I just got a copy of MAC OS 10.4 on CDs and the disc won't load. I'll put the disc in and the MAC spits it out. I rebooted holding down the C button and it spits the disc out. So what gives? I have the right install discs which are for iMacs.

This is the model iMac that I am upgrading.

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/stats/imac_350.html

James, did you read the post Reboot posted in your other thread?

He posted a link that went here. I think this is what you need to read/do:

You buy 'em books and they eat the covers.

I ran that XpostFacto utility on the iMac and now the system crashed. I rebooted it the machine and checked off the option for L2 to L3 cache. The system has now crashed. I still tried putting the Tiger disc and it spit it out. I even put in the OS 9 disc but it didn't even spit it out. Here is the error message I got, please help:

System Failure: cpu=0 code =00000004 (No saveareas)
Latest crash info for cpu 0:
Exception state (sv=0x00000000)
PC = 0x00088330; MSR =0x00003000; DAR=0x00000048; System Failure

Backtrace

backtrace terminated - unaligned frame address: 0x8E008001

Kernel version;
Darwin Kernel Version 7.9.0
Wed Mar 30 20:11:17 pST 2005; root:xnu/xnu-517.12.7.obj~1/RELEASE_PPC

I don't remember whether I tried Tiger on my wife's iMac-350 before its ethernet circuit was taken out by a lightening strike. I'm thinking that I did not. It worked just fine with 10.3.9 though.

But my system has crashed and I can't get to the desktop. I get the following error:

System Failure: cpu=0 code =00000004 (No saveareas)
Latest crash info for cpu 0:
Exception state (sv=0x00000000)
PC = 0x00088330; MSR =0x00003000; DAR=0x00000048; System Failure

Backtrace

backtrace terminated - unaligned frame address: 0x8E008001

Kernel version;
Darwin Kernel Version 7.9.0
Wed Mar 30 20:11:17 pST 2005; root:xnu/xnu-517.12.7.obj~1/RELEASE_PPC

What can I do?

Start up the computer in Safe Boot mode. This will let you uninstall XPF since it won't load in safe boot.

Why it doesn't work? I don't know, I have never used XPF. My only other suggestion would be to reinstall 10.3 fresh, update to 10.3.9, and try again.

Or try removing the HD, putting it into another machine capable of installing 10.4, then put it back into the iMac. That method has worked for me many times.

How do I start it up in safe mode? Sorry never did this on a Mac.

To start up into Safe Mode (to Safe Boot), do this:

1. Be sure the computer is shut down.
2. Press the power button.
3. Immediately after you hear the startup tone, hold the Shift key. The Shift key should be held as soon as possible after the startup tone but not before.
4. Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple icon and the progress indicator (looks like a spinning gear).

During startup in Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you will see "Safe Boot" on the login window, which appears even if you normally log in automatically.

During startup in Mac OS X 10.2 through 10.3.9, you will see "Safe Boot" on the Mac OS X startup screen.

To leave Safe Mode in any version of Mac OS X, restart the computer normally, without holding any keys during startup.

I did this this a few times and I just the screen with the gray apple and it just stays there or I'll get the message to restart the computer. I don't even get to the point where I get the progress indicator. Any other thoughts?

I'm suspecting a hardware issue at this point.

So you started up in Safe Mode?

Do what Reboot suggested: Take the hard drive out and put a new one in or put that one in another mac or case and install that way. Probably easiest to just put a new one in. Hard drives are pretty cheap nowadays. Just make sure you get the right type...probably IDE drive.

It didnt even give me the opportunity to start up in Safe Mode. I would still get the error message even holding down the Shift key. I tried something else which was resetting the PRAM and NVRAM. It doesn't really look like it did anything though.

Yes, it's IDE (ATA). These days, they are labeled pATA as opposed to sATA.

My first suspicion is bad RAM, it will cause the "kernel panics" you're seeing. Only way to check since you can't boot the machine is to swap out the RAM chips, they're PC100, or do the drive swap thing we mentioned.

Heck, you can get a G3 iMac for cheaper than a new HD! I say he should toss that one and get another one.

James, where are you located?

I live in the Boston area. Anyway, I don't even care about loading 10.4 at this point. It has nothing to do with the RAM or hard drive. Basically, I loaded that xpostfacto on my Mac and I had the xpostfacto reboot my machine but I clicked an option from L2 to L3 cache and then it crashed. So at this point, I just want to get the operating system back, which was 10.3.9. So what can I do?

I have no idea since I haven't ever had that iMac.

I would suggest looking on Craigs List for another used iMac.

Is there a way I can reset the machine so I don't get this error?

Erase (reformat) and reinstall 10.3. I'm assuming that there is no L3 cache on that machine, hence the crash at startup. Do you have a 10.3 install disk that you can boot up from? If you can get the options from xpostfacto to come up, maybe changing it back to L2 will remedy the problem. Otherwise, you are back to the "nuclear" option.

Okay, are you just yanking my chain or what? I explained what your options are in the last two posts of mine.

Did you read the XPostFacto.html that comes on the disk image, they have a list of suggestions there too if your Mac won't boot.

My final answer, before trying the stuff I mentioned above.

Hold down Apple- (Command) Option-O-F at startup till you get the text screen.

