Game Show Buzzer Sound - PowerBook 12" 1.33Ghz Won't Boot

caseysousa · #1 April 5th, 2008, 12:23 AM

When I try to boot my PB, it just gives me a game-show-type buzzer sound. Does anyone know what that is? I've searched all over these forums and also Google, but can't find anyone else that's had this problem.

I just replaced the hard drive, so it's got a blank 80GB hard drive in it. The one I took out had failed. The battery is fully charged, and the power adapter seems to be working just fine as it glows green while plugged in.

When taken to the Genius Bar at an Apple store, it was making a horrible screetching sound while trying to boot. The Genius said that it was either the hard drive or the power supply or the logic board. When I took out the hard drive and verified that it had suffered head failure (repeated clicking sound), I figured that a new hard drive would solve the problem. I was wrong.

Here's a video I made in case it's not clear what I'm talking about.
http://vimeo.com/848018

Satcomer · #2 April 5th, 2008, 04:16 AM

Most hard drives are pre-formatted for NTFS or FAT32. So get your install disks and reformat that Hard drive to Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

caseysousa · #3 April 6th, 2008, 12:23 AM

Thanks for the tip, but I'm one step ahead of you. It's all formatted and easily read by my iMac via an external USB 2.0 housing. I don't see how the hard drive could be the problem.

Do you think I should install Leopard on the hard drive before I install it in the PowerBook? I've never installed OS X on an external drive before. Not sure what steps I'd have to take, but if you think that would help, I'll Google it and give it a shot. But if I can avoid opening up the PowerBook again, that would be great. It takes a long time with all 40-something screws and parts I have to remove to get to the hard drive.