Cannot install OSX or boot on G4

[djkidblast]

Hi, i recently bought a spare ibook G4 that had apparently had problems booting before. The system had been wiped clean before i bought it but when I tried to install my copy of OSX Tiger it says it cannot be installed on the computer.

Also when i try to run the Hardware test it fails to do anything when i click on the right arrow.

Is there anybody who may be able to assist me with my problems??? Thank you.

Any ideas would be appreciated, thanks again.

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

Is your copy of Tiger a Retail Version or the one that shipped with your other (presuming you have another mac) Mac?

If you have another mac, is it a PPC or Intel Mac?

 

[djkidblast]

Hi, the software is not the retail one, but one i purchased from ebay. I installed it on my other mac which is also an ibook G4.

Thanks for the quick reply

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

Just for complete clarifications sake, it doesn't look like this:

 

[djkidblast]

No, sorry i should of been more clear in my answer. Its definitely not a retail copy, and i installed fine on my other ibook. Thanks.

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

What are the specs of your two iBook G4s please .. I have to go out for a while so I'll check back here later.

 

[djkidblast]

My 'good' ibook is a 1.3gig, 768Mb, and the 'bad' one is only a 1Ghz, 256Mb

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

Ah, your 1GHz iBook originally shipped with Panther whereas the 1.33GHz iBook more than likely originally shipped with Tiger and therefore the install disc is model specific and will only work on the macs it shipped with.

Your 1.33GHz iBook has to be one of last of it's kind, in a sense. You must have the Mid 2004 model with more than likely a 100 GB hard drive? That model shipped with Tiger whereas the earlier 1.33 GHz iBook that was released late 2004 shipped with Panther.

If I've got any of that wrong then let me know please as we may still have a solution but I'm fairly certain that only a Full Retail Version of Tiger would work on the *Bad* iBook. You would need to up the RAM anyway as I think the minimum needed is 512MB for Tiger.

 

[djkidblast]

I think this could very well be the problem. Although my 1.33GHz model is only 80gig it seems to me newer than the 1GHz model. Also i managed to run the hardware test from the tiger disc and everything passed, but sometimes when i boot from the disc it freezes completely. So i don't know if its worth buying an old copy of Panther or the Retail copy of Tiger just to find that the ibook is screwed anyway. What would you suggest? Sell the ibook as spares? Any suggestions gratefully recieved. Thanks

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

Yep, I bet your 1.33GHz iBook shipped with Tiger already installed and this would be why you can't install it on the other iBook.

I think your best bet is to try and source a cheap Full Retail Version of Panther from eBay and make sure the disc you find isn't some kind of Upgrade Disc. This would mean that your *bad* iBook would be required to already have the previous OS installed before that disc would work.

I picked up a Retail Version of Panther from eBay pretty cheaply so think about that as an option as then if the iBook turns out to be a dud, then you could sell the iBook & the Panther disc as a package and probably make a bit of $$ from the sale. If the iBook won't boot then you'd need to stipulate that you were selling it in that condition and the buyer accepts the items as being sold *as is*.

Some food for thought

 

[djkidblast]

Thanks for the help.

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

Thanks for the help.

You're welcome