Mac G4 Tower won't boot??

P

peterpan1

Registered
I tried another monitor, video card, erasing HD and installing OS 10.4.
Will only boot if I open side of com. and push the reset button. ??
Anyone know what the fix is?
 
What is the result?
What happens if you DON'T push the reset button?
Do you get video (screen turns on)
Do you see anything at all on the screen, such as a flashing "?"
Do you get any beeps, other than the normal boot chime, and do you hear the boot chime?
Is there any change if you try a PRAM reset after pressing the power button: Press and hold Option-Apple-P and R
Wait for the boot chime, and continue to hold those same 4 keys until you hear the boot chime 2 more times, then release, and wait for booting.
Have you tried an NVRAM reset? :
Press power button, then hold Option, Apple, o and f keys. You should see a screen with text, where you can enter the following commands:
reset-nvram
press 'enter', you should get 'OK'
reset-all
press enter again, and your system should restart.

Come back with a description of what happens then....
 
Hi,
Thanks for all your advise.
I tried everything you said and it work just as you said in your descriptions.
But I only got the flashing ? at the end on the screen. I shut down with the power button and rebooted but the screen didn't come on again. I did get the start chime though.
Still baffled on this.

Sincerely,

Peter
 
OK, then!
The flashing "?" means that your Mac can't find a bootable system - at least at that point.
That means one of the following:
No system software, or missing startup files.
Or, drive not selected as the Startup Disk (should normally continue on after a brief wait)
Or, failing/failed hard drive.

Boot to your installer disk
Click past the opening screen (select a language), and at the next screen - choose Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
Select your hard drive from the list on the left, and click the Disk Repair button (different from Repair Disk Permissions)
If this repairs anything, run the same Repair a second time until it runs with no problems found.
If you do continue to get errors, I would try three times, then look for a more capable disk repair utility, such as Disk Warrior, and try that. OR, replace your hard drive, as your problem is likely a bad hard drive.
 
Thanks again.
I did what you said.
Booted from install disc. Repair disc twice.
I got the message 'No repairs were necessary' in green letters, both times.
After shutting down and booting again with the power button, the monitor still
gives me a blank screen. The monitor power diode doesn't even come on.
But if I press the reset button by the small battery and boot everything is OK.
Then I have to reset the time again. And everything seems to be OK after that.

???
 
???
Which is it?
Blank/black screen? Or, flashing "?"
If your screen remains black (no video), then the problem may be your video card. Try reseating that video card in its slot. Are you using an upgrade video card that you have added to replace the original vid card? You said earlier that you tried a video card... Was there any difference in the results when you tried a different vid card?

Is your hard drive connected as original, direct to the logic board?
Or, do you have a PCI IDE controller card added to your Mac?

If you have ANY other PCI cards installed, try removing them, then see if your system will boot by itself (which is apparently not happening now)

If two different video cards have the same symptoms - I would suspect that your power supply may be marginal..... But try reseating your processor first, then try to boot again.....
 
I got the flashing ? after I tried your 1st solution. After that I just got a black screen. Monitor not booting up. When I first got this problem I had a GeForce 6200 AGP video card. I replaced it with the original ATI card. I got the same results. I just tried the GeForce card again and I got the dark screen saying I had to restart the computer, as it was booting up. I restarted 6 times with the same screen result so I put in the original vid. card again. Same problem the monitor won't boot unless I push the reset button.
I re-seated the processor. It is an upgrade a Sonnet 1.8 gig.
The hard drive is two internal 80 gigs striped (Raid). = 160 gigs.
So you are saying maybe it is the power supply. How would I check this out.

Thanks again for all your help.

Peter
 
This may be a stupid suggestion, but I have seen people [Himself.--Ed.] do this.

When you do Disk Utility, make sure that your supposedly fixed HD and System is listed under possible Start Up disks. It it is, then choose it and try rebooting.

--J.D.
 
didn't help means it _is_ listed as possible startup device or it isn't? if it is, have you selected it? do you see the device when holding down the option key at startup time?
 
I know I am years behind the times, but I have this kinda same problem. I have had this G4 for a while now, and I have never gotten past the little file folder icon that flashes a "?" and a funky smiling face. I tried the nvram thing like you posted, and it went through all the steps, but I still get the "?". Oh and I cant get it to load from cd by holding down the "c" key. I have tried a "load cd" command in the text input screen, but I get various "no go" messages depending on what cd I have in. Latest one is "load-size is too small".
 
@ bgkntryguy -
You will get more response (and maybe some good answers) if you give as many details as you can about your particular G4. You can't boot every Mac from just any Mac OS X installer disk that you might find - so, we need to know what processor speed you have - which you may find on the serial number label on the back panel of your PowerMac G4. You may also know how much RAM memory is installed - 10.4 installer won't boot with less than 256MB, for example.
Also, what version of OS X is listed on the label of your OS X installer disk, and what color is that label?
 
OK... I am new at this, and especially macs. But I am trying to give them the benefit of the doubt. Here is what I have found.Its a Power Macintosh G4, Family M5183 Serial #SG9443NUHM0, 350MHz, sticker says 64 mb SDRAM, but there are 3 memory sticks in there. One with chips on both sides has 128, the other 2 have chips only on one side... I am guessing 64 since one has a criptic label and the other no label. I dont have any installer disk that came with it, But I have gotten my hands on a disk that says Mac OS 9 version 9.0 and 3 others that say PowerBook G4 Mac OS X Install Disk 1, Mac OS X Install Disk 2, and iBook G4 Mac OS X Install Disk 2. Will any of these help me out? The sticker also says it originally came with a 10 gb hard drive, but there was no hard drive when I got it. I threw in a Western Digital 40 gig I had laying around from a PC I recycled. I have the original Mac keyboard, but not the mouse, so I have a 2 button hooked up. They case is slate blue and silver, and when I turn it on I do hear a pretty little chime song that I suppose to be a good thing.

Is that enough info? If you need anything else, let me know.

Now, any ideas on what I need to do to get this running?

Randy
 
If you installed a hard drive that came from a Windows PC, then that needs to be formatted, and have some version of a Mac operating system installed.
Those disks that you have labeled for PowerBook G4, or iBook G4, might work to boot your PowerMac, but you can't do much else, as those are the grey restore disks that came with specific Macs. You can't install anything from those disks to your PowerMac G4.

The flashing ? that you see, means that the Mac can't find a bootable operating system. Your hard drive has not been formatted for your Mac, and no Mac operating system, so the ? is normal.
Make sure that hard drive that you installed has the jumpers set for a master drive.
You _should_ be able to boot and install OS 9.
Here's how you can try...
insert the OS 9 CD in your drive.
Restart, while holding the letter C on your keyboard.
If it boots to the OS 9 CD, go into the Utilities folder, run the Drive Setup, and try to initialize the hard drive. If that is successful, you should then be able to install OS 9.

You will need to find a Mac OS X installer disk to install OS X. The best OS X version that you should look for is 10.4 (Tiger), but 10.3 will be OK, too, if you can find that.
That installer disk will NOT be grey, but will be black, with a big X across the label.
 
Well, holding c while the machine boots up does not seem to do a thing. The screen goes to grey, and I get the flashing '?'. I dont know where I got the OS 9 cd, but it is a burned copy, so I dont know if it is the real deal, or a recovery disk.

Any one have a hard drive with OS 10.4 on it they are looking to sell?

Randy
 
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