Hello,
I just got a lime 400 MHz iMac G3 which was working great running Mac OS 9.2.2. I wanted to boot it into Tiger but the SSD I was going to put on it is still on the way, so I tried to boot it over firewire from my G4, but forgot to check if the firmware was updated on it (I doubt it was but I don't know for sure). To my understanding, booting Tiger without updating the firmware can cause problems, is this true?
Because after I did so, when I restarted the computer, it would start up fine but the internal display just would stay black and it would only show an image on an external screen. If I put the computer to sleep then woke it up, then the display would work, until I shut it down and then it would just do nothing, not even chime, until I unplugged it and then plugged it back in. By this point I still wasn't thinking it was firmware related, so then I tried booting Tiger again and after that it got worse. Now when I turn it on it chimes and the drive spins up but then immediately spins down and nothing else happens. The CRT stays black the whole time and the external monitor shows a blank gray screen. Trying to reset the PRAM does nothing, and I can't even get into Open Firmware. At this point, i remembered having to update the firmware in my other iMac G3 and started to suspect that this was the mistake.
Other things to note are that I don't have a PRAM battery for it, that's on its way, but I don't think that should be necessary to boot it, correct? I also tried swapping the logic board into my working iMac and it does the exact same thing, so I don't believe it's analog board related at all.
Is there anything else I should try, or is the logic board likely just bricked? I'm hopeful that it's not, but can't think of what else to try.
I just got a lime 400 MHz iMac G3 which was working great running Mac OS 9.2.2. I wanted to boot it into Tiger but the SSD I was going to put on it is still on the way, so I tried to boot it over firewire from my G4, but forgot to check if the firmware was updated on it (I doubt it was but I don't know for sure). To my understanding, booting Tiger without updating the firmware can cause problems, is this true?
Because after I did so, when I restarted the computer, it would start up fine but the internal display just would stay black and it would only show an image on an external screen. If I put the computer to sleep then woke it up, then the display would work, until I shut it down and then it would just do nothing, not even chime, until I unplugged it and then plugged it back in. By this point I still wasn't thinking it was firmware related, so then I tried booting Tiger again and after that it got worse. Now when I turn it on it chimes and the drive spins up but then immediately spins down and nothing else happens. The CRT stays black the whole time and the external monitor shows a blank gray screen. Trying to reset the PRAM does nothing, and I can't even get into Open Firmware. At this point, i remembered having to update the firmware in my other iMac G3 and started to suspect that this was the mistake.
Other things to note are that I don't have a PRAM battery for it, that's on its way, but I don't think that should be necessary to boot it, correct? I also tried swapping the logic board into my working iMac and it does the exact same thing, so I don't believe it's analog board related at all.
Is there anything else I should try, or is the logic board likely just bricked? I'm hopeful that it's not, but can't think of what else to try.