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Trying to install a Mac OS that works on my Apple Power Macintosh G4 450 (AGP)

zincmann

New member
I bought a older but really nice condition Power Mac G4 Graphite

Apple Power Macintosh G4 450 (AGP)​

I have installed a Compact Flash card drive on it and purchased a blank 64GB Compact Flash. We have power going from the card reader to the board as well as its connected to the primary IDE connector to the board. My son and i have tried several combinations of Max OS 8/9 and have not had much luck.

The dvd drive recognizes the disc as Mac OS 9.x or what not but screen turns black after a bit and nothing happens. Hes been trying to do some research as well here but we are stumped on what to try next.
 

ArmorAlley

Well-known member
Take/disconnect everything out that you don't need: CF card reader, all but RAM stick, IDE hard disc, AirPort card, all PCI cards.
You need one stick of RAM, the optical drive plugged into one of the IDE ports and the AGP graphics card.

Is the boot disc a CD-ROM or a DVD?
Is the disc burned from a downloaded image or an official disk from Apple?
Does it make the startup bing on startup?
I don't know if it is relevant: what is the connector to the monitor: VGA, DVI or that rounded abomination that combines power & DVI together?
Do you have a Mac OS X boot DVD, say 10.3 or 10.4?

[1] https://everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_server_g4/specs/macserver_g4_450.html
 

zincmann

New member
Armor Alley (See some of my responses)

Take/disconnect everything out that you don't need: CF card reader, all but RAM stick, IDE hard disc, AirPort card, all PCI cards.
You need one stick of RAM, the optical drive plugged into one of the IDE ports and the AGP graphics card.

Is the boot disc a CD-ROM or a DVD? Have tried both CD-R and DVD-R
Is the disc burned from a downloaded image or an official disk from Apple? Burned from a downloaded image
Does it make the startup bing on startup? Makes the startup chime yes
I don't know if it is relevant: what is the connector to the monitor: VGA, DVI or that rounded abomination that combines power & DVI together?
Do you have a Mac OS X boot DVD, say 10.3 or 10.4? I have a ADC Apple Studio Display LCD but use the Apple branded DVI to ADC Powered adapter and yes I do see everything on the screen up until the screen turns black. I dont have a Mac OS X Boot DVD at all.

[1] https://everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_server_g4/specs/macserver_g4_450.html
 
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