PowerMac G3 B&W doesn't boot

decemberdecember
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
An acquaintance of mine has a PowerMac G3 Blue and White, and since he accidentally unplugged it while it was running, it won't boot anymore. When he turns it on, all he gets is an image of a folder with a questionmark (or an exclamation mark? can't remember which one). Booting from a Tiger install DVD also doesn't work, he says (although that machine shipped with a CD-ROM drive standard - maybe that's why?). Booting into FireWire target mode reportedly doesn't work, either.



His main concern is the data on his HD. From what he described, it seems to me that the IDE controller may be the problem, if booting from a DVD doesn't work either (assuming the optical drive can read DVD media ...)



Any thoughts? Is there a reset switch on that machine that might be worth trying to press, or something along those lines?



Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 4
    outsideroutsider Posts: 6,008member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by december

    An acquaintance of mine has a PowerMac G3 Blue and White, and since he accidentally unplugged it while it was running, it won't boot anymore. When he turns it on, all he gets is an image of a folder with a questionmark (or an exclamation mark? can't remember which one). Booting from a Tiger install DVD also doesn't work, he says (although that machine shipped with a CD-ROM drive standard - maybe that's why?). Booting into FireWire target mode reportedly doesn't work, either.



    His main concern is the data on his HD. From what he described, it seems to me that the IDE controller may be the problem, if booting from a DVD doesn't work either (assuming the optical drive can read DVD media ...)



    Any thoughts? Is there a reset switch on that machine that might be worth trying to press, or something along those lines?



    Any help would be greatly appreciated!



    Try resetting the nvram by starting it up while holding the command(Apple)-option-O-F keys. At the prompt enter "reset-nvram" and hit return. Then enter "reset-all" and hit return. Your Mac will restart. If that doesn't work, try booting off the CD that came with your Mac instead of the Tiger one. And for god's sake check to see if you even have a DVD drive!



    Another thing you can try is boot into single user mode by starting up will holding command-S. When you get to the prompt, run fsck by doing what it says on screen, "/sbin/fsck -y" is the command and I think correct option.
  • Reply 2 of 4
    decemberdecember Posts: 62member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Outsider

    And for god's sake check to see if you even have a DVD drive!





    ... as I said, it's not my machine and I have never even had a look at it - the guy described the symptoms to me and after I concluded that it's probably not the HD, he said he would just get a new ... well, different, PowerMac G3 B&W which apparently are ridiculously cheap; and move his HD in there. His data was his main concern.



    That the optical drive might be CD only crossed my mind when I was typing my post, and I included it - basically just thinking aloud. I do assume he does have a DVD drive.



    He does not have the original install CD, he said. He was running OS 9.



    Thanks for your suggestions, though; I'll let you know if resetting the nvram (hehe, envy ram) worked.
  • Reply 3 of 4
    outsideroutsider Posts: 6,008member
    Cool, I only say that about the DVD drive because on most B&W models, it only came with a CD or CD-R drive. DVD was an optional BTO drive.



    http://www.lowendmac.com/ppc/g3c.shtml



    Good luck.
  • Reply 4 of 4
    decemberdecember Posts: 62member
    Thanks, but ... no luck. He told me that it would not even boot into open firmware anymore; so I guess it's time for a new, used machine.



    For the record: He did in fact not have a DVD drive.
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