g4 won't boot from dvd/cd

[pcpete]

We are trying to to a hard drive replacement on a g4. It will not boot from the original install cd, or a dvd we burned. It sounds like it is trying to read it, but it cant quite do it. We bought a replacement super drive on ebay, which the said they tested it with a dvd. It is doing the same thing. We have tried both the c key and options key with the same results, not seeing a cd in the drive. It feels like two bad drives, but if I believe the seller, maybe it is something else.

 

[JoelM]

Is there some reason you're not using a bootable USB drive or an iodd drive? I haven't made or used a cd/dvd disk in several years.

 

[mikeroq]

A G4 mac is pretty old. I'm not quite sure if it supports USB booting.

 

[sapphirescales]

Is there some reason you're not using a bootable USB drive or an iodd drive?

LOL. That's like trying to get your VR headset to run in DOS. Computers of that era could only boot by external CD drives that had a PCMCIA interface, and of course that wouldn't work with a Mac. I think you could use a FireWire external CD drive, but for some reason those were blocked on the old G4 towers if I remember correctly. I have no idea if they'd work with an iMac G4.

A G4 iMac uses a standard IDE optical drive. Use one you've got lying around and test it. I don't remember if the original IDE optical drives had jumpers on them or not, but you might also want to check those. In addition, the IDE cable would be quite old and stiff by now, no? I'd buy a replacement.

 

[Markverhyden]

What version of OS are you trying to install? What type of G4?

 

[pcpete]

What version of OS are you trying to install? What type of G4?

10.5 is the one we burned. The client had disc one of three in the drive for version 10.1

 

[pcpete]

A G4 iMac uses a standard IDE optical drive. Use one you've got lying around and test it. I don't remember if the original IDE optical drives had jumpers on them or not, but you might also want to check those. In addition, the IDE cable would be quite old and stiff by now, no? I'd buy a replacement.

I was thinking the cable may be suspect too

 

[Blues]

Do you have a USB drive adapter that supports IDE you can use to test the try externally on another computer to confirm if the drive functions from there?

 

[Markverhyden]

I was thinking the cable may be suspect too

That's was actually a problem back in the day