Beige 266 flashing drive thingy.

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jeremiah richjeremiah rich
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
Well, already ran into a problem.. I had just overclocked successfully to something around 290 mhz, and was restarting for the second time, and a disk drive icon comes popping up with a question mark.. And the system stays there while the hd spins up and down. Tried booting from a cd but I cannot get past this screen. So, any insight here would be nice.. Thanks.
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  • Reply 1 of 30
    squashsquash Posts: 332member
    It's looking for a start-up disc is all. You should be able to start up off a cd if you hold down the apple and c key. It's sounds like you've tried to start off the disc....maybe try again.
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  • Reply 2 of 30
    stroszekstroszek Posts: 801member
    I've never had a problem with the diskdrive with a question mark, but i've had a floppy witha question mark. perhaps we are just running different OSs.



    Try this:
    • Make sure no cables came loose while you were mucking about in there.

    • Make sure external equipment is properly connected and on.

    • check for SCSI conflicts.

    • Rebless the System Folder.

    • Check for extension conflicts.

    • Reset the PRAM.

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  • Reply 3 of 30
    ebbyebby Posts: 3,110member
    Overclocked? I also have a beige G3. (Hint, hint). You might try to undo the overclocking, or clock it down a bit. Maybe it can't handle that speed anymore. It should start up off CD? That may be a bad CD, or *gasp* damaged hardware. Have you changed drives or messed with jumpers? Hey, you may try to set the CD to master. Hope something works. :cool:



    EDIT- Yea, what that guy said. Except extension conflicts won't occur because the system hasn't loaded.



    [ 06-30-2002: Message edited by: Ebby ]</p>
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  • Reply 4 of 30
    jeremiah richjeremiah rich Posts: 853member
    Yes, I meant the flashing floppy drive.. I do not have any scsi devices either... Tried the C key many times, and it did not work. Zapped Pram at least 7 times. What is this blessing system folder thingy? Lol. All I can say at this point is it is driving me CRAZY. And yes I have checked ALL of the cables many times.
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  • Reply 5 of 30
    ebbyebby Posts: 3,110member
    Ooh, what about bad Ram? Would bad ram cause this?
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  • Reply 6 of 30
    jeremiah richjeremiah rich Posts: 853member
    Oh yeah.. It is clocked back at the original speed. Still nothing. I have done absolutely NOTHING to the drives at all.
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  • Reply 7 of 30
    jeremiah richjeremiah rich Posts: 853member
    And yep I have checked the ram. It is all fine. (Used it in my PC, tried using just one dimm etc)
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  • Reply 8 of 30
    ebbyebby Posts: 3,110member
    That sucks. My Beige G3 died 4 weeks ago. (The hard drive broke) and I still havn't got it working. (Facing $350+ in data recovery.) How many Hard drives do you have? Could you swap one out for another?



    EDIT- My only other suggestion is to remove all 3rd party stuff. (cards, drives, and external stuff) to see if it works.



    [ 06-30-2002: Message edited by: Ebby ]</p>
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  • Reply 9 of 30
    jeremiah richjeremiah rich Posts: 853member
    I have another (unformatted) drive that I tried on it.. Same thing.. Spins up and back down.



    EDIT-

    Tried removing USB card.. Maybe will even try sound card here.



    [ 06-30-2002: Message edited by: Jeremiah Rich ]</p>
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  • Reply 10 of 30
    ebbyebby Posts: 3,110member
    Sounds just like my drive. Spin up, but clicks, and spins down. This problem may be beyond me, since I don't know what killed mine. (But scratch the idea of replacing the drive with the new one. I failed to mention that BOTH my drives died that way)



    EDIT- Sound card for a beige G3?



    [ 06-30-2002: Message edited by: Ebby ]</p>
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  • Reply 11 of 30
    jeremiah richjeremiah rich Posts: 853member
    Well, it is the card on the board. This is a dt, and the MT's have all of the tuner stuff on them too. And it can come out. But I have scratched that idea. I just now tried removing the drives from ALL of the other channels.. Same thing.. I tried putting a random disk in the floppy drive, and it had some weird x on the screen, and spit it back out. Obviously it is trying to boot from there, and does not seem to be recognizing the cd rom drive...
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  • Reply 12 of 30
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    try reseating the IDE cable connectors on the motherboard. I've notice that when working on those machines, just due to the way it opens, that those connectors have a tendency to become unseated.
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  • Reply 13 of 30
    jeremiah richjeremiah rich Posts: 853member
    Done that. Even tried different cables. No cigar. Grr. Now I reclocked it back to 266, I am not getting any display at all. Argh.
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  • Reply 14 of 30
    ebbyebby Posts: 3,110member
    EDIT- Whoa! stop touching your computer. It's getting pissed!



    Wow, I never thought of that cable-looseness thing. Something to remember. However my (Ebby's) problem is genuine. I used a firewire to IDE bridge and it can find all my drives except the stubborn 2.



    [ 06-30-2002: Message edited by: Ebby ]</p>
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  • Reply 15 of 30
    ebbyebby Posts: 3,110member
    CABLES! What kind of cables to you have? 40-PIN or 80-PIN? 40-PIN only work with ATA-33 drives.
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  • Reply 16 of 30
    jeremiah richjeremiah rich Posts: 853member
    Yep. 40 pin. Now if I clock it to 292 OR 266, no display.
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  • Reply 17 of 30
    jeremiah richjeremiah rich Posts: 853member
    Ok. Now I got the stupid display back. (It was a connector on the monitor) I am now trying a VERY old 3x NEC scsi cd rom drive to boot from. Anything I need to know about how to use it or boot up from it? Thanks.
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  • Reply 18 of 30
    ebbyebby Posts: 3,110member
    AAgghhh!!!



    I'm sorry. Someone else has to take over. I have no clue as to fix your problem, (or whatit is for that matter)







    EDIT- wait a second. Is it actually booting now?



    [ 06-30-2002: Message edited by: Ebby ]</p>
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  • Reply 19 of 30
    jeremiah richjeremiah rich Posts: 853member
    Nope. When I turn it on with the cd drive connected, it sits there right before the flashing floppy thing comes up (and never appears) and when I have it disconnected, it does the same darn thing that it did when I started this thread.
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  • Reply 20 of 30
    stroszekstroszek Posts: 801member
    [quote]Originally posted by Jeremiah Rich:

    <strong>Ok. Now I got the stupid display back. (It was a connector on the monitor) I am now trying a VERY old 3x NEC scsi cd rom drive to boot from. Anything I need to know about how to use it or boot up from it? Thanks.</strong><hr></blockquote>

    You should be able to boot from the CD just by holding down C on the keyboard.



    Once you have been able to boot from the CD, you can try to rebless the system folder. To do this:
    • Boot from the CD

    • Open the System Folder

    • Double-click the system suitcase.

    • After the suitcase opens, close the suitcase and the System Folder windows and restart the computer.

    If this doesn't work, try this:
    • Drag the System suitcase and Finder out of the System Folder.

    • Close the System Folder

    • Put the System Suitcase and Finder back into the System Folder.

    The wierd x thing you were talking about was the computer trying to boot from the floppy and not finding the software.



    I'm sure you did this, but make sure the connectors are securely connected to the HD and the motherboard. Sometimes they look connected but are still loose.



    Hope this helps.
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