Several Panther Issues

[bunnymom58]

Hi,
I'm gonna give you the whole scoop, because I'm getting in deeper and deeper. I used OS 9 for a long time and finally upgraded to 10.3 a couple of months ago, so my technical level is back to beginner now.
I installed OS X but kept 9 for couple of reasons, one, in case I hated panther, and two, so I'd still have my quicken and turbo tax stuff, till I figure out if there's a way to update and transfer that info from 9 to X. Software update had some security updates that it was recommending I download, so I did. Probably a mistake. That's when I started getting the open firmware screen that requires mac-boot to start up. Have tried zapping PRAM and resetting nvram. Nothing changed. Meanwhile, Safari just all of a sudden could no longer connect to any server at all the other night while I was on it. IE didn't work either. I called Earthlink, they said browser needed to be reinstalled, and to call Apple. I emailed Small Dog Electronics where I bought OS X, they said to archive and install. I did. Now Safari I think works, except no window appears. The Safari menu is across the top of the screen, but no menu will respond except bookmarks. I can hit show all bookmarks and an untitled window will appear, and at the bottom of the window it will say its opening my home page, but nothing ever opens. Then nothing will respond at all anywhere until I disconnect, and then I can force quit, but if I don't disconnect first, nothing responds. Small Dog said to repair permissions, which I did. Still no change. I have read on several forums about people have my same problem with the mac-boot, but no fixes, and I just read on this forum someone having the same Safari problem, but I can't get into it to see if any proxies are checked. Also, IE is working, but unexpectedly quits on some sites, like ebay, it won't let me get on there at all. I think that is all, I hope I'm not forgetting anything. Thanks for any help.

[bobw]

You should always include the model Mac you have and how much memory is installed.

Sounds like your system is fairly messed up.

Since you've already done a few things, including an Archive and Install, I would backup anything important/not replaceable and reformat the drive.

Then install OS 9 then OS X to have a completely fresh system.

As far as Internet Explorer, it's an old browser on Macs, hasn't been updated since 2003, and may not work on all sites.

Both Quicken and TurboTax files can be brought over to an OS X version of Quicken and TurboTax with no problem.

If you do this, then when you use Software Update for any updates for 10.3, or security or application updates, do One At A Time rather than letting them all run at once. Before and after each major update, Repair Disk first and Repair Permissions after.

[bunnymom58]

Thanks Bob, sorry I forgot to include PowerMac G4 400, 448 mb ram. I believe it's the sawtooth version because it has the AGP graphics. How do I bring the turbotax and quicken data from the 9 side to the osX side. I can't find any info on how to do this. And I'm assuming that I have to do that first and then I can upgrade to the OSX version of those softwares? Small Dog told me it sounds like my hard drive is failing and that would explain all the things going wrong, but before I take it in, I will try reinstalling both. Thanks.

[bobw]

You need to install both Quicken and TurboTax versions for OS X, then the older files will open in them.

File>Open then navigate to the file.

Or, drag each file to the Quicken and TurboTax folder, Get Info on the file and choose to open with the OS X version.

When you get TurboTax for this year, it will ask you to import from last year, so you'll navigate to that file, regardless where it is, in the OS 9 or OS X system.

[bunnymom58]

Thanks. That's sounds easy.