Power Computing PowerTower won't install beyond 8.1

[Ortho'sDeli]

I've spent the last few days trying to install 8.6 and 9 on a PowerComputing clone. OS 8 and 8.1 will install without issue, but 8.6 install reports "not enough free memory" and 8.6 update will try to launch but hang. OS 9.0 will go through install but run into a number of errors.

HW specs:
256 MB RAM that is known good
ZuluSCSI 1.1 as the HDD
Everything else is stock.

What am I missing here?

 

[Moloko]

Hi,

first of all: OS 8 and OS 9 works on these computers.

Do you have virtual memory (control panels-> memory) on? If yes disable it and try again

Do you use FWB Toolkit Driver or the Apple Driverfor the Harddisk?

Do you perform a clean install? This gets asked quite early in the install process under options or customize.

Perform a PRAM zip (Command + option + p + r keys, you will lose some parameters like monitor seoluton, date, time etc.)


I have a Umax S900 but can't get it into my appartment at the moment. It's more or less the same machine.

 

[macuserman]

I've spent the last few days trying to install 8.6 and 9 on a PowerComputing clone. OS 8 and 8.1 will install without issue, but 8.6 install reports "not enough free memory" and 8.6 update will try to launch but hang. OS 9.0 will go through install but run into a number of errors.

HW specs:
256 MB RAM that is known good
ZuluSCSI 1.1 as the HDD
Everything else is stock.

What am I missing here?

You may have those issues if you don't have your zulu setup correctly. Can you try with a normal drive? I have run into similar issues with an incorrect config.

 

[Ortho'sDeli]

Hi,

first of all: OS 8 and OS 9 works on these computers.

Do you have virtual memory (control panels-> memory) on? If yes disable it and try again

Do you use FWB Toolkit Driver or the Apple Driverfor the Harddisk?

Do you perform a clean install? This gets asked quite early in the install process under options or customize.

Perform a PRAM zip (Command + option + p + r keys, you will lose some parameters like monitor seoluton, date, time etc.)


I have a Umax S900 but can't get it into my appartment at the moment. It's more or less the same machine.

1. I believe it was off by default, but I'll ensure it is for my next try.
2. I've tried both. The drives don't have to be formatted specifically as HFS+ beforehand, do they? I've found that the option is grayed out from Disk Setup.
3. I've tried standard and clean install (at least for 9, since it will allow me to go that far). Either will encounter errors during install and the end result will not be bootable.
4. This one I've already done. I had to do PRAM and CUDA early on as I was having a bunch of weirdness.

You may have those issues if you don't have your zulu setup correctly. Can you try with a normal drive? I have run into similar issues with an incorrect config.

I can do that. Do you think it would need to be a standard 50-pin SCSI disk, or would an ultrawide 68-pin with adapter be acceptable?

 

[Ortho'sDeli]

Thanks for the assist. I believe the issue was that switch 1 on the Zulu was on, causing a HDD driver conflict. System is fully up and running without issues.

 

[macuserman]

Thanks for the assist. I believe the issue was that switch 1 on the Zulu was on, causing a HDD driver conflict. System is fully up and running without issues.

Ah yep! I was hoping you had a config issue, I have seen that so was pretty confident. Glad you got it sorted.