Pb G4 Won't Start At All

[Maia]

Today when I came from home from work my PB G4 wouldn't wake up from Sleep. I tried the old "hold the power button in" and it made a sound I hadn't heard before - a long tone, followed by the sleep indicator light flashing a few times, then the startup "bong" and then nothing. Nada. No screen display or anything. I did finally get it started but I put it to sleep later and the same thing happened - several times.

The interesting thing is that as long as I have the AC power plugged in, opening the lid causes the usual "wake up from sleep" sounds even if I know the laptop is off - in fact, I tried unplugging AC power and removing the battery completely, and as soon as I plugged in AC power and opened it, the same "waking up" sounds.

I did eventually get it started up and now I'm terrified to shut it down. It seems to be (being a PC tech-type at work) that the long tone and light *must* indicate something - only for the life of me I can't figure out what. Apple's support page is worse than no help at all. I'm desperate.

 

[iJim]

I had the same problem a couple of days ago with my brand new PB. I called tech support and they told me to hit the start button and hold down the 'option' key and it worked. Apparently the computer could not find the hard drive and it happens rarely.
When you do hold down the option key. it searches for any drives. You will see a semicircular arrow, a hard drive and a right pointing arrow. Click on the hard drive once and then the right arrow. Voila! My pb started up perfectly and I have not had a problem since.
Hope this helps.