Hi all

I am trying to boot my Powermac (Powermac3,3) Dual 500 G4 into target disk mode.

when I hold down the T on reboot nothing happens

when I use the method where you go to the startup folder and select target disk mode, it boots into a grey screen and tells me that target disk mode 'fell through' and to type mac-boot to continue booting.

I really want to get this working. Any ideas?

thanks
mestevie

Isn't it the option key you hold down on reboot, or am I getting my terms confused? (ie I don't understand target disc mode..)

Hi
Are you sure the firewire points are working on your computers.
Steve-n
Edit. Sorry I thought you had to have the computer connected to another by firewire for it to start up in target disk mode. I just started my g3 imac up by holding t down and it went to disk mode not connected to any other source.

No. option key is to select what to boot from....

Holding 'T' down at boot puts the machine into Target Mode, but you have to press and hold the 'T' key before the power-chime stops.

stevie, the fact that my G4/500DP does it easily and yours doesn't most likely means that your NVRAM is a little bit scrambled.

See this Apple TechNote on how to use OpenFirmware to reset your machine's NVRAM to defaults.

Thanks Brains i'll ave a look.

tried all the hints in that FAQ, even found a specific help article re TDS, but still no luck.

Here is the message off of my screen, after it boots into Open Firmware:

_____

Fell Through

Apple Powermac3,3 3 1f1 BootROM built on 06/28/00 at 17:46:21
Copyright 1994-2000 Apple Computer, Inc.
All Rights Reserved

Welcome to Open Firmware
To continue booting, type 'mac-boot' and press return
To shut down, type 'shut-down' and press return

ok
0 >


_______

I wonder...Is there any connection with the current firmware on the machine - ie is there a firmware upgrade for Powermac G4's to let them use TDS...I believe it was around 2000 that TDS was introduced - perhaps my ROM build just missed out??

This is unlikely to solve your problem, but with the Cube (which was released at around the same time) you need the hard drive to be set to Master (there will be jumper settings marked on the hard drive itself, most likely.)

Check your firmware is the latest version, though, in System Profiler.

I can't interpret the Open Firmware message as I can't remember what the original firmware revision (BootROM) was (looks like yours is the original however, 3.1 f1??). There is only one (available) update, 4.2.8 f1 that applies to a number of AGP G4 models including yours.

From the firmware update readme:However please do not take this to say that this is definitively your problem.

Links that you should check out at Apple support:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86117
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=120068

Seconds on ... it sounds like the Jumper Block settings on the Hard Drive you're trying to Target Disk Mode from.

Have you physically looked at the Hard Drive - at the position of it's Jumper Block - vis:



and then compared it to the Hard Drive's top label, to see which are its Master and Slave settings? - vis:




¿

Hmmm

as I am running two hard drives, I am pretty sure I have set the OSX hard drive to master...but I will check.

make sure you have the latest firmware on your powermac, i had this problem aswell and it was as simple as updating the firmware.

Thanks Rayd..can you give more details please? is this the udate that needs to be run from classic mode?

This has been suggested many times in this thread, and yes it is the one that needs to be run in OS 9 (I don't know whether it works in Classic mode.)

No, the update cannot be run in Classic mode, it is essential that the machine is booted into MacOS 8.6 or 9.x before the firmware update can be applied.