ibook G4, major probs after hdd swap

D

Doshell

Registered
Hey guys, first time reader and poster.

First of all... I'm normally a windows guy, but I do play around with Macs every now and then to try to stay current.

Anyone, I have an Ibook G4 I'm trying to fix for a friend. The first time I looked at it, it wouldn't boot, so I did a system restore. and that worked for a day or two. Next time it wouldn't boot, I booted from the cd, and did a drive scan. That worked fine for a day or two as well. So... I assumed at this point it was the hard drive that was going out at this point. So, through much pain, I got the case open, and replaced the hard drive. Now.. onto my current problem....

I hold down the "C" button to boot from the cd.. I get a blank, lit up screen. when I let it boot normally, I get the sad mac (which makes sense, it's a windows drive and needs to be mac formatted) Also, I've tried ejecting the disk, and this does not work at all. I've tried to swap the old hdd, and it does the same thing. Ive tried the apple, option, P +R combo, and waited for it to chime 4 times... and still have the same problems... anyone have any ideas?!

Thanks Keith
 
Reboot with the OS X Install CD in the drive, and immediately hold down the 'C' key. Keep the 'C' key held down until you see the Apple logo on the screen -- it should be booting from the CD by then.
 
The OSX CD is already in there, I can hold down "C" to my heart content, and it won't get passed that blank screen. I can even hear the CD spin down. Also, the CD will not eject either... the cd rom was fine before the hdd swap... is there a cable that easily gets pulled out on the cd rom?
 
It's quite possible that the CD-ROM became unplugged during the hard drive install -- the iBook is just about the least easy computer to do a hard drive swap on. They hide them in there pretty damn good, and must almost completely disassemble the computer to get to it properly.

One way to eject the CD is to reboot and hold down the mouse button (or trackpad button)... this will force the CD to eject. If the CD-ROM drive itself is truly disconnected, this won't work -- so the success of ejecting the CD with the trackpad button may hint at whether this is the case or not...
 
I've taken everything apart again, still the same problems... I think it might be something on the mobo itself at this point... time for apple care.. unless anyone has any other thoughts...
 
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