My iBook G4 (bought early 2004, OS 10.3.9) seems to have (all of a sudden) two layers of problems. One is failure to start-up, which won't go beyond the plain blue screen stage, for almost all procedures. (I can access terminal mode, and also, sometimes, reach the login window by holding shift key on startup. Strangely, the whole startup sequence seems to roll over normally after *several hours* of inactivity, but this miracle will not recur before the following day.)
Now, second layer: In these rare circumstances when booting and login succeed, I can't work more than a few seconds, one minute maximum, before the pointer freezes and I lost all control.
This is not the last stage, however. For instance (a typical sequence), I face the page with the butterfly with my username, which I am allowed to click, then I have time to write in the password before freezing happens. After a few minutes staring at the page, I see it alternate rapidly (about three times a second) with a black screen, and vertical black lines dance in front of the login window during the fractions of second it's visible.
I have been able (during these rare seconds of unrestrained access) to repair permissions, verify and repair the disk (several times), proceed with fsck, etc. The material diagnostic is "all OK", which I find hard to believe. (The disk ejection system doesn't seem to work properly, for one thing.)
The problems appeared five days ago just after, coincidence or not, I tried to read an MP3 format CD.
Thanks for any tip!
Now, second layer: In these rare circumstances when booting and login succeed, I can't work more than a few seconds, one minute maximum, before the pointer freezes and I lost all control.
This is not the last stage, however. For instance (a typical sequence), I face the page with the butterfly with my username, which I am allowed to click, then I have time to write in the password before freezing happens. After a few minutes staring at the page, I see it alternate rapidly (about three times a second) with a black screen, and vertical black lines dance in front of the login window during the fractions of second it's visible.
I have been able (during these rare seconds of unrestrained access) to repair permissions, verify and repair the disk (several times), proceed with fsck, etc. The material diagnostic is "all OK", which I find hard to believe. (The disk ejection system doesn't seem to work properly, for one thing.)
The problems appeared five days ago just after, coincidence or not, I tried to read an MP3 format CD.
Thanks for any tip!
