Power Book G4

W

worldchamp

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I repair PC laptops as a hobby. I never thought about Apple as an option until recently. This guy sold me a Power Book G4 for a reasonable price, I could not refuse. 1.67 and 80 gig HD. I power it on, it seems a bit slow, it gives an electric sounding tone then a light flashes on the front clasp then a gong sound. It then lights up (screen is nice, no burned pixels) the Apple splash screen and then a few seconds later the spinning gear, it then hangs there. I am able to get into the single user page and I have even performed the fsck -f diagnostic. It came back that the HD was OK. I have number 1 + 2 restore disks. I also have a Mac OS X Tiger disk. I have inserted all 3 one at a time......nothing. I have tried Control Shift......nothing. I have tried Apple Option O+F and reset every thing, and tried to boot from there.............nothing. I think I am running out of options. I do not have the availability to connect to another Apple. I am surprised how strong the battery is and clear the screen is. Any thoughts. Joe 55hoss@comcast.net
 
Thanks for the reply. I have tried holding down the "C" with no luck. I have made it to the single user page and did the "fsck" routine. Everything came back "OK". I have tried option, control, O+F and tried to boot that way, still nothing. If I hold down the F-2,10, or12 key will that make anything happen. This is a shame the screen is so crisp and it acts like it wants to do something. I just don't have any experience with the Apple products. If you can think of anything else let me know.

Thanks again,

Joe
 
F-keys have no control over Mac startup procedures. If C fails to start up from an inserted disc, try Option. This should bring up the startup disk selection screen. Assuming the optical drive is working (do you hear the disc spinning?), the CD should appear whether it was inside at the beginning or even if you insert it later.
 
I just attempted holding down option while inserting the #1 of 2 restore disks. Something did happen. There is a picture of a Macintosh HD in the middle with a small blue X, On the left there is an arrow in the shape of a 2/3 circle and on the right of the screen there is an arrow pointing to the right. I am getting movement. I hope this isn't a screen of death.

Thanks for the reply

Joe
 
No, that's the startup disk selection screen. But are you hearing optical movement or not? If the install disc doesn't show up as well, the Mac isn't seeing it or treating it as a startup disk. The curved arrow is for restart; the straight one (the default one) is the equivalent of OK once you've selected a startup disk.

Does the Tiger disc have the same effect? (You can force eject a disc by holding the mouse button at startup.) If so, there's probably a problem with your optical drive. Was it working when you bought the PowerBook?
 
Ben

Thanks for quick responses. I got back to the screen with the 2 arrows anf the Mac hard drive. I tried clicking on the curved arrow and a small watch/clock came up at the arrow. The drive is definetly spinning, it is a bit noisy. It does spit the disk out when booting. It was in this condition when I bought it. I didn't pay much for it. It was more of adventure for me. If I can't repair it I will sell it for parts. I would rather repair it.

Thanks again for your help.

Joe
 
The powerbook G4 15" models were known for bad RAM slots, usually the lower slot which is the one furthest from the board when the laptop is flipped upside down. But just to be safe try one chip in each slot and if you have more than one RAM chip try a different chip in case the one chip you've tried doesn't make a difference. I've seen several of those machines with bad RAM chips and bad lower RAM slots. If it turns out the machine is suffering from a bad RAM slot it can still run with the one slot but naturally you are capped at 1GB or RAM. Even if the machine doesn't boot the HD when swapping chips try different startup methods such as installers because alot of times when the RAM chip or slot starts dying it will fubar the OS.
 
Thanks for the quick reply. I tried moving the ram around. Didn't work.

By the way I used to own a restaurant in downtown Ypsi. a couple of doors down from Haab's.
 
worldchamp said:
Thanks for the quick reply. I tried moving the ram around. Didn't work.

By the way I used to own a restaurant in downtown Ypsi. a couple of doors down from Haab's.
Click to expand...

Small world! I drove by there today. But anyway, like earthsaver said, it sounds like the optical drive is bad or it doesn't like the disks you are using among its other issues. How many different sets of disks do you have? Until you can get something as a known good boot source, its hard to tell whats wrong with it.

Would be really helpful if you had another drive externally with a system on it to boot from.
 
Well

Maybe while I am watching football tomorrow I will give it another try. If nothing happens, I will part it out.

Thanks for your help neighbor.

Joe
 
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