G4 MDD 1.42 DP

[mac2geezer]

Won an eBay auction for a G4 MDD 1.42 DP 512MB/120GB and it should arrive in the next few days. I plan to boost the Ram and add another HD at some point, then it will run a scientific program in the background and maybe be a server for my LAN. May even try Linux in the future.

 

[Temetka]

Those are nice machines.

Although it's not part of my criteria for purchasing a machine anymore, is it one of the early MDD that can run OS 9?

 

[mac2geezer]

To the best of my knowledge it's the FW800 model, so no, it won't run OS 9. I've got four other machines running OS 9 here so that's not a problem.

 

[Strimkind]

Those are nice machines.
Although it's not part of my criteria for purchasing a machine anymore, is it one of the early MDD that can run OS 9?

There is the early MDD models but do not forget about the 2003 model with 1.25ghz/256/80/R9000/combo (stock) that could boot OS9 and was released after the old models with OS9 support were discontinued.

 

[Macman756]

Nice score man! I love the last MDDs. How much did you pay?

 

[mac2geezer]

I paid more than I wanted, $225, but that was over $100 less than the local Craigslisters want for a lesser machine. Typing this on it now; came with 1GB Ram instead of 512MB as advertised, and fired right up when I finally figured out when the power button was. Case is in great condition, just a few slight scuffs and the interior is very clean. Came with 10.3.3 installed but I'll probably go to Tiger soon.

 

[mac2geezer]

Okay folks, stupid question number 50. How do I get the DVD drive to open, ie, for the tray to come out so I can insert a CD/DVD? I launched DVD player and selected eject but nothing happens. System profiler sees the drive okay, so what am I missing here/

 

[LCGuy]

What happens when you hold down F12?

 

[mac2geezer]

Yup, F12 did the trick. Boy do I feel stupid! Thanks guy!

 

[mac2geezer]

Okay, further DVD drive problems. I inserted a Tiger install disk, told it to install and almost immediately got a kernal panic; wrong disk for this computer. Every time I try to restart it restarts from the DVD and kernal panics. I tried disconnecting the power to the drive until boot up then reconnecting, but then it doesn't see the drive. Is there any way to manually eject a disk on this system? I find no hole to poke a paper clip into like on older drives.

 

[mac2geezer]

Forget the previous post; I found the manual eject hole. It's not obvious.

 

[alk]

You can also hold down the mouse button at startup to eject your drive tray.

Peace,

Drew

 

[equill]

Both of the MDDs in this house are of the generations (1GHz DP: SG240..., and 1.25GHz: YM343...) that were intended to be able to boot into OS 9. Although neither came with the original System Install discs (they were second-hand), when I was able to get the machine-specific discs I found that the System Folder of OS 9.2.2 contained:

• Classic v9.5.0 (Classic Compatibility ROM v1.0)
  Classic Support v.2.2.1 (Classic Compatibility Environment v1.9)
  Classic Support UI v.2.2.1 (Classic Compatibility Environment v1.9)
  Mac OS ROM v10.2.1 (Mac OS CPU Software v5. 8) : this is the 'ROM in RAM'.

I don't know whether these all, or the ROM in RAM alone, determine the ability to boot into OS 9, or whether that can be defeated by hardware. It does give you a line for exploration, however, if your install disc is not suited to the MDD that you have. For example, Mac OS ROM v9.7.1 is on my 'retail' OS 9.2.1 CD, and definitely does not support 48-bit LBA for HDDs, whereas v10.2.1 does.

de

 

[ccmac]

I to just got a MDD off of ebay last week. It's a MDD 2003 model. I am also trying to install 9.2.2. As is usually the case, it didn't come with the machine specific install disks so I have the typical problem of being unable to install a bootable version of 9.2.2. I don't really need the install disks but instead based on my research all I need is the invisible disk image named something like OS9General.dmg or OS9Content.dmg found on one of the install disks. Can anyone provide this? Thanks in advance.

As an aside, regarding the FW800 model, I've always heard rumors that there is some way to get it to boot into OS9. I do know that Apple provided a special version of the firmware to select developers that allowed the FW800 to boot into OS9. I've wondered if this is nothing more than the MDD 2003 firmware flashed onto the FW800 motherboard. I have also seen some people claim that they have got OS9 to boot on a FW800 and that it involves nothing more than hacking a few system files but they usually provide no details on how to do this. Another interesting approach that I just discovered is to just use a terminal command to bless the 9.2.2 folder. See this link http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=1542636 as well as a Japanese user who seems to be doing something similiar on a iMac, http://ameblo.jp/jozenji/theme-10002170412.html. I found the same guy who made this claim on the apple forum discussing this at another forum but unfortunately in Russian, http://mymac.ru/forum_heritage/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=help&Number=295113&page=18&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=all.