G4 won't boot... help!

M

Martin1985

Registered
Hey guys,

Got a G4 (i think) at work that won't boot. I'm not sure on the specifications as I can't get into OS X to find out and as it's a fairy old machine, no one at works knows what it is either!

When I turn the machine on, i get the apple logo and the spinning 'wheel' but after a few seconds I get a message saying iy needs to be turned off by pressing and holding the power button. I have done this a few times today and it keeps coming back with the same problem...

Is there anything I can do to get past this stage? Anyway I can fix the problem it's having without going into OS X?

Your help would be much appreciated!

Thanks alot!
 
When the message appears, does it curtain down with a dark gray color and then show the same message in other languages? If so, then you're having a kernel panic.

You could try booting into Single User Mode and perform a disk check:
  1. When you hear the Macintosh startup chime, hold down Command-S.
  2. You'll notice a bunch of text flying past the screen on a black background. Once it reaches the prompt, type the following command and then hit Return (note the spaces in the command):
    Code: 
    /sbin/fsck -yf
  3. Upon running that command, it will check and fix any problems on the hard drive that it can. Continue to run the command until you see a message saying that the hard drive is OK.
  4. If the hard drive shows as being OK, type reboot and it will restart the Mac.

If you still get the kernel panic message, it's possible that it could be a hardware problem. Check your RAM modules individually on each slot in order to pinpoint the problem to either one of the RAM modules or one of the RAM slots. Also, make sure that all the cables are firmly in place, especially the drive cables. I would even recommend to reseat all the cables and the RAM by taking them off and putting them back on. That sometimes does resolve intermittent hardware problems.

Post back with your results.
 
Thanks a lot mate, that worked a charm! It semmed to be a kernel panic but booting into Single User mode and running that task sorted it out straight away!

Thanks for your help, i'll keep that in mind for when it happens next time! haha
 
Martin1985 said:
Thanks a lot mate, that worked a charm! It semmed to be a kernel panic but booting into Single User mode and running that task sorted it out straight away!

Thanks for your help, i'll keep that in mind for when it happens next time! haha
Click to expand...

No problem, man. Glad to hear that it worked. :)

One last thing: Make sure you launch Disk Utility and run a Repair Permissions on the hard drive. That should resolve any other problems lingering on the hard drive. Run it a second time to make sure it didn't miss anything.
 
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