B&W G3 Startup problems!

[Greentree_uk]

I have a B&W 350Mhz G3. when it starts up The screen comes on and I get ? mark. system is not an issue I have a new HD in there and am booting from CD. when I don't have the HD attatched it boots ok. therefore nothing is on that IDE bus. when I put the HD on the machine gets to ? mark and switches resolution and I get a black screen this happens as soon as it picks up on the OS. I have tried nvram reset. pram reset even done it through open firmware. u guys got any ideas? I have also tried other drives.

[Greentree_uk]

booting is intermittent it actually doesn't make a difference if the machine has a device connected to the primary IDE bus. so anyone an idea? bar replacing logic board? the video does come on before it accesses the system disk!

[eric]

You may just need to reset the pram, and flesh out the stored Startup Disk preference.

At cold startup (not restart), hold cmd-opt-p-r until you hear 3 chimes.

You will get the ? mark again since there's no currently stored Startup Disk preference. But just go the the STartup Disk control panel or System Preference and set it.

[Greentree_uk]

Thanks for help but still no joy. can you delete this file from OF? the machine boots fine but no screen!! I can even shutdown properly

[Greentree_uk]

the screen even wakes up from sleep and the screen turns on!! but only occasionally
Help!!

[rwm]

Are all your jumper settigs right? Double check the new "hard drive"? Master/Slave and such?

Randy

[Greentree_uk]

yes jumper settings fine

[Greentree_uk]

I have never got the resounding chime on startup... only when I reset pram but only when I am holding cmd + opt + p + r never from pushing the pwr button.

[bif]

I'm experiencing similar problems with my B&W G3 and here is what I have found in my search for a solution (besides get a new computer). Depending on which OS you are running, the machine needs the correct version of firmware - I believe that with OS9 you had to update the firmware or else you couldn't install the OS, and hence it probably won't boot it if already installed.
By the way, how did you get the OS installed on this new hard drive, did you do it using a different computer or did this B&W used to boot alright? Also, the B&W can apparently be very particular about RAM, have recently installed new RAM?

[TZ]

Sometimes I wish there was a button to just upload a System Profile of RAM, DIMM First Aid, hardware, all the stuff ASP and OS X System Profiler create.

Otherwise, we go around in circles and takes forever to get somewhere sometimes with hardware issues.

We've had a few folks with B&W, some that were bought off ebay, new/used, rarely where its been existing owner for years and now having trouble.

Disk drive make/model
Driver used to initialize
cables etc
controllers and other add-ons
(and firmware of any 3rd party cards)
Battery.

Some people have gone so far as to test voltage on various points.

[Greentree_uk]

yes bif, mine is similar to yours. this machine had jaguar on it and am using a stock drive from another machine. however this happens with no drive attached! just boot from CD! I will check FW and get back.

[Greentree_uk]

BIF, Yes Firware seems to be an issue. I updated drive to 9.2 and it started to boot and behave normally. thanks. I have no solution for your 8.6 dilemma