thing. The I realized the cable plugged into a card rather than the motherboard itself and that the cable that plugged the card into the board and the cable that plugged into the dvd drive were the same kind of cable, so I bypassed the card and plugged it straight into the board. Tried it all again and this time I got an apple logo! YAY! All except for I for got that I had unplugged the HD in an attempt to bypass it and see if I could get it to boot from the disk at least. And I did, but then when I tried to plug the HD in and do the same thing, all I get is a blank white screen and the disk in the dvd drive doesn't start spinning....now I'm stumped. It's obviously a HD problem right? So I took one of my pc HD's and wiped it with disk killer and then reformatted it with macdrive 8, plugged that one in and the same thing, a blank white screen and no disk spinning in the dvd drive. Any thoughts or suggestions PLEASE??? IM SOOOO CLOSE!!!???

[wove]

Since plugging in the drive bring up a white screen, I assume the controller on the logic board is bad. That also explains the reason for the controller card installed inside the machine.

Perhaps you can connect both drives to PCI the controller board. If not perhaps you can connect the hard drive to the PCI controller board and boot from an external CD.

First revisions of the Blue and White G3 PowerMac could not boot from a slave drive, which further complicates getting the machine to start. They were pretty nice computers when released, but their time to shine has passed.

I would go ahead and set it back up like it was when you got the Apple Logo to show up and let the machine boot from the CD. Once booted you can use "About this Mac" and system profiler to get get more information about the condition of the machine.

bill

[leonAzul]

Here are a couple of links for reference:
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Power-Ma ... own/1459/1
http://www.macupgrades.co.uk/store/mach ... blue-white
There are service manuals out there, but I couldn't find a link at this time. Sorry.

There are two ATA controllers on the motherboard: an ATA-4 with master/slave ports and an ATA-3 for the optical drive. Please check that you are not using the ATA-3 controller for the HDD -- one never knows what the previous owner did! As wove pointed out, the card may have been installed because the standard controller failed, or maybe for additional drives. You might need to research that and sort it all out.

Once you get the drives physically attached, it's best to use the Disk Utility on the installation DVD located in the "Utilities" menu to do the formatting and partitioning. Unlike FAT or NTFS, HFS+ doesn't require setting up primary and logical partitions: just format and create one or more volumes (partitions) and name it/them. Using the "Zero Data" option takes longer, but causes the drive to spare any bad blocks, if you are at all concerned about the drive's condition. It's a Good Idea™ to choose a name that uses non-accented letters and no spaces or punctuation. From there you should just be able to run the installer. After the first boot and setup, you might want to let it idle for a while so the Spotlight Database has a chance to set itself up uninterrupted.

HTH