I have tried everything i can think of to get 8.6 on my g4 tower. i have tried every system restore disc i can get my hands on , and every install disc i can download. i have burned like 10 discs lol. Nothing seems to work . The computer came with OS 9 on it and i put in an install disc with8.6 and clicked isntall. it installed just fine but when it reboots i get the dreaded flashing mac logo , ive tried hlding C and ive tried holding ALT on every disc that ive burned and nothing.
i am pretty sure its a sawtooth , as it came with DVI and it has a green expansion slot that is smaller than the other 4. But when i type in model number i get info on a "yikes" . With that said i have tried restore discs for both. nothing.
Here is some info on it : Model# - M5183 Serial# - XB1112UQKXS
Spec sticker: 533MHZ/128MB SDRAM/40GB HD/250 MB ZIP DRIVE/CD-RW /128 16MB/GIGABIT /KYBD/OS
Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.
A lot going on here, but:
Is there a reason you want to run 8.6? It does show online as the pre-installed OS for that machine, but even as a die hard classic Mac OS fan I use OS9 on hardware this new.
That question aside, on to your problem; it is possible some of your OS install CD's are not bootable. In addition, some of these systems start to get shaky about booting CDR's. I have some old powermacs that will only read original CDs, but if the burned CD's were reading fine to run a whole install then that's likely not your problem. But anyway, not all system software install images are bootable. And try an original CD and / or a different CD drive if you have the ability.
If I were handed this machine I would try to start with an OS9 CD of any sort to get booted with disk tools. If you cannot boot from a CD at all holding C then it's most likely your CD's are not bootable or your CD drive isn't liking them, since the boot keyboard shortcut commands are in ROM.
I would wager to get 8.6 working you'd probably need the right install CD from that model, but that's an assumption on my part, and nothing more.
So when i got it , the optical drive was broke. So i installed another dvd / CD - rw drive into it. It seemed to read every disc i put in it while it was running 9.x .But after the 8.6 install... now i get nothing . i mean it atempts to read ... but then just shows the flashing mac logo.
I want to run 8.6 because its the last operating system a bunch of classic games can run on natively with out the system having to go into "classic" mode or whatever. Plus i just like computers having there factory OS on them.
I totally get the sentiment of wanting the factory OS, but you may be confused with the classic environment or OS support. OS9 is still a native classic OS. Classic env is for early versions of OSX to run classic mac OS software. I'm hard pressed to think of games that run on 8.6 but not 9.2 but I'm listening if you know any.
I'm pretty sure my G3 iMac came with 8.6 but I have zero need for it with 9.2 installed. No OSX on that machine right now. I play Starcraft and other games on it all the time.
The machines ability to boot from CD should be completely separated from the OS install like I had said before, so it is odd you notice it occur after a different install, since that should not matter. If it's trying to read the CD and falls back to HDD boot, the CD isn't bootable.
ok,So whats weird to me is when 9.X was on there and it let me install 8.6.... why did it install... but now it doesnt boot into the operating system it installed : / I am a PC tech , mostly working on windows machines all day. This is bizarre to me . lol. My 8000/300 G3 tower and 6115CD performa where a breeze to reformat and reinstall OS.
You need to figure out why it won't boot from CD. Once you're booted from a working CD, reformatting the hdd and installing the OS should be a breeze.
ok, so i got a copy of 9.2.1 off of winworld. it actually accepted the disc , booted and i installed that . and now its fine . You where correct so far i have not had any compatibility issues with playing older games designed for 7.5. BUT.... some of the games like prince of persia and doom play in wide screen for some reason with a black border on the top and bottomof the screen. ( im using a 4;3 CRT) and running in 640x480 resolution. this isnt an issue on my older macs running 7.5. so i dunno what that is all about lol. I guess i can leave 9.2 on there for now . although id still like 8.6 on there just because i like all of my collectible computers to come with there stock OS. but this will do for now . Appreciate the help. and if you know why on earth the aspect ratio is weird on some games id appreciate some insight.
Happy to help
My only guess (and it's a guess) is there may be some form of display driver for that model that's better; I don't have any G4 towers personally but I have G3's with ATI cards which can have those control panels installed. So perhaps look that direction, but, I'm glad you're this far :)
The issue here is that, going off the configuration, description and serial number this is a "Digital Audio" G4. That model shipped from factory wigh OS 9.1 and won't run anything earlier without some serious faffing.