Problems with G4 400 Sawtooth - any experts able to assist ?

Backgound first I have inherited a G4 400 Sawtooth which I want to set
up as a server/backup machine for my home network. My plan is to put
a couple of new large SATA HDD on a SATA pci card as a mirrored RAID
array, with the collection of firewire enclosures that I already have
hanging off it for my photos and music. All will eventually be
networked together on cat5e. (Server to be running 10.4 - I know it
will be slow but it will only be serving file not processing them)

My problem is in the basic setup of the G4, the HDD had been blanked
so I loaded os9.21 and ran software update using my barely remembered
0S9 skills. However, startup frequently locks, sometime flicks the cd
caddy in and out, or does not recognise the usb keyboard and mouse. I
have been able to shutdown the machine, zap the pram and restart
eventualy loading OS9.2. I have successfully updated the OS to 9.22
but stlll get the startup errors.

A futher issue is that software update suggests I update the firmware
to 4.18 - I have downloaded this but cannot get the update to run -
either the machine locks or it gets stuck in the macboot screenprompt
(type "mac-boot" or "shut-down" without successfully updating the
firmware.

I want to update the firmware then convert the machine to OSX to run
this as the server (all macs on the network therefore running 10.4)
but want the machine to be as ready as possible and fre of the USB or
other errors which are causing startup problems before I move to OSX.

Questions therefore:

1. How do I determine which version of firmware this G4 is running in
OS9.22 ?

2. Is the 4.18 firmware necessary before convertine machine to OSx ?

3. What is the cause of the startup errors - can I fix them
(cheaply) ?

4. Any other hints about running an old G4 as a file server ?

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Problems with G4 400 Sawtooth - any experts able to assist ?
    ... a couple of new large SATA HDD on a SATA pci card as a mirrored RAID ... A futher issue is that software update suggests I update the firmware ... Any other hints about running an old G4 as a file server? ...
    (uk.comp.sys.mac)
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