Powerbook G4 10.5.5 not starting up

L

Loz62

Registered
My laptop crashed and refuses to reboot. Ive tried all the keyboard shortcuts without success. I get as far as the white screen with apple logo and the spinning wheel but nothing else happens. When i booted up whilst holding Control V I got a black screen with writing but I did not really understand what it meant. Any ideas a) what is wrong b) how to fix it>
Any advice much appreciated.
Cheers
Loz
 
Has anybody figured out a solution to this?

I'm trying to solve a similar problem and am stumped thus far.

-Ty
 
First: post your machine specifics--model, processor, RAM, OS, religion, et cetera.

Second: Try booting on your installation disks and repairing the volumes/permissions per Disk Utility. See the linkypoos Satcomer posted.

--J.D.
 
Thanks!

Powerbook G4, 128mb RAM, Leopard 10.5.5 (I think), agnostic, etc.

My machine is hanging at the gray/white apple logo and spinning gear screen.

I've tried every solution I've been able to find.

- resetting pram and nvram (multiple times)

- booting from Leopard install disc -->repair disk (repair permissions just hangs and the disc drive goes crazy)

- Repair disk does tell me that the "Volume appears to be OK", so I don't think it's anything terribly wrong.

I can't do an 'archive and install' because I don't have enough space (it requires 11+gb, I have 6.xx).

Thanks!!
 
Okay . . . two problems--WHICH G4--processor speed.

Reason: 128 RAM is really small for OS 10.5. I am not saying that is your problem, but it could be contributing.

Next is your HD size--how big is it? Nearly filled HD can be a problem.

--J.D.
 
Ah ha.

G4 1.33 Ghz.

60gb hard drive. Is there any way to remove files and free up space if I can't get to the desktop?

I don't have another Mac or know anyone who does...
 
Not likely 128MB of RAM. Leopard will refuse to install with that small amount of memory. The system can run with that small memory, but not usably. 128MB (I'm guessing) is VRAM installed.

You SHOULD be able to Archive & install, if you choose to do a Custom install, and turn off ALL options, except the basic system. Once you get your system working again, you can do what you need to do to get enough space to add back the other items (if needed)
 
thanks! You're the only person who's replied to any of my threads.

From what I remember, with archive and install, there was no option for a custom install with basic options...it just told me I didn't have enough space.

Oh, and you're right, it's 512mb RAM. Not sure what I was thinking :)
 
Looking at MacTracker--and I defer to the Gurus--depending on the size of your Powerbook:

  • 1. 17-inch 1.33 GHz--Max Ram 2.0
    2. 12-inch 1.33 GHz--Max Ram 1.25

I am not saying low ram is your problem, but OS X in general will be MUCH happier if you max the RAM. One of the reasons you may be "hanging" so much on a major operation like fixing permissions--which can take 15-30 minutes on my MASSIVELY FASTER POWERFUL FEAR ME [Stop that.--Ed.] computer. 10.5 does that. It takes much much longer to repair permissions.

Now, if you plan to keep your computer--why not?--and not get a newer one or something like that--you may wish to consider maxing that.

That may make repairing things much easier.

For about $100 you can get an external HD to which you can transfer a lot of your data before you try to sort things out. You may even make it "bootable" to then try to repair your Mac . . . even if you have to wipe the internal drive and start over.

You may be able to get an 80 GigHD--many dealers will add in data transfer. You may be able to get a larger one--this is common in Powerbooks.

--J.D.
 
tgaudmx5 said:
...
From what I remember, with archive and install, there was no option for a custom install with basic options...it just told me I didn't have enough space.
...
Click to expand...

Yes, try it again...
Boot to your installer, choose the archive & install option. Next screen will tell you that you don't have enough space to install, and will show a customize button, where you can turn off all optional installs. You won't be able to change the basic install itself, but the printing options are a large part of the install, and you don't need those right now, so turn off everything that can be turned off. You should have enough space then.
 
so...does this mean that I'm out of luck for making it work the way it is?

Do you have any advice on the archive and install with the basic options?

I really need to get this thing working asap...
 
So, get this: While the disk utility tells me I have 6.4 gb of space available, when I go to do the custom archive and install, it says I only have 5.4 gb of space...and, of course, even the most basic archive and install requires 5.9 gb of space. So, I'm half a gig short, and have no way to remove anything.

I hate this :(

Thanks for your help, though!

- Tyler
 
This would be a good time to buy a bootable external firewire harddrive for backup.
You can install OS X on the external drive and use that to backup or delete specific
files on the computer.

If you have access to another Mac with a PPC (G4) processor, you can boot your mac
into target disk mode and either backup or delete specific files as well.
 
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