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much cherished Blue Dalmatian iMac G3

Avatar David Fleetwood
After keeping my iMac G3 for many years because I thought it looked so good, I have decided to sell it in a decluttering moment! I replaced the PRAM battery and it was working fine then I accidentally pulled out the mains plug while it was still switched on. Since then it hasn't restarted, now the Apple logo appears when you switch on and the precursor of the spinning ball spins but does not progress.
I have tried opening in safe mode, start up manager, resetting the PRAM and recovery mode but none of these solves the problem.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I could kickstart it back to life? It is running 10.3.9, I don't have an external drive that I could try starting it from. Thanks.

Re: much cherished Blue Dalmatian iMac G3

Avatar Mick Burrell
Try restarting the SMC (System Management Controller). Instructions on link below but not sure if that applies to vintage machines 😉

Reset SMC

Re: much cherished Blue Dalmatian iMac G3

Avatar David Fleetwood
Thanks Mick, I tried resetting the SMC but this didn't achieve the desired result. However I kept trying various things and in the end got it to work by loading OS 10.3(luckily I had the CD's) onto a partition that previously held OS 9 (remember that?). It then started up ok in 10.3.
I'm now wondering if there is a way to get 10.3.9 working again - software update doesn't offer it. I suppose I can use start up manager and select the old disc but I don't want to risk going back to square one.

Re: much cherished Blue Dalmatian iMac G3

Avatar Trevor Hewson
When you’ve started up with 10.3 can you use Disk Utility to checkout (and maybe repair) the 10.3.9 partition?

Re: much cherished Blue Dalmatian iMac G3

Avatar David Fleetwood
Thanks Trevor, yes I did try this but Disc Utility said there was an error on exiting and it couldn't repair the disc. I'm not sure it is worth starting up from the install disc and then trying Disc Utility -I wouldn't think this would make any difference but others may know different!

Re: much cherished Blue Dalmatian iMac G3

Avatar Mick Burrell
Recovery mode? I don't think this was available as far back as 10.3

You could try Disk Warrior - that sometimes works when Disc Utility fails. I don't think it's free and may no longer be being updated but not being available for High Sierra shouldn't bother you 😉

Re: much cherished Blue Dalmatian iMac G3

Avatar David Fleetwood
I have had a look at Disc Warrior which certainly sounds as though it would do the trick but the cost appears to be disproportionate to the information I would recover. I'll mull this over!
I notice that the web pages do not load in Safari on OS 10.3 -it says the certificate is invalid on every page I try. Clicking continue brings up the pages in HTML only, is there any obvious reason for this? I'm connecting via ethernet btw. Thanks again

Re: much cherished Blue Dalmatian iMac G3

Avatar Mick Burrell
The version of Safari in 10.3 is so out of date, internet technologies have left it way behind.

Re: much cherished Blue Dalmatian iMac G3

Avatar Tony Still
I have a contemporary copy of Disk Warrior here that you could try. It is dated 2004 and asks for G3 or better CPU and OS X 10.2.1 or better. The CD is bootable.

Drop me an E-mail if you want to give it a go.
 
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