PowerBook Refuses to Boot and Ignores Boot Keys

[toxicity3440]

I have OSX installed on a very old Powerbook. Well it was working and then I left it for awhile and now it is giving me the good old folder to question mark screen (maybe someone dropped it?). Well I'm not much of a mac user so I looked up all of the different boot key commands and tried to boot from my OSX CD. Holding down C did nothing, and neither did ANY of the other commands except holding down option and that key command that restarts the computer (apple, option, shift, esc?). Anyway, I got into the screen that shows your hard drive and all other devices and it actually listed the CD drive so I clicked it and clicked the next arrow. I waited for awhile and then the screen reloaded (as if it was rescanning for removable devices) and then stopped and only displayed the local disk. What is going on?! It only sometimes displays the CD in this screen and the next arrow never does anything regardless!!

I really don't know any of the computers stats but if I were to guess they're pretty bad. All I know is it used to run OSX just fine and then other people used it and now it doesn't do anything.

Thanks in advance!

 

[djackmac]

I got into the screen that shows your hard drive and all other devices and it actually listed the CD drive so I clicked it and clicked the next arrow. I waited for awhile and then the screen reloaded (as if it was rescanning for removable devices) and then stopped and only displayed the local disk. What is going on?! It only sometimes displays the CD in this screen and the next arrow never does anything regardless!!

You actually have to select or "click on" one of the volumes or "boxes" before the -> or "next" arrow will take you anywhere. If there wasn't a selection or "box" for the HD, I'd say the drive is most likely gone unless it was accidentally wiped.

 

[Jesse714]

What CD do you have in there? It won't show up in there, unless there is a bootable disc in. Look under the battery, and you'll see a sticker, and it will say the specs, or you can look on the bottom of the computer, and it will give you the model number. This usually helps us determine if theres any common problems, or what OS it can run, so on and so forth. From what it sounds like so far, you just need to put your original install disc in, and reboot

 

[toxicity3440]

You actually have to select or "click on" one of the volumes or "boxes" before the -> or "next" arrow will take you anywhere. If there wasn't a selection or "box" for the HD, I'd say the drive is most likely gone unless it was accidentally wiped.

I did click on one of the volumes. And there were two options, the HD and the CD. Although the CD disappeared and I haven't seen it again since.

What CD do you have in there? It won't show up in there, unless there is a bootable disc in. Look under the battery, and you'll see a sticker, and it will say the specs, or you can look on the bottom of the computer, and it will give you the model number. This usually helps us determine if theres any common problems, or what OS it can run, so on and so forth. From what it sounds like so far, you just need to put your original install disc in, and reboot

It is a bootable CD. I installed OSX on the computer with the CD originally when it worked before.

God Awful Stats:
400Mhz Processor
1MB Cache
64MB RAM
10GB HD
8MB Video

 

[djackmac]

I did click on one of the volumes. And there were two options, the HD and the CD. Although the CD disappeared and I haven't seen it again since.



It is a bootable CD. I installed OSX on the computer with the CD originally when it worked before.

God Awful Stats:
400Mhz Processor
1MB Cache
64MB RAM
10GB HD
8MB Video

Thats an old Ti-book. Try cold starting while holding down the mouse button and see if the CD will eject.

 

[toxicity3440]

Thats an old Ti-book. Try cold starting while holding down the mouse button and see if the CD will eject.

If by cold starting you mean turning on the computer and then holding down the mouse button then I just tried that and the CD didn't eject, just brought me to the same good ol' flashing question mark then finder icon on top of a blue folder. Maybe this isn't how you "cold start" a computer?

Also I wanted to note that after the computer reaches its final screen, it will shut itself off after about 5 mins of inactivity.

 

[djackmac]

Sounds like the HD is toast. I hope you had a backup or didn't care about the data. During the boot picker you said it showed the HD as a selection but not the CD. Are you sure it maybe it wasn't showing the HD and was showing the CD?

 

[toxicity3440]

Sounds like the HD is toast. I hope you had a backup or didn't care about the data. During the boot picker you said it showed the HD as a selection but not the CD. Are you sure it maybe it wasn't showing the HD and was showing the CD?

It's ok if the HD is toast it didn't have anything important on it.

During the boot picker I can see both the HD and the CD. I'm sure of which is which by the way. Partly because under the CD one it says "mac OSX disc 1" and under the hard drive it says the name of the hard drive.

 

[djackmac]

It's ok if the HD is toast it didn't have anything important on it.

During the boot picker I can see both the HD and the CD. I'm sure of which is which by the way. Partly because under the CD one it says "mac OSX disc 1" and under the hard drive it says the name of the hard drive.

Are you sure that is the disk for that machine? Mac OSX disc 1 implies that is an OEM machine specific installer. If its not the one for that machine, it either won't boot the machine or take you to the beginning of the installion then tell you its not the right disk. So if it will not boot from either the HD or the disk it could mean fubared drive and fubared optical drive or wrong disk. Otherwise it should boot from one or the other.

 

[toxicity3440]

Hmm... Well the CD isn't like an original, it is just a copy but I'm pretty sure it's the exact disc I used to install the OS originally and I know the CD works, I tried it on a dell computer and it started the CD fine.