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The case of the very, very bad Voodoo
The nightmare
It's a truly mysterious problem: you pop in the OS X installation CD, the disc spins up, then it just keeps spinning. Who knows why? That rainbow-colored disc icon keeps right on twirling, and nothing happens. You can call Apple tech support 10 times and get 10 different answers. What to do?
Analysis
If you have a Voodoo video card--particularly a Voodoo3 or a Voodoo5--installed on your machine, this may be the problem. OS X and some hardware components, namely video cards, are simply incompatible. Don't go looking to 3DFX, the makers of the card, for answers. They're out of business. The Apple Knowledge Base is likewise mum, but there are other users with the same problem on CNET's Message Boards, in case you want to form a support group.
Advice
The installation causes the conflict, so if you have a Voodoo3 card, remove it and install OS X minus the card. Using the Software Update System Preference, download and install the latest system updates. OS X 10.1 seems to remedy the situation, so reinstall the card when you're done. Unfortunately, the trade-off is that you may not get the highest monitor resolution settings after you reinstall the card--another OS X mystery--but at least you'll have the Voodoo's better overall graphics performance. For higher resolutions when gaming, boot up in 9.x.
Voodoo5 cards apparently don't work at all. You can't install OS X if your machine has that card, and there's no workaround. Sorry, when it comes to computers, you can't wake up from every bad dream.
Help me escape my printing nightmares! |
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