Mac Forum / General / Hardware / January 2006

Hi --

I have an iMac G3 running (or "attempting to run") Mac OS 9.2.2 that has
suddenly gone radioactive on me, and I can't figure out the problem. I'm not
that well versed in troubleshooting Macs; any help will be greatly
appreciated.

For starters, the computer won't boot properly. If I switch it on, it will
at some point tell me that it encountered an error (usually something like
"Illegal Instruction") and that I should disable extensions by rebooting
while pressing SHIFT.

When I reboot while pressing SHIFT, I might still get that same error.
Sometimes I will, sometimes I won't. I think it has to do with when I
release the SHIFT key. If I release the SHIFT key after I get the "Welcome
to Macintosh / Extensions off" screen, chances are the computer will crash
before I get to the desktop. I get the best results when I keep SHIFT held
down until after I get the "Loading" screen.

When I do get the desktop, with all extensions disabled, the computer is
pretty useless. I can't copy the files off to another location -- I have no
network connection, no CD access, nada.

And nothing seems to want to work properly, either. Just about every program
I try to run will, at some point, bomb with an error 1 or an error 3, or
worse.

I can't get the Extensions Manager to run, no matter what. It always bombs
with an error 3.

I haven't been able to delve into the machine's configuration, because I
can't get any program or utility to run properly.

The iMac had 128 MB of RAM (2 x 64). I tried to rule out memory problems
(faulty memory, insufficient memory) by replacing that with first 1x256 MB,
then 2x256 MB. It didn't solve anything.

I did notice, in the brief moments when I could get useful information out
of the computer, that it seems to have virtual memory switched off. I tried
to rectify that once, but the moment I changed the virtual memory settings,
the program crashed.

I tried booting the iMac from an OS X (one of the early ones) install disk.
The computer crashed.

I tried booting it from several different versions of OpenDarwin install
disks. No luck there, either.

The hard drive, however, seems to be OK. At least when I get the desktop, I
can view the contents of the hard drive and verify that all the user files I
want to move off to another computer (or other media) are there. It's only
when I try to open the files (which launches the associated application)
that the application crashes.

I wasn't able to run the Extensions Manager, but I was able to move all but
the most basic extensions out of the Extensions folder into a "Disabled
Extensions" folder. That didn't help any.

Not too long ago, this computer was working fine. It was part of a mixed
Mac/Windows LAN. It printed to two networked printers -- an AppleLaser
printer and an HP multifunction printer. It had a USB CD burner that worked.
It could scan across the network from the HP multifunction device. It could
surf the Internet.

Now, I'd be happy to get the user files off this computer and on to some
other computer.

What could be the problem here? Is this computer salvageable? Will reloading
the OS help (I haven't been able to yet ...)?

Thanks,
CL