PowerCenter Pro freezes at setup screen |
December, 02, 2002 8:23 PM |
jimlinke |
Hello, After a Windows-like nightmare of conflicting devices I have finally gotten Jaguar to install on my Power Computing PowerCenter Pro using XPostFacto. (I knew it wouldn’t be easy.) Now the system boots all the way through until I get to the setup screen (choose country, etc.). The cursor freezes after a few moments at this screen. My setup: PowerCenter Pro 180 Sonnet G4 800 upgrade 512 MB RAM (4-128 MB DIMMS purchased recently from OWC) Onboard video ATY mach 64; Macintosh 21� Color Display SCSI chain (in order on the cable): IBM Ultrastar 36.7GB hard drive; 3 partitions: 8 GB for OSX (first), 5GB for OS9, 23 GB for data. Zip 100 TEAC CDROM CD-516S (requires CD ROM Toolkit in OS9; kernel panic when trying to boot from OSX disk. IBM Ultrastar 2GB OEM hard drive; one partition. All SCSI devices are ID’ed and terminated according to the rules. I removed the Adaptec 2930 SCSI card (this was the culprit according to Sonnet. It is incompatible with OSX on the PCP, although it works fine in OS9) , the Asante fast ethernet card, and the ATI Radeon 7000. They are still out. Since the CD ROM wouldn’t boot in OSX I used Apple Software Restore to create a startup disk on the 2 GB OEM drive, chose that in XPF, and installed OSX on the 8 GB partition (thanks, powderhaus). After several freezes at the setup screen I ran fsck several times until the startup partition “appeared OK� 3 times. Still freezes at that setup window. Does anyone have any suggestions? Does Jaguar not like the onboard video? Is it time to put the Radeon card back in (without the recent update)? |
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RE: PowerCenter Pro freezes at setup screen |
December, 17, 2002 6:27 PM |
jimlinke |
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Colonel: I have given up after two weeks of trying. Perhaps in six months the problems will be resolved and the PCP will be able to run OSX like Sonnet advertised. For now I am going to content myself with quite a speedy OS 9 machine. It has its uses. Sonnet told me that the Adaptec SCSI cards would not work at all with the PCP under OSX and that Sonnet PCI X Installer requires copying from a CD, not another hard drive or volume. The furthest I ever got was the setup assistant (choose your country…) after the installation & reboot. It always froze there. So unless you have plenty of time on your hands, I'd give it up. |
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RE: PowerCenter Pro freezes at setup screen |
December, 16, 2002 10:40 PM |
tnolen |
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I am having a similar (bad) experience: Previously, I installed a Sonnet Crescendo PCI 350 G3 card in my PowerCenter Pro and it has worked flawlessly for almost a year. Recently, I purchased (from OWC) a Sonnet Tempo HD PCI card with a 20GB IBM Travelstar Hard drive, plus additional RAM (256MB total), as well as an Apple branded 8X CR-ROM drive (because I figured the 24X Teac that came with the PowerCenter Pro was not Mac bootable). I believe all the SCSI devices are properly terminated and ID'd. The CD-ROM drive was set to SCSI ID:3 on the internal SCSI bus (which also had the OEM ZIP drive). The OEM floppy drive was also in place. I updated all of the drivers/firmware for the appropriate devices (Tempo, Crescendo) and performed a low level formatting of my drives and partitioned the 20GB drive for an 8GB volume on the first part of the drive for OS X. (I've tried both Apple's Drive SetUp vers 2.03 and Intech's HDST vers 3.5 with the same results). I then downloaded and ran Sonnet's PCI X Installer, which was successful. But when I chose restart after running PCI X Installer, the machine booted into OS 9.1. When I use the latest version of XPF, I get a black screen and a hang. When choosing the Startup Disk X control panel (installed by PCI X Installer) and selecting the OS X CD, I get a black screen and a hard hang requiring a PRAM reset (rather than a kernel panic), which suggests a problem with the Apple-branded 8X CD-ROM Drive -- it won't boot into OS X from the OS X CD. I get exactly the same outcome using an Adaptec 2930UW SCSI card with the original OEM 4GB IBM hard disk as either the OS 9.1 or the OS X volume. I get the same outcome if I use one partition on the Tempo HD's hard disk and another SCSI drive (running on the Adaptec 2930UW adapter). I have not tried using Apple Software Restore to make a copy of the OS X CD on one of the disks (actually, I tried running it but got the message that it could not find an installation to restore ... I'll keep trying and let everyone know what happens). Any other suggestions? -- Colonel Panik (tnolen) |
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RE: PowerCenter Pro freezes at setup screen |
December, 13, 2002 1:23 AM |
jimlinke |
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I ran all the RAM tests with TechTool Pro 3 except of course the Minor & Major March. All passed. I also pulled each DIMM and tried booting into OSX.2 with the same result as before: the system completes booting but freezes at the first screen of the setup assistant where you pick your country. (Perhaps Homeland Security worries I will pick Canada : ) ). I don't see how I could tinker with the cache configuration if I cannot boot into X. I also tried Sonnet PCI X Installer and an Apple 24x CDROM which never worked; just boots back into OS9. On a more general level -- If I do manage to get this to boot into OSX will I end up with a somewhat crippled or flakey system? Is it worth the effort? This is after all quite a good OS9 machine and I do have a B & W with OSX. |
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RE: PowerCenter Pro freezes at setup screen |
December, 10, 2002 8:31 PM |
OSXGuru |
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The most common cause for cursor freezes is either problems with RAM, or problems with cache control settings. You might try swapping out some DIMMs to see whether that makes a difference. Also, switching cache control software can make a difference. Though, with the G4/800 card, you don't have a lot of options yet (I'm working on an upgrade to L2CacheConfig). The other thing that would be interesting would be to see whether things work better with a different CPU, if you have one available. |
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RE: PowerCenter Pro freezes at setup screen |
December, 05, 2002 1:39 AM |
jimlinke |
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Hello again, I have run out of options with the hardware set I described earlier. I have tried installing on both drives, with the ATI Radeon card in and out. Same result: freezes at the setup assistant. With the Radeon card in it won't even display the first window. Has anyone had success installing Jaguar in a PowerCenter Pro? If so would you post your hardware specs? What about 10.1.x? My only other option would be to buy an Apple brand CD ROM and try to install with Sonnet PCI X Installer. I believe it requires a CD to install from, not a hard drive volume. |
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RE: PowerCenter Pro freezes at setup screen |
December, 02, 2002 8:34 PM |
jimlinke |
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Hello again, I forgot to include the Kensington ADB trackball and original Power Computing keyboard in my specs. These work fine on my G3 B & W in OS X.1.4. |