Type the following and hit Return after each;

reset-nvram
reset-all

Have you tried resetting the nvram as Reboot suggested and at least tested your RAM sticks to the point of swapping them in one at a time? You seem reluctant to try the disk swap suggestion, and maybe you don't have ready access to another computer to do that.

XPostFacto changes something on the disk so it will boot from an OS X install disk that Apple says is not supported. People swear by it when it works; the rest swear at it. As Reboot said, there is a large section on troubleshooting on the XPostFacto support page. Many of the suggestions involve booting back into OS 9. Have you tried booting from your OS 9 or Mac OS X 10.3 install CDs by holding down the "C" key at startup? If that works, you might boot into OS 9 and try running XPostFacto to see if there is an Uninstall option in one of its menus. You might run Disk First Aid, and then try booting into the MAC OS X 10.3 install CD and run Disk Utility from that. Ultimately I think you need to do something that causes OS X to rewrite the boot block commands - did I hit that right, Reboot?

After doing that, you might try rebooting from the HD again. If it still doesn't work, I think you are ready for Michael's advice - reformat the drive and reinstall 10.3. If you have to reformat the drive, that would be the time to think about whether you still want to play around in OS 9 sometimes. You can create a small OS 9 standalone partition on your 60 GB HD. You can still install Classic on your 10.3 partition, or use the OS 9 partition for your Classic, but having a separate OS 9 partition would give you a place to start up from in an emergency like this, and it would allow you to set the extensions you want for standalone operation without having to change them to run Classic (if you have an alternative Classic installation on the OS X partition). I still have one on my OS 9-bootable G4 system from years ago, although I haven't booted into it for a long time, until last week to recall something for this thread. The whole OS 9 system, plus all the OS 9 applications that I was using when I transitioned to OS X easily fit onto a 3 - 4 GB partition, allowing "head-room" for virtual memory and data. (The actual footprint of the system plus all the applications is only 1.08 GB on the disk.)

Just some thoughts. Hope it helps.

How would I reformat the drive? Is there a command that I can type in to do this? I cant even get into the operating system at this point.

What happens when you stick in the OSX install CD?

Nothing happens. It spits it out. I have an OS 9 on a disc but it is not a bootable disc and it is stuck in the CD Rom drive

http://tinyurl.com/cux2ej

Well I got the iMac to eject at least

You reformat the drive using Disk Utility (located in the Applications/Utilities folder in a normal installation) while started under Mac OS X. That's a bit of a problem since you can't get the machine to start up, and there aren't many options with this particular model, especially lacking Firewire.

OK - so you've tried all the suggestions, resetting non-volatile RAM, tested your memory DIMMs, tried to boot without extensions, and tried to boot to open firmware. You don't have any CDs that boot. I think you may be down to your last option - take the drive to another Mac with an empty drive bay and parallel ATA connector, an external enclosure, or a naked drive adapter. Once you have it in another Mac, you can decide whether you want to try loading 10.4 as Reboot recommended, or just restore 10.3.

I would rather restore 10.3.9. So how can I do this? Would I need to reformat the drive

You'll need a bootable 10.3 install disk. Open Disk Utiltiy when booted from that disk and Choose "Erase." There are also options to write zeros so that you can really clear the HD. After that, run the OS X installer from that same disk. Once 10.3 is installed, either use Software Update (under the Apple menu) or go to Apple's web site and download the Combo Updater for 10.3.9 and install that. After that, providing that the iMac has successfully booted from the internal HD at any stage in this process, reinstall your other software applications.

I have the boot discs but I cannot get into the operating system to get to disk utility. How and where do I erase the disc?

Boot from the installer disc, after the first screen to select the language, go the Menu bar at the top of the screen, under one of the drop downs is Disk Utilities. Can't remember if back in 10.3 you had to go a screen or so past the language select.

You might want to go to the Partition option in Disk Utility instead of Erase, choose 1 Partition, Mac OSX journaled. I don't know if XPF modifies the boot blocks or not, so to be safe use Partition.

I think the problem is the CD ROM drive itself. It doesn't seem to run for some reason and it's not allowing the disc to boot.

That's a good possibility.

You held the C key down at start up to make it boot from the CD? Or hold the option key down till you see the blue screen and choose the CD as the startup disc.

You can get a slot loading CD player on ebay for less than $20 shipped, but if you want to experiment more I'd maybe recommend getting a different iMac. 400 Mhz or higher will have firewire ports, 500 Mhz or higher will have a better video chip that will help with OS X.

If you live in or near a major city there may be a computer recycler or used computer store that has iMacs for the same price as on ebay, or search ebay or graig's list for a local seller. I got a couple over a year ago for $65 each locally.

I actually got to the install screen and the OS tries to install however and I chose the selection to erase the disc. However, the install gets hung up when installing the system software. it got stuck on this screen for a while and I finally had to turn it off. When I attempted the install, the CD Rom sounded like it was chocking and stalling. When I turn on the screen now, I get a circle with a cross thru it.

That means there is no OS to boot from on the hard drive. I'm beginning to wonder if the hard drive is failing. Suggest you boot from the CD again, select Disk Utility from the FILE menu and perform the erase from there and then try to install the OS.

Use Disk Utility to make a new partition like i described above before installing again.

Also, choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled).