OS 9 Gray Screen

miller325 · Post by **miller325** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 1:47 pm

Midiw,

No offense taken, by me. When this problem first surfaced about a month ago I posted to the MacWorld forum. The people there were helpful and knowledgeable, but were unable to find a solution.

Philip

dixiechicken · Post by **dixiechicken** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 1:51 pm

This may sound stupid but... have you tried swapping your usb-mouse to
another newer and hopefully faultless usb-mouse?

A couple o years back my iMac started to behave erratically to say the least.
Spinning beachball, kernel panics, the cursor woundn't move or diappeared.
Keyboard stooped working etc.....

I dont remeber if I actually got into the "grey startup screens" havoc.
But just about any other you could think of - without rhyme and reason
I could - at first find.

On pure desperation I got a new usb mouse - both models was actually
Microsoft Intellimouse with just two buttons and a scrollwheel.

Voila - everything was silky smooth adain.
Well doesnt cost much to find out anyway - borrow a mouse from someone.

Cheers: Dixiechicken

miller325 · Post by **miller325** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 2:17 pm

Johnnytucats,

If my installation does not fix the problem I will try that. Do you know, would Apple Hardware Test or Tech Tool Pro report a bad IDE controller?

Philip

miller325 · Post by **miller325** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 6:02 pm

Dixiechicken,

My plan was to wipe my hard drive today and start reinstalling. But I didn't have time. Then I got your post about the mouse.

I use a Logitech wireless mouse--two buttons and scroll wheel. I have not been able to boot into OS 9 since last Friday.

I unplugged the Logitech and plugged in the Apple mouse that came with the computer and tried booting into OS 9.

There it was-- the pointer first and then the happy Mac face icon. Successful boot.

Now I'm not sure what to do. Did changing the mouse really solve the problem or did the computer just decide to boot into OS 9 again.

Like I said earlier, this problem has been intermittent. Before when I got the gray screen it would last about a day then I could boot into OS 9 again. Only this last time has the problem lasted so long.

Two questions: 1) how could a mouse cause this problem, and 2) if the mouse is the cause of the problem do I need a new mouse or do I need to just trash the Logitech software and reinstall? I don't see any extensions but there are a couple of items in the System folder, in system >> help, and system >> application support.

Very strange.

Philip

dixiechicken · Post by **dixiechicken** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 5:29 am

Miller325!

Well..., why a faulty usb-mouse should cause all kinds of weird behaviours -
I haven't got a clue really.

It may be analogous to having a crappy power-supply or a faulty memory
module. Both can cause erratic behaviour in your computer.

(memory will strike when something is written to the broken addressspace)
(a crappy powersupply can can cause your system to go totally haywire)

I work fulltime as sysadmin at our department with some 250 computers of
various kinds, I can safely say that you get to see some weird stuff at times.

Your problem is admittedly difficult to pin down - since it is intermittent.
But it doesn't hurt to reformat your boot drive and do a clean install.
Keep everything as clean and simple as possible.

1) Put OS-9 on separate drive.
2) Put OS-X on another separate drive. Dont format this OS-X drive with drivers for OS-9.
3) Avoid running the classic environment in OS-X - like the plague.
4) If you got the harddrives and space (& money) use a thid drive for
musicprojects soundfiles loops etc. Keep the apps on the OS-X bootdrive.
5) If you need this computer for email, invoice writing customers communication etc. Do all that in OS-9 if at all possible.
6) Try a new mouse

Well that about it, anyway good luck.
Cheers: Dixiechicken

miller325 · Post by **miller325** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 9:40 am

Well, my excitement was short lived. I got the gray screen again this morning, so I guess the mouse fix was just a coincidence. Proceeding with a fresh install.

Thanks for all of the help. I may be back with some questions if I have trouble during the clean install.

Philip

dixiechicken · Post by **dixiechicken** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 1:39 pm

Ask away we'll try to answer as best we can.
Good luck!

Chers: Dixiechciken

miller325 · Post by **miller325** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 11:15 am

Dixiechicken & All,

Well, I'm back. No success yet.

I erased and zero formatted my first internal hard drive. I then re-partitioned it into two partitions. I installed OSX 10.3.9 on the first partition. All was well.

I then tried to boot to my OS 9 install CD but again got only a gray screen.

I know that Dixiechicken advised to put OSX and OS 9 on different drives, but I wasn't able to try this because I can only boot to my OSX install CD and not my OS 9 install CD.

