B&W G3 Firmware update

billybobskybillybobsky
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
ok...



i rescued a g3 from the trash which involved installing yellow dog linux -- apparently though i havent proven this -- the firmware on the motherboard had been damaged such that it wasnt able to recognise any boot up disk except yellow dog though perhaps that is just a coincidence... in any event, i have succeeded in installing os x on a hard drive and starting up from that hard drive. the comp can start up from os 9 from a cd, but i have not been able to install it on the computer because the software requests that i upgrade the firmware, when i go to do this it says i need to start up from a system off of a writable drive, when starting from os x (with an os 9 installed from a different computer on it), it claims my computer is not a g3...



i think the reason the computer doesnt start up from os 9 is that the firmware is not present for it to recognise the system software off of a hdd yet i do not believe that i can reset the firmware without starting up from os 9 (and not os 9 under os x as indicated by the 'this is not a g3' warning)...



does anybody know how i can reset the firmware without a bootable hdd based os 9? or any other help?



bruce

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 3
    billybobskybillybobsky Posts: 1,914member
    alright -- figured it out on my own.... the problem stemmed from the fact that i wasnt able to directly install os 9 onto any hard drive on the b&w and the beige g3 i was using didnt require the installation of the boot rom, realizing this i just copied the os 9 boot rom from the system disk to the os 9 installed from the beige g3 and i was able to boot, update the firmware, reinstall system 9 and now i have a fully functional rev b b&w for the low low cost of a hard drive and ram (just to max it out to 1 gig)....



    damn...



    thanks to everyone here who put insight into the pot....



    bruce
  • Reply 2 of 3
    billybobskybillybobsky Posts: 1,914member
    by the way does anybody have a b&w rev b hard drive holder?



    the comp i got is distinctly lacking one...



    bruce
  • Reply 3 of 3
    powerdocpowerdoc Posts: 8,123member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by billybobsky

    by the way does anybody have a b&w rev b hard drive holder?



    the comp i got is distinctly lacking one...



    bruce



    Concerning the B&W revision a, they did not support master/slave configuration on the ATA 33. I try it, but the performances where a disaster (read awfully low). I was obliged to get a UW SCSCI card in order to add a second HD.



    And the lack of rev b hard drive holder, is the signature of a rev a ...
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