Kernel panic ibook help needed from a panicked newbie

T

Trekkiemaiden

Registered
Hi,
I´m a newbie here but been using Mac os x for about 10 years. My iBook 12" G4 1.33 has been crashing alot with the black screen saying "you need to restart your computer".or, more often "Welcome to Open Firmware, the system time and date is:.... When i type "mac-boot" it flashes once and goes to an all blue screen with a folder in the center with a question mark on it. One more detail: on the very top of the firmware screen it says:
Illegal instruction at %SRR0: ff85e778 %SRR1: 0008 1000

This has been happening for over a year now and we usually get it to start by pressing random keys and even shaking the laptop!! We have learnt there is a real issue with the airport card in these ibook g4´s but mine is the type you can´t get to the airport card without taking the whole thing apart. So its still in there but we dont use it because it brings on these kernel panics, But they continue and are getting worse, I have reset the PRam 100´s of times thru the Open Firmware but nothing changes, Don´t know how to boot through the cd drive as there´s no prompts, everything is backed up, so not too scared but just want my lovely Mac back. I have the discs if anyone can tell me how to use them in this situation, or help in anyway I would be soooo grateful. The forums seem to have a fairbit about thi kind of thing but none of the responses work for us
 
If you want to simply wipe and load a fresh copy of OS X on your computer (effectively wiping out anything that exists on the internal hard drive permanently and loading OS X as if it were brand-new), then simply pop the original CD/DVD that came with the computer ("Restore" disc) into the optical drive, reboot the computer, and immediately hold down (and keep held down) the 'c' key until the computer boots from the CD/DVD.

Follow the on-screen prompts, and select "Clean install" or whatever option most closely resembles a clean and fresh install.

If that doesn't help with the kernel panics, then your issue may be hardware-related, and would require a trip to an authorized Apple service/repair center.
 
hi - thanks for that answer - Antonio is telling me he tried holding the c button down to boot from the cd drive but it still went to Open Firmware. How do we eject the CD Iit is marked install disc 1 ibook G4 10.4.2.We have install disc 2 too. The discs and ´pooter came from cancom uk. I don´t seem to have a repair disc. Seem to be a bit stuck at this point.

Ok here´s what happened - I did it myself this time, we pressed the power button, then held down the c, the disc drive starts to work, there is a beep , then the chime, the screen flashes, goes to openfirmware but this time we got an "invalid memory access blah blah blah " instead of illegal instruction!!
 
Trekkiemaiden said:
How do we eject the CD Iit is marked install disc 1 ibook G4 10.4.2.We have install disc 2 too.
Click to expand...

To eject the CD, try starting up while pressing and holding the trackpad button or a mouse button down.
This is one of the standard ejection methods.
 
Hello,Trekkiemaiden
I have read your problem, and i believe i have had the same problem as you before, not recently, more like 2-3 years ago.
the Problem could lie with a Corrupt O.S., this could happen if let the battery run dry while the system is on, or if the system is forcing you to restart, the problem could lie with Over Heating, if you can try to verify that the Fans are running please do so, if they are not running over heating my have been your problem in the first place.
the problem may also be that your harddrive is just about to reach the end of its life,
to eject the disk, at first boot up, hold the eject key on the right hand side of the keyboard
 
Hi again
Thanks for your answers. The fan seems to be working fine, one of the few things on it that is!! We still can´t eject the CD, have tried all the above methods, but no luck. The drive appears to be working as we can hear it raeding the disc but nothing boots up!! And still we are getting either a black screen (even worse now) or Open firmware if we are lucky!! help!!!!
 
Hi
Not sure how to reset the PMU - we can´t find the button for it - it´s not on the side of the laptop, but somewhere inside I think. We took the iBook and an old iMac I have to an Apple auth repairers today and they said they were both obsolete models and couldn´t be repaired!! They wouldn´t even look at them :(

What now???????????????? (I hate using this PC!)
 
There's no reset button on most iBooks.
You can reset the Power Manager by holding Shift-Control and Option, then pressing the power button briefly.
 
poweroff the computer. and turn it back on
while its powering on
hold Command, Alt, P+R
wait for the computer to chime 2 twice, then release
 
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