Then I got an idea. I again erased and zero formatted my install internal drive. Then I connected my firewire drive which has OSX 10.3.9 on it. I inserted the Mac OS 9 install CD and shut down the computer.

I then turned off and disconnected the firewire drive. I restarted the computer holding down the "C" key hoping that I would be able to boot to my OS 9 install CD and install OS 9 on the drive. But again I got only a gray screen.

So...is this a hardware problem or is this a software problem?

Or...is it an Open Firmware problem?

I Googled: "macintosh reset open firmware".

There seem to be two opinions about what to do for a simple open firmware reset.

After restarting the computer holding down command, option, O, F, one is supposed to get the Open Firmware screen. Then:

Type: "reset-nvram" (hit return)
Type: "reset-defaults" (hit return)
Type: "reset-all" (the computer should reboot)

The other option is to leave out the middle step, "defaults".

I've never seen the open firmware screen before. Does the above sound like a good thing to try? Should I leave out the middle step?

Also, I can't find the page that listed the middle step. I'm not sure if it was "default" or "defaults".

I realize that I don't type in the quotation marks.

Any opinions?

Thanks,
Philip

dixiechicken · Post by **dixiechicken** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 3:00 pm

Miller325!

then turned off and disconnected the firewire drive. I restarted the computer holding down the "C" key hoping that I would be able to boot to my OS 9 install CD and install OS 9 on the drive. But again I got only a gray screen.

So...is this a hardware problem or is this a software problem?

Good question - usually if your computer cant find the systemfolder - you should -
not get a grey screen - you should get the "flashing questionmark Mac-icon"
.
To rule out a faulty install cd you try your Os9-install CD cd on someone elses G4-Mac - a model that is capable of booting both OS-9 and OS-X.

Or...is it an Open Firmware problem?

As you can boot OS-X - I dont think it's a problem with with Open Firmware.
There is/was another boot-up "key-combo" for forcing your system to try to boot from your CD-rom.
(I forget exactly what it was - a 4-key combo -- used on older macs
cmd+shift+D+backspace -- or something equally esoteric.)

It doesnt hurt to try to reset your nvram in open firmware, but I think this is
basically the same as zapping your pram.
Holding down cmd+ctl+O+F while booting and letting the chime-sound
pling a couple of times.

Cheers: Dixiechicken

WKWizard · Post by **WKWizard** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 2:28 pm

I wish I would have saw your post sooner. The problem is probably faulty or unseated RAM. When you start the computer, the grey screen should come up, but then it changes shade by 10-20%. That means that the RAM is functioning. If you don't get the two shades of grey, your RAM is suspect.

Take all RAM out and test indivdually. Remember; static kills RAM.

Also, hardware test applications don't always catch RAM problems.

miller325 · Post by **miller325** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 4:32 pm

Thanks for the idea, but I tested the RAM individually. With each of the three sticks OSX worked fine but OS 9 would only boot to a gray screen.

I just now tried booting into OS 9 again. I do not get the shades of gray. Just one flat gray screen. So, I don't know what this means.

Philip

miller325 · Post by **miller325** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 4:37 pm

I'm a little confused about something. One of the suggestions that I haven't tried is to disconnect the hard drive(s) and then try to boot to the OS 9 install CD.

If I disconnect both of my internal hard drives and then power up the computer what will happen? Will I still be able to open the disk tray, insert the OS 9 install CD and then restart holding the "C" key down?

Or do I need to insert the OS 9 install CD before I disconnect the drives and leave it in there so that the first time I power up without the drives connected I can hold down "C" and attempt to boot to the install CD?

Thanks,
Philip

dixiechicken · Post by **dixiechicken** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 5:42 pm

Miller325!

If you prees down the mouse button while booting the cd-tray will open.
Then you can shut down and reboot holding down the C-key.

Cheers: Dixiechicken

miller325 · Post by **miller325** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 5:58 pm

Dixiechicken,

I remember that old trick. I should have thought of that. So I can disconnect the drives, then power up holding the mouse button down and the tray will open...will I be able to close the tray using the normal keyboard key? Or, maybe shutting down closes the tray?

Just trying to cover all the bases.

Philip

dixiechicken · Post by **dixiechicken** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 5:04 am

I think the cd-button on your keyboard will work -
else you can just carefully push back the cd-tray into your computer
and reboot.

Cheers: Dixiechicken