Folks, I *still* cannot remedy the subject error on startup. Before I take it in for professional help, I thought I would try one more time in hopes that one (or more) of the List Gurus has experienced/heard of this error.
Configuration above factory: G3 500 Sonnet 512 MB RAM (4*128) (448 - 480 recognized at any particular time) Keyspan USB 1.1 (2-port) 18 GB Seagate HD (SCSI: 1; still using original 2 GB @ SCSI: 0) OS 8.6 My trouble started with a seemingly innocent addition of a PCI firewire card from OWC. This was placed in my last available PCI slot, but was never recognized by Apple System Profiler. Perhaps I over-stepped the available PCI power consumption? The other slot has the USB card that works just fine. At any rate, I decided to try plugging a QPS CD-RW (16-10-40) into the Firewire card in the hopes that I could get the firewire card working. Now, my PowerCenter Pro has developed a "bus error". Immediately upon the "Welcome to Macintosh" startup screen, I get a sys crash with the nefarious "bus error" staring at me. I took out the firewire card, reset CUDA, done a clean install on the startup drive with OS 8.5 then up to 8.6 and have zapped the PRAM, and installed a fresh 3.6v battery. The machine will only boot successfully on CD (after zapping PRAM for two cycles, and then immediately pressing del-option-command-shift - thanks Michael) which is how I was able to do the clean install. Incidently, the aforementioned remedy only works about half the time. The RAM recognition noted above is definitely odd, and I plan to try combinations of the chips next. But after that?? I am at a loss. Could this "bus error" be a physical error? I was careful removing the firewire card from the PCI bus, and I CAN use the machine with a bootable CD. The only documented causes that I can find point to corrupted sys software or possible extension conflicts. Sure would hate to lose this puppy..... Any help would be very appreciated, still mac-less in Raleigh, John -- Power Computing is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... 123Inkjets.com <http://lowendmac.com/ad/123inkjets.html> Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> Power Computing list info: <http://lowendmac.com/power/list.html> Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> List archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/powercomputing%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Macintosh? Get free email and more at Applelinks! <http://www.applelinks.com>
