[XrederX]

I need a miricle
if someone has a suggestion on how to get out of open firmware I would love to know.

MY G4 400 will not reconize CD drice or Hard Drive.

I disconnected everything form the logic board and re-set it, but nothing helps.

I've removed all but one stick of ram and all my pci cards.

But I'm sure there is alot more codes to punch in other than
"mac-boot"

so even if someone knows a couple codes I'd love to hear.

Thanx. images/icons/confused.gif

[Nobody]

At the OF prompt, type:

reset-all

Hit Enter and see if the computer will boot past OF. Reply back here and let me know if this did or didn't help.

[XrederX]

Ya thanx for the suggestion but it was no help, the computer just restarted back into OF

MacOS:Boot Failure! (0xf3C481F6)
MacOS images/icons/tongue.gifarcel initiation failure - bad checksum images/icons/confused.gif

[Nobody]

That almost sounds like a critical piece of your OS X installation has become damaged. I'd reinstall OS X from your installer CD.

[XrederX]

I wish I could but i can't start up off the cd or even through my LAN network. I know it's possible to get out of OF, beacause the same thing happened last year and my friend fixed it. Unfortunatly he moved to Japan about 6 months ago and I can't reach him.

[Nobody]

I'm curious if you might be able to boot off a different device like an external firewire HD using firewire target-disk mode. Or perhaps you could use FWTDM to mount your computer's HD on the desktop of a different computer.

It's possible that even this might work...that you'd still be stuck in OF, but it's worth a try.

You might also have a piece of RAM that's failing. Try pulling out RAM modules one at at time and booting up to see if it helps.

And if you have any peripherals plugged in, unplug them.

[Eoban_B.]

Ah, yes. This may be difficult to get out of. Damien didn't you read what XrederX wrote??? He already said that he's disconnected everything. He already said it isn't a problem with the OS. How could be boot from a CD when the drive isn't recognized? Honestly there is probably a way to fix it, but to get the job done the fastest you may wish to call Apple tech support (assuming you have an AppleCare protection plan....I have a G4 450 without one and couldn't recieve any help). They will most likely know all the OF codes you could need. If not, take it to a repair shop. It may be a little expensive but any Mac is certainly worth saving.
Lastly, it is extremely unlikely that a FireWire HD will work; OS X has problems starting up from many drives even when the computer is functioning properly. Take it to a shop.

[Nobody]

Just because this user has said he's removed all peripheral devices, it doesn't mean he has. It's worth repeating. Again:

1) remove all peripheral devices from your computer except the video card. This can even include the keyboard.

2) if still stuck at OF at boot, then remove your RAM modules one at a time. One of the modules may be failing, causing this OF hang when the computer tries to load into memory.

3) You could even go further in your troubleshooting process. For instance, once I saw a G4 tower with a zip drive that was causing an OF hang at startup. Disconnecting the internal zip drive from the IDE bus allowed the computer to boot. You might consider doing this with your HD as well. For instance, if you disconnect your HD from the IDE bus and you get a flashing ? at startup, then it means your computer passed the OF and POST tests, which then means that the OF is being caused by the HD on the bus (or perhaps the HD controller).

I'm not certain if FWTDM is operable before or after OF loads. My gut tells me that it only works after OF loads, but I'm not certain. Therefore, it stands to reason that this user should consider trying this method. It certainly can't hurt.

As for "other OF codes", there really aren't that many more used for troubleshooting. The vast majority of the rest of the OF codes are for configuring various settings in OF--something you shouldn't be messing with unless you're a programmer or hardware developer.