Powerbook G4 Not Starting Up

R

reneregal

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My Powerbook G4 is not starting up. When I press the startup button, I get the white screen with the grey apple, but that's it. I don't get thr little revolving "wheel" that usually signifies the startup process is working.

Prior to this problem, it was taking a very long time to start up but eventually would start up.

I've tried holding down the option key while pressing the start button- this worked yesterday, but won't work today.

Any clues?? Thank you in advance for any help.

Rene'
 
Start from your installation medium (Tiger DVD, original installation DVD, something like that) by popping that in and holding down "c" as it starts. Go repair the harddrive and repair permissions (under the Apple logo when the installer starts). That's the start.

If that doesn't help, I'd look into reinstalling OS X. "taking a very long time to start up but eventually would" sounds like a problem-ridden installation, anyway...
 
Thanks for the response. To further note...
I can start up fine holding down- command, option, p, r keys and letting it chime twice.

I bought my laptop used, so I don't have the original system software. I could probably get a copy from someone else though.

I also downloaded Mac Janitor and ran that. I had no idea that the system on a laptop needed to "clean" itself up in the middle of the night.

Rene'
 
I am currently using OS 10.3.9. Do you think it would help to upgrade the system software? If I purchase the upgrade disks, then I'll have my own start-up CD right?

Do you think that will help with my start-up problems?

Thank you,

Rene'
 
Sorry for "hijacking" that thread, but my wife has the exact same problem with the exact same computer. Except that she does get the little revolving wheel. And she can't start it up, even the way you described (holding down- command, option, p, r keys and letting it chime twice).

I tried booting up in safe mode, single user mode, verbose mode, nothing. Safe mode hangs for hours and does nothing. Single user and verbose mode displays some charabia, but the prompt hangs and I can't type anything.

It started out last night when she tried to shut down the computer and it failed, said that it couldn't shut down because safari was running, but it wasn't. She couldn't shut it down, and eventually closed it and removed the battery to turn it off.
 
I have the same thing going on with my PB 15 1.2 5 right now. These are the steps I have taken so far.

I had the mac chime go off and some items loaded and then my mac was stuck on a blue screen. The mouse worked but nothing else.
I tried diskwarior..no luck.
Tried disk utilities. I fixed some permissions that were messed up. Disk was ok... no luck
Reinstalled Tiger.....that worked. Then I updated the OS...then it got back to the same situation.

Now here's the problem I am facing. I want to just reinstall it again but now I don't have enough disk space for a bare minimum install.

I wasn't able to load the HD in target mode on my PC...although any disks in my pbook were coming up on the PC. I lent my firewire cable to my brother in law....so I will be getting that back in about 8 hours and I should be able to use the drive from my G5 if it is in target mode...

Does anyone know how I can get something installed on my HD that I can use to delete some files so I can reinstall tiger. I have many disks that I can work with but I have even gone back to see if I can run with os 9, norton , tech tool, diskwarrior, and a host of others..


This is also being discussed in the apple forums as well. Here is a link to the forum I posted to over there.

Apple.com support forums
 
I'm a total newbie at this but: is there a way to access the powerbook's drive from my PC? You can access it using a firewire cable, even if the powerbook hasn't booted up?
 
Yes. start your mac in target mode. Hold down t while starting up and it acts like a firewire drive.

Fist the PC needst o be able to read mac disks.. I am sure there are several competing products that help one do this but I have purchased a program called macdrive. Works great. In order to connect one drive to the other I use a firewire 6 pin cable to a 1394 4 pin firewire cable that is somewhat standard on most pc laptops. The only real difference between 1394 and firwire other than the size of the plugs is that 1394 4 prong is not powered. But yeah you do that right it works
 
Cool, I did that and I was able to back up all her stuff! Thanks so much!

One question though: where do I find Safari's (or Firefox, she used both) bookmarks? Is it possible to back up the mail as well?
 
Safari;
user>library>safari

Firefox;
user>Application support>Firefox>Profiles>xxx.default
 
A Follow up on start-up problems...

I was able to start-up my PB by holding option/command/R/P and waiting for 5 chimes (not just 2). I remembered this from my older mac days. It still took a bit longer than normal to start-up, but it worked. That was 4-5 days ago. I haven't turned off my PB since. At night, I just close the screen and leave it running. I've got work to do and I can't risk not starting up right now. It's been running fine.
Then today, the automatic software updater came up asking me to update quicktime to 7.0.3 and to update iTunes. I clicked update- forgetting that it would probably want me to restart. It did want to restart, so with complete panic in my fingertips, I clicked restart and low and behold, it restarted just fine! no delays!

I'm still too scared to shut-down, but maybe my PB is getting better. I've had a chance to back-up my work onto an external hard drive too just in case.

Rene'
 
eventually after I back up everything for a second time after going in target mode and I insalled an older version of tiger...I updated the system and left the last combo update after the third restart or so. Teh whole time I was checking and verifing permissions. when it came time to do the OS update it did it in a snap.... at least its done.
 
Hi!

I had the same problem here with my PB G4 12" so I took it to the closest repair service. They just told me the harddrive is broken so they need to replace it. In other words...I need to pay aroud 500$ to get a new hard drive in and get my data saved...I think that's too much so I'm thinking about going to pick it up and do it myself. Before spending 500 on a 5 year old mac i would save those to get a new MacBook...so I wanna try and save all the data on to a friends MacBook using the target Mode. But I'm afraid it might not work...i couldn't get the PB to start (wasnt aware of the command, option, r and p thing but I guess it wouldn't work either), so Im afraid I might take it home and not be able to rescue the data myself.

What would you guys do?

Thanks!
 
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