[G4] Tiger 10.4 Install problems.

[ewood at izoom.net]

> Greetings,
>
> I have a G4 DP 500 Mhz., 512 mgs. Ram, ATI Rage 16 mgs. video card, an
> IBM 30 Gig 7200 rpm primary HD and a Western Dig. 20 Gig secondary drive
> used for capturing small video projects. OSX 10.4.9 was installed along
> with "bonus" software when I bought the machine off eBay last year.
> Recently, just out of nowhere a dialog boxed popped up asking for a
> password to my system. Not having one, I contacted the previous owner
> who couldn't come up with anything that worked. So, I bought a retail
> version of Tiger 10.4 (eBay) and began reinstalling OSX and that is when
> various problems began. First of all, the OSX disc didn't want to
> install an older version of the OS and several tries later, it finally
> accepted a reinstall onto the secondary drive. I went online and updated
> it to 10.4.11 along with other files Apple included and thought I was
> nearing completion. When I next tried to install the OS disc on the
> primary drive, using Erase & Install, then trying Update several times,
> the machine kept blowing out the install after almost completing the
> process. (I let it check the install disc for errors just to make sure
> the disc wasn't faulty.) The install OSX disc puts up a message to the
> effect of 'try the installation again' with a "Restart" button flashing
> on & off. Just to check things out, I ran a "Command - V" request at
> startup and found a message of the "ATI Rage ndrv old" and said it
> 'referred to the registry for updating'. Also, a "Apple PMU::PMU forced
> shutdown, cause= -122" was revealed...So, after checking the meaning of
> this error message through Apple's online support, it looks like the
> power supply MAY be starting to fail. Is it feasible that small voltage
> fluctuations could cause OSX system instabilities?...Are there any more
> tests I can do to check the power supply? I was hoping to reinstall the
> OS and upgrade to a faster machine. Any help would greatly appreciated.
> TIA!
>
> Terry

Hi Terry,

Does the erase & install option mean it reformats the drive partition? I'd
make sure it does that and then perhaps see if swapping the power
connector to the drive or disconnecting the other one altogether during
installation helps.

And it certainly could be the power supply getting faulty, which might
cause the drive to behave strangely and in turn upset the installer.
Hopefully you won't need to go so far as to replace it, though. Shoot,
might be the drive connector is just loose.

Eric W.