Ibook G4 wont boot

[iNoob]

Today, my dream came true. Next to my PC is a 2 month old iBook that I traded my last PC for. These things are expensive, so I traded instead, but there is always a flaw. It does not boot all the way. It is a 1.4GHZ 14inch, so yes, it is a new model. I do NOT know the osx version.

When I hit the power button, I hear the MacOS chord, then it comes to a gray screen with a Folder icon that changes from a Mac logo to a question mark. I already submitted a support request, but maybe this will help my problem faster. I have LOTS of PC experience but you can look at my name and know my Mac knowledge .

If you can help me, I would definately appreciate it. Thank you in advance.
-iNoob

[DeltaMac]

Did you get the set of disks that shipped with this iBook? (not much of a trade if you didn't get those...)
You can try booting into single-user mode - hold the Apple-S keys, and you should see a black screen with test, scrolling to a command prompt. Type '/sbin/fsck -fy' without the quotes, press enter, and see if the result repairs anything, and says *** file system was modified ***, or something like that. Run the same command again, until no problems are found.
then type /sbin/mount -uw /
press enter, then type reboot and press enter again,
your system should reboot, and might be successful this time.
If the fsck keeps finding the same problem, and won't repair it, then you may have hard drive problems.
This is where your set of disks will come in. Put the disk 1 in your drive, and reboot - holding the letter 'C'. At the first screen, go to the Utilities menu, and choose Disk Utility. Click on your hard drive when the utility opens, and click on the Repair Disk button at the bottom of the screen.
Come back here with what you discover.

[iNoob]

Nope no disks... just the iBook and power adapter... I asked the guy, and he says its OSX Tiger.

[DeltaMac]

Those disks are used in the event that you have to reinstall the system, also has some good utilities, and will allow you to reset the user password, should you choose to forget it. You can try the simple steps that I posted here, but if those don't work at all, you definitely will need the installer disks. Without those, you won't be able to get your system working again. The iBook shipped with OS X 10.4.2, and the commercial OS X disks don't have that version yet, only 10.4, and those may not boot your iBook, unless you can find a set with 10.4.2 or higher...

[iNoob]

So how do I boot it into single user mode? Like I said, I cant get to the desktop, it just makes the boot sound and that screen comes up. Just press those keys when I hit the power button?

[DeltaMac]

Sorry, I wasn't too clear. Restart your ibook, while holding the Apple and S keys. You'll see the black screen with white text, follow the other steps that I posted above.

[iNoob]

I cant get it to come up. I hold the two buttons and hit the power button, it just comes to that one screen.

[applemaz]

I highly suspect your friend completely erased the hard drive and thought he put Tiger on. Instead, he just erased the drive. That is why you see the ? on the folder. A friend of mine did that to me just last week when I bought his iBook. I just put in the Tiger DVD and installed it and all was fine.