iBook trouble

My g3 iBook wont boot up. It died a few years back but a couple of weeks ago I decided to have a look and, bizarrely, it booted up ok, but since then it's been a bit 50/50 about whether it would get past the blue background with the horizontal progress bar or not. Now it won't get that far. It opens on the grey screen with the apple logo and the spinning cog but it just does that forever. I have a the 4x OSX (10.1.2) software restore disks so I want to try a total reformat but I can't open the disk draw without it booting up properly in the first place. Can I open the draw from in the BIOS mode or whatever it's called? Also is there a safe boot mode for OS 10.1? Google is not giving me any joy. I hope I don't have to register on a Mac forum. Those Mac types can be a bit "read the rulesy" i hear.

Try some of these:

http://www.afp548.com/Articles/Jaguar/bootkeys.html

Holding the mouse button down while it starts up should open the CD tray.

I've had a lot of useful help from macforums or whatever one comes up first in google. And from the official support forums. My ibook G4 used to spit out the CD if you just jammed at the eject button as soon as it started up. I accept this is a poor solution but I'm doing my best and I really hope you appreciate it.

worth trying to zap your PRAM as well. if i recall you just reboot while holding command+option+p+r and wait for your computer to reboot. once you hear the startup noise again, should be golden. note this is only a fix for some things. if yer tryin to get a cd into your drive, hold down the mouse button while booting to eject, then pop yours in and reboot! if you can get any other info, i'd be glad to help further.

Probably the hard drive has gone all to tits. If you boot up holding down 'T' on the keyboard it'll boot up into firewire mode, which basically turns it into an external firewire drive, which you can then try and access using another mac. First try using disc utility and then Techtool and that kind of thing to attempt disc repairs and data recovery. Rescue what you can.

Then man up and put a new HD in it.

  On 1/20/2010 at 10:38 PM, bigs said:

worth trying to zap your PRAM as well. if i recall you just reboot while holding command+option+p+r and wait for your computer to reboot. once you hear the startup noise again, should be golden. note this is only a fix for some things. if yer tryin to get a cd into your drive, hold down the mouse button while booting to eject, then pop yours in and reboot! if you can get any other info, i'd be glad to help further.

hmmm. interesting. thanks

  On 1/21/2010 at 12:28 AM, esquimaw said:

Then man up and put a new HD in it.

er.... ok... er.. man?

  On 1/21/2010 at 12:45 AM, LUDD said:

  On 1/20/2010 at 10:38 PM, bigs said:

worth trying to zap your PRAM as well. if i recall you just reboot while holding command+option+p+r and wait for your computer to reboot. once you hear the startup noise again, should be golden. note this is only a fix for some things. if yer tryin to get a cd into your drive, hold down the mouse button while booting to eject, then pop yours in and reboot! if you can get any other info, i'd be glad to help further.

 

hmmm. interesting. thanks

 

 

 

  On 1/21/2010 at 12:28 AM, esquimaw said:

Then man up and put a new HD in it.

 

 

er.... ok... er.. man?

Man up, man.

*smashes beercan on forehead*

?

  On 1/9/2010 at 8:43 PM, LUDD said:

My g3 iBook wont boot up. It died a few years back but a couple of weeks ago I decided to have a look and, bizarrely, it booted up ok, but since then it's been a bit 50/50 about whether it would get past the blue background with the horizontal progress bar or not. Now it won't get that far. It opens on the grey screen with the apple logo and the spinning cog but it just does that forever. I have a the 4x OSX (10.1.2) software restore disks so I want to try a total reformat but I can't open the disk draw without it booting up properly in the first place. Can I open the draw from in the BIOS mode or whatever it's called? Also is there a safe boot mode for OS 10.1? Google is not giving me any joy. I hope I don't have to register on a Mac forum. Those Mac types can be a bit "read the rulesy" i hear.

have you tried e-mailing these guys?

http://www.techspeakblog.com/

good start. now get a job, a wife, and a rugrat.

  On 1/21/2010 at 12:48 AM, LUDD said:

*smashes beercan on forehead*

 

?

That's the spirit!

But in all seriousness.. You may (most probably) be looking at some kind of hard disc failure, and will need to replace it in order to get the machine working properly again. Zapping your PRAM is good housekeeping practice, but it sounds like this old feller has worse problems than this.

wow... my iBook has gone to shit now and won't start up!

boot up in target disk mode.

it won't boot up at all. i'm hoping that the adapter went to shit, but the light is green when it's connected. so i don't think that's the case. it does make a strange noise though when i press my ear against it (the adapter).

i have a 3rd party adapter that lights up even though there is no connection. you have to twist the lead between the adapter and the iBook into a very precise position for it to receive any power. i bought it cause the original apple 1 went to shit and i didnt fancy paying lining their pockets with 70 quid for another piece of shit mac power supply.