I have G4 lampshade style and having problems with it booting up. You hit the power and it will come up to the gray screen with the folder icon eventually. You can hit the power button while holding the C key while booting and if you do this enough times it will come up, sometimes it may take 20 sometimes who knows. But once you see the Apple then you can let go and will boot all the way with no problems. It has a fresh install of Tiger I have reset Pram and Nvram still nothing, On a side note I reset Pram about a month ago for the same problem and the Imac worked great booted everytime like normal. Now back to not booting. If you get it to boot and just leave it on all works fine. And you can restart most of the time normal come right back up. But if you let it set overnight it will not boot unless you hit the power button enough times. I have run disk utility normal once you get to the apple screen, ran permissions normal, Ran every test I could think of on the drive and all came out ok.
I am thinking maybe 2 things left to try. Though about changing the battery with a new one then checking, even though the time has been correct, the second maybe change the HD. It is like it does not see the HD sometimes and then cannot boot as to why the folder if you wait long enough.
I am sorry this is long but I thought it may help you understand what I have done already and a better idea of what to do next. I just do not want to spend money on it if I do not have to. I am about ready to put in the closet or sell for parts but would like to solve the puzzle if I can.
I am thinking maybe 2 things left to try. Though about changing the battery with a new one then checking, even though the time has been correct, the second maybe change the HD. It is like it does not see the HD sometimes and then cannot boot as to why the folder if you wait long enough.
I am sorry this is long but I thought it may help you understand what I have done already and a better idea of what to do next. I just do not want to spend money on it if I do not have to. I am about ready to put in the closet or sell for parts but would like to solve the puzzle if I can.