G3 B&W firmware update

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li40li40
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
I have recently got a powermac G3 B&W, however the hard drive is dead, I replaced with a Maxtor 20G. I have Mac OS 8.1 and 9.1 CDs, when I tried to install, the 8.1 won't boot, which I found out is normal. The 9.1 will boot, but it won't allow me to install because it detect that the firmware is out of date. I tried to update the firmware from the CD extra, it won't do that because the CD is read only. I need to have a system installed on hard drive to update it. But I don't. So I am in a dead loop. I was wondering if anybody here has a way to solve this problem. Is there a way that I can do the update by just starting up from the OS 9.1 CD? Thanks in advance!

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 3
    idaveidave Posts: 1,283member
    Do you have or know anyone who has a USB flash drive? You might be able to run the firmware updater from it while you're booted from the CD. (Get the firmware updater online with another computer?)



    I'm a little confused because you wouldn't (as you say) need a system installed on the hard disk to update the firmware on the Mac. I'm trying to remember just how those firmware updaters work.
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  • Reply 2 of 3
    li40li40 Posts: 2member
    Thanks for the suggestion. I will give it a shot tomorrow, since I do not have another Mac at home. Hope it will work.
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  • Reply 3 of 3
    rbrrbr Posts: 631member
    See if you can get 8.5 or 8.6 to install. They should boot with the original firmware and then you can install OS 9. OS 9.2.2 is where you probably want to be unless you have some external devices which are unsupported in 9.2.2.



    You probably need to determine if you have a Rev 1 or Rev 2 B&W. Rev 1 machines have a well known problem with replacement drives. Even though Rev 2 machines work with replacement drives for the most part you will get a performance boost by going to a PCI/ATA controller.



    If you machine is a Rev 1 do not be surprised if it also has problems with Firewire...most of them did.



    You can find help identifying your machine at http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/G3-ZONE/ There is a good bit of other helpful information there as well.



    Once you have things up and running check out your RAM with DIMM First Aid http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/5714 There were not as many RAM problems in OS 9 with the B&W machines as in OS X, but they are still quite sensitive to having the right RAM http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58182



    Good Luck
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