Startup Problem

J

johnnydatl

Registered
On a multi-os bootable G4 silver, after selecting the OS X volume boot at startup, Mac icon briefly appears, then another icon appears and the mac goes not farther.

The icon is a circle with a slash across it, similar to a typical european or even american symbol indicating "do not enter" or do not do whatever the symbol is superimposed over.

That is all that is on the screen, just this symbol.

this occured after the computer reportedly crashed while the user was in a web browser session on a local area network.

The mac does boot to the OS9 volume as well as to Warrior and Tech Tools boot disks.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

JD
 
I have read several postings about what to do when you get this screen when booting, but I cannot solve my problem.

I am trying to rebuild a G4 400mhz that was cannabilized. I have placed 256 mb of RAM and a 20GB hard drive in the computer. The CD drive is not working and I have yet to find one to replace it, so I just disconnected it. Both the RAM and the hard drive were used on another G4 400 to test them. The drive booted fine. It was reformated (erased) and OSX 10.3 was installed using the good G4 and then placed in the G4 I am trying to build up. I have zapped PRAM and I have reset the ?PMU? (the little switch by the battery on the motherboard). With probibitory sign showing when it boots it is like there is a installation problem, but the drive works fine on a similar computer. It is set to cable select.

I hope someone has an idea of what I can do. Thanks.
 
Here's another good article helping troubleshoot the 'prohibited' symbol
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106464
You will see that it is usually due to problems with the system files in the software installation.
Your hard drive should be set as Master, and not cable select. The older Macs do not support the use of cable select, although that might work anyway. Change the drive jumper to master.
The 'prohibited' symbol may also be caused by other hardware.
Make sure you do NOT have any external hardware attached, other than a (Apple) keyboard, mouse, and display. No USB hubs, or external storage. Remove any extra PCI cards. Typical PCI cards that could cause problems? A SCSI adapter card, even if it is an Apple card that came with the system.
Anyway, remove any extra cards until you get the booting problems sorted out. If you have an Airport card, remove that, too.
 
I changed my hard drive to Master and still no luck. There is no external hardward attached and I am using an official Apple keyboard and mouse. No airport card, either.

I have tried reseating my video card and was wondering if I should do the same for the modem, processor, and anthing else I can remove and reseat. What do you think?
 
John Mosby said:
... I have tried reseating my video card and was wondering if I should do the same for the modem, processor, and anthing else I can remove and reseat. What do you think?
Click to expand...

No PCI cards of any kind?
I think you can try reseating anything. If you have another G4/400, you can try swapping parts. Be sure to try different RAM.

Do both G4s have the same firmware version? You can check at the Open-Firmware screen for that. (boot with Apple-Option-O-F). If the bad one is older firmware, then you have to boot to OS 9 from the internal hard drive, and upgrade to that.
 
Where can I find a firmware number for the latest version after the upgrade? I don't know what the upgraded firmware number would be after I check it with Apple-option-O-F.
 
John Mosby said:
Where can I find a firmware number for the latest version after the upgrade? I don't know what the upgraded firmware number would be after I check it with Apple-option-O-F.
Click to expand...

The top line of the Open Firmware screen.
First is the Mac ID number, then the firmware version - such as:
PowerMac 4,1, 4.1.9f1 BootROM
In this example, 4.1.9 is the BootROM, or the firmware version. Other characters in the firmware (the trailing f1) are usually irrelevant
Your two PowerMacs, if identical models, should have identical information at that line.
here's an article that can help - http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86117
 
Neither G4 had the updated firmware version. I downloaded the correct updater from Apple, booted from OS 9.2 and updated the boot ROM firmware to Apple's specs for both of the G4's. Now both computers are working perfectly. Thanks a heap, you were right on!!

I also found another place that shows the Boot ROM version for the computer. It can also be checked in the System Profiler of OS 9 or OSX.
 
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