OSX Startup Garbage

R

robchristianson

Registered
Hello all. I am having an especially frustrating time installing OS X, nevermind the fact that I installed a bunch of other stuff at the same time. Doesn't help the elimination process any...

Here's my problem.

In starting up under OS X, I get the gray start screen with the apple logo, and before the "spinny wheel thing" comes up, i get (for lack of a better term) 'garbage' running horizontally through the gray screen for about the middle 1/4th of the screen, and the machine is frozen.

If i startup from the CD, i have better luck, but if I try to do the Disk Utility program, i get a window-shade effect and a message coming up saying "You Must Restart Your Computer" which I discovered is some sort of "Darwin Kernel error" - seems common, but i cannot fix it.

I really know my way around OS 9.x, so I feel like a complete idiot not even knowing where to start, and I have yet to find someone who's had the same problem as me on any message-board on the Internet...

Here are details:

My machine is a B/W G3, 350 mhz originally. I don't think it's revision 2, because according to XLR8yourmac.com I should have a u-bracket for a 2nd hard drive, which i do not.

I replaced my old 350 G3 processor with a OWC Mercury ZA G4/533-550 Altivec 1M processor. (note, I updated my firmware before installing the g4 processor under os 9.2.2, and I also put the old processor back in to test in OS X but I got the same garbage-lockup problem, so I don't beleive it's necessarily the processor)

I replaced the factory HD with a 60 GB IBM DeskStar 180GXP hard disk. (note, I did check a couple different cables and got the same garbage-error so I don't believe it's the cables)

I partioned the new HD into 2 partitions, 1 being 10gb, the other being the remaining space, as I was installing OS X v10.2

That's when I started running into this problem. A co-worker had darwin kernel issues and they were resolved on his newer iMac with the latest system update (is it 10.6 or something like that).

I did the "software update" thru the apple menu and downloaded that 80mb update, but the problem remains.

WHAT SHOULD I DO??? This is causing serious downtime for my job, and I was forced to reconnect the old OS 9 Hard disk just to get some work done. Can anyone help???

Thanks in advance!
 
10.2.6 is the latest update... we won't see 10.6 for a few years now, if Apple continues the current labeling trend.

What exactly did you install at the same time as 10.2? If it's not software, this could also be bad RAM. Run your Apple Hardware Test CD and give us the results.
 
You updated your firmware - to the latest from Apple or the G4-enabling firmware from OWC, available HERE

If you didn't install the G4-enabling firmware, boot into 9 and do it. You'll never get the B&W to run under X otherwise.
 
For a list of all the stuff I installed during the week leading up to the 10.2 install, see my original post above.

I did install the firmware thru 9 on the old hard drive. Is it hard-disk specific or is it a hardware thing that writes to the ROM or something that would be unaffected by the new HD?

I will try it without that new DIMM installed too, but I doubt that's the problem since the RAM ran fine under OS 9.2.2 last week.

About the "Apple Hardware Test CD" I don't believe I have that. The 10.2.3 package that we bought came with the 2 installation disks and the "Mac OS X Developer Tools" CD. Would that one be it perhaps?

Thanks for the help guys!
 
The question was which firmware update did you apply, Apple's or the one from OWC? Both have to be applied under 9.

Oh, and the B&W has the ROM-in-RAM deal, it's not on the HD.

But you might still want to try and update the firmware again, just in case.

The B&W didn't come with a hardware test CD. You can test RAM, under 9, with DIMM First Aid . OS X is really picky about RAM - RAM that works fine under 9 doesn't necessarily work in X.
 
Thanks for that link to DIMM First Aid...

In OS 9.2.2, it says:

DIMM configured for 64 mb....
10.0ns PC100-322
DIMM checks out okay.

DIMM configured for 64 mb...
8.0ns PC100-322
DIMM checks out okay.

DIMM configured for 64mb...
8.0ns PC100-222
DIMM checks out okay

DIMM configured for 256mb...
8.0ns PC100-222
DIMM checks out okay.

Is there a version of DIMM First Aid for OS X that I should get too, so I know whether that would be a detriment to OS X?


About the FIRMWARE, a while back i updated my firmware for the BW with the apple one cuz I had to install OS 9 (originally it was 8). Is that the apple firmware update you're talking about? And last week, when I was installing the OWC processor, I used the OWC G4 enabler firmware update you were talking about. So as it stands, it if is a RAM-in-ROM deal like you were saying, my firmware is updated. I will do it again, but with the new HD just in case though.

I hope to get a chance to try this stuff out today, and if I do, I'll letcha know what happens. If not, next week. Thanks!
 
I had very similar problems when I bought a 450mhz B/W that had hardware problems. It ran find under 9.2.2 (or so I thought - it actually froze fairly often when I really pushed it) but kept barfing with random, weird behavior under X. I had it replaced with another, identical (but presumably not "broken") 450mhz B/W.

However,
Have you tried removing some of the memory, particularly the 64MB DIMMs? Replaced the original 350mhz processor and tried that? Getting rid of added peripherals and doing other generic hardware troubleshooting?
 
I did try it with the original 350 mhz processor but got the same "garbage" freeze on the gray apple screen. But if updating my firmware is a 'hard disk' thing rather than a rom/ram thing, I will try that when i get a chance.

Too many projects to do first, but i really am anxious to get in there and try everyone's suggestions!

I will try the DIMM idea of yours, thanks!
 
I'm sorry - I got my models inside out - the ROM is on the motherboard in the B&W, not rom-in-ram or on the hard drive.

You might want to test your PRAM battery, too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top