OSX no longer starts on iBook - Firmware trouble?

[Perzec]

OS X no longer starts on my iBook. This is the situation in more detail:

I put in a DVD in my iBook 600 MHz last friday. It froze the dvd-program after a while, and the entire OS. I had no choice but to restart the hard way. After that, the OS won't load. The computer comes as far as the "happy mac"-picture, but then it just stands there. OS X won't start from the installation-CD either, but OS 9 works just fine (I'm on the iBook now, in OS 9, typing). The HD has no defects according to Norton.

The theory me and my friend has, is that the Firmware is somehow damaged. Do you think this is correct, and if so, how do I solve it?

Thanks in advance.

 

[davidbrit2]

I doubt the firmware has been corrupted. That would be highly unusual. You could try zapping the PRAM and see if something got mucked up enough to stop OS X from booting. Start up with Command-Option-P-R until you hear the startup chime twice. If that doesn't do it, then there's likely a problem with the filesystem on the hard disk, and OS X's startup disk checks are either hanging or taking a really long time because of this. Try booting from the OS X CD, and hold Command-V to get verbose mode. You'll see lots of interesting boot messages.

 

[Perzec]

I've tried to boot from the OS X CD, that doesn't work either, so it is not a problem with the files on the HD. Something is wrong with the other operations involved with OS X. I'm not entirely sure just what seperates the workings of OS X from that of OS 9, so I can't really tell what to try, but I'll try the options you gave me as soon as I get home to my computer (didn't bring it to KTH today)

Thanks for the help so far =)

 

[Perzec]

This did not work, I'm afraid. I managed to get into OS X once, but after a short while, it froze again, and now it won't start even after I've used the cmd + alt + p + r at startup. Seems there is something more, perhaps something has even gone wrong in the actual machineparts. What do you think?