iBook -Restart Computer Error

[jtdesigns]

My iBook G3 14" barely start up anymore. Everytime i boot her up it gives me a message about 3 minuites after trying to boot. Message says . . . you must restart your mac, hold down power button for 5 seconds to restart.

I do that and it does the same thing over and over. The ironic thing here is that it ran fine until I sent it back to Apple for the logic board recall/fix.

I get the machine back and it does this crap . . . and to my surprise, Apple isn't going to do anything about it. IDIOTS.

Now here is the real twister . . . i took the battery off the iBook and plugged it in with the power5 cable, it started up fine.

Anyone with any solutions as to why it would not start up properly.

And lastly, why with no battery does it work. Power plug only.

 

[Cheryl]

Can you put the battery back in without any errors or kernel panic? It could be the battery is drained of power.

 

[jtdesigns]

Can you put the battery back in without any errors or kernel panic? It could be the battery is drained of power.

Well, the computer did the same thing lastnight without the battery in . . . i cant figure out what it could be. I called apple a few weeks ago to try and get some info out of them, like I said they were not very supportive because my Applecare is out on ths machine.

What they told me to try and do is restart and reset the PRam. . . well, when I do that the CD drive makes some some clicking noise and then it continues with the same startup error.

The screens turns a fadded grey with the instructions to hold the power button for a few seconds to force quit.

Do you think I should try and re-format my drive, start from scratch? If so, which way is best to go about this?

Thanks for your ear and your help.

 

[ElDiabloConCaca]

I think anytime a computer completely refuses to start up multiple times, it's futile and silly to try and "fix" the problem, since in a situation that severe, no matter how much you repair the drive, there's bound to be small problems leftover somewhere in the filesystem.

If you feel the same as I do, then pop in the Panther or Jaguar install CD, or the Mac OS X Software Restore CD that came with your computer, and restart. Hold down 'c' as the computer restarts, and you'll boot from the CD. When you have an indication that the computer is booting from the CD, you can safely release the 'c' key.

Once booted from the CD, you can just follow the directions to either erase and restore the software (if you used Software Restore CDs) or to erase the drive and install a fresh copy of OS X (if you used retail Panther/Jaguar Install CDs).

If your system continues to 'kernel panic' as before (that's what the "Restart your computer" in four different languages screen indicates) then hardware may be at fault. Have you added any third-party RAM to the computer, or does it have any RAM other than the factory installed Apple RAM in it? That's a likely culprit for the symptoms you describe.