Thread
7.6.1 on a PM 6100 - startup problem
My Power Mac 6100/60 AV refuses to run 7.6.1. I installed a brand new system from a retail 7.6.1 CD and everything went fine during the installation, but as soon as I restarted I got this white window and the system frozen with no mouse pointer:
Shift-booting works, so I thought it's an extension problem. I disabled everything in the Extensions Manager - still not working.
What else I should try? Is there a known incompatibility between 6100 and Mac OS 7.6.1? 7.1.2, 7.5.5, 8.1 and 8.6 work fine on that computer.
PS: I also tried installing 7.6 from an Apple Software Restore CD containing all systems for all Macs, including the 6100... still the same problem.
Shift-booting works, so I thought it's an extension problem. I disabled everything in the Extensions Manager - still not working.
What else I should try? Is there a known incompatibility between 6100 and Mac OS 7.6.1? 7.1.2, 7.5.5, 8.1 and 8.6 work fine on that computer.
PS: I also tried installing 7.6 from an Apple Software Restore CD containing all systems for all Macs, including the 6100... still the same problem.
1. Make sure to check all connections inside to make sure nothing is loose
2.Try re-seating the RAM and any VRAM SIMMs as well
3. Run Disk First Aid to check for any disk errors
That's all of the advice I can give right now.
2.Try re-seating the RAM and any VRAM SIMMs as well
3. Run Disk First Aid to check for any disk errors
That's all of the advice I can give right now.
I checked the connections and took off the RAM (2 x 32 MB), the CD-ROM unit and the Ethernet transceiver, it still doesn't work.
I don't think it's a hardware problem since Mac OS 8.1 on another partitition works fine, and also 7.5.5 which was installed before. I erased the hard drive before I installed 7.6.1 and 8.1.
On another forum someone told me he had the very same problem with his 6100. He eventually found a 7.6.1 version which worked fine, but he has no idea how the problem fixed itself.
I don't think it's a hardware problem since Mac OS 8.1 on another partitition works fine, and also 7.5.5 which was installed before. I erased the hard drive before I installed 7.6.1 and 8.1.
On another forum someone told me he had the very same problem with his 6100. He eventually found a 7.6.1 version which worked fine, but he has no idea how the problem fixed itself.
Problem solved!
Here's what I did. I booted from an Apple Software Restore CD (the one that has all Mac OS versions prior to 9) and initialized the hard drive (again) using Drive Setup 1.7.3. This time I only made a single partition. Then I updated the disk driver. This is something I don't remember doing before, at least not using Drive Setup 1.7.3. And finally I installed 7.6 and 7.6.1 from that Apple Software Restore CD.
I tried installing from that CD before and it failed, so I can only assume updating the disk driver using Drive Setup 1.7.3 did the trick. The idea came to me after reading this tech note:
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1249?viewlocale=en_US
Mac OS 7.6 discs have an earlier version of Drive Setup (1.2.2) so it's possible 1.7.3 did something different to the disk.
Here's what I did. I booted from an Apple Software Restore CD (the one that has all Mac OS versions prior to 9) and initialized the hard drive (again) using Drive Setup 1.7.3. This time I only made a single partition. Then I updated the disk driver. This is something I don't remember doing before, at least not using Drive Setup 1.7.3. And finally I installed 7.6 and 7.6.1 from that Apple Software Restore CD.
I tried installing from that CD before and it failed, so I can only assume updating the disk driver using Drive Setup 1.7.3 did the trick. The idea came to me after reading this tech note:
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1249?viewlocale=en_US
Mac OS 7.6 discs have an earlier version of Drive Setup (1.2.2) so it's possible 1.7.3 did something different to the disk.