I have just brought a apple G4 powerbook off a mutal friend who has moved to australia,my nightmare has started.
Problem one is he did not format the harddrive as he promied
Problem two is now i can't log in to the system because i don't know his password and i am having diffuculties contacting him.
Problem three is i have tried booting from os 9.2 and a error type 11 comes up during set-up telling me to restart the machine with extentions off which i did to no avail.
Problem four is i tried booting from os 10.2 and it just crash's with white horizontal lines or just tell's me to re-start in four languages.
I have tried zapping the pram , resetting it , taking out one of my memory sticks still !!!!!!!!!! to avail
I need help despertly as i really want it to run.
please please please help me help me help me, apple have not been very usefull apart from telling me it is most probably a hardware issue and that starts at a flat rate of £300 which i have not got after spending £800 buying it , can any users come to the rescue ??????????
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problematic mac boy
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you really booted from the OS 10.2 install CD and it kernel panicked?
that's really your only hope, there. if you can't get that fixed, you'll have to wait till you can get the password from your friend or buy a new hard drive, i guess. and there are no guarantees that the latter will work, if the laptop is broken to the extent that it can't read a disc, but i can't imagine how that would happen.
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answer : the cd rom is not broken it reads from disk just the powerbook won't install from cd.
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try booting from an external hard-drive.
If that works, you'll be able to check the machines drive.
otherwise find a tech, really, 300 squid, fark
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Find another mac that has firewire, and make sure you have the 10.2 CD handy.
Boot the powerbook into firewire disk mode by holding down the 't' key while you power it on. Hold the key until you see the firewire symbol on the screen.
Connect the two macs' firewire ports. The powerbook's drive should show up on the other mac's desktop. Erase it. Now using the 10.2 CD, install OS X onto the drive.
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Acctually, you want to connect the two machines together before you boot the firewire target computer.
Regards,
Gus
__________________
A similar thing happened to my 15" AlBook where I installed some bad ram and when I put the original ram back in, I couldn't get past the gray Apple logo on startup - I'd always get the "You need to restart your computer" message, even if I try to boot from the Install DVD. What worked for me was that I took out the HD from the AlBook (I know, very bad idea, but I was feeling very brave, and it was actually quite easy!) and put it into my iBook, put the Install DVD in the iBook, and reinstalled OS X. Putting the AlBook in Target Disk Mode just made my iBook crash when I hooked them both up. If you don't have another laptop to do this, you can try getting an external case for laptop drives. If you're not willing to open anything up, then I'm afraid I can't help you there.
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The Firewire target disk mode solution is your best bet-assuming this is a software issue. If this doesn't work, you have either motherboard or drive problems. Target disk mode doesn't use RAM (only the openfirmware and the hard drive) so that would not be a factor.
1) Turn your PB off and connect a 6pin-6pin Firewire cable from it to another Mac's Firewire port. Preferably, that operating Mac will be running OS 10.2.x.
2) Now power-on your PB while holding the T key down until you see the FireWire icon on your screen. Cross your fingers and watch your PB show up as a firewire drive on the other Mac's desktop.
3) Run disk utility and erase your PB's drive
-decide if you want to install OS 9 or use this as a firewire drive on OS 9 machine and if so, install the OS 9 drivers. Partition the drive the way you want. I believe it is useful to make at least two partitions-especially if you install OS 9 on the other partition. That way, you can boot from the other partition if you have disk problems.
4) That should solve your problems. Install OS X and be on your way.
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i hope it is not a hardware issue but i am dodgy about my samsung ram ,which i tested by taking one out and vice versa to no avail if it was a ram issue one of them at least would be working, or maybe not i hear these samsung's are problematic, but if that was the case then the os version already on thier would not have booted from cd when originally installed, i think it may be a openware problem where it is protected against booting from cd if you don't know the start-up passwords, i can not see it being a harddrive problem as i have run fsck -y and it says the hd is fine, maybe just maybe the firewire thing may delete whatever settings on on the hd stopping it loading from cd , i reset the pram so it is unlikely to be a bios issue if it is maybe i can upgrade the bios in firewire mode. !!!!
anyway i will let you guys know happened hopefully good news
can someone attemp to answer any of the questions above so my mind can rest as to whether it is or is not a hardware error because i really am lost !!!!
__________________
problematic mac boy
Problem one is he did not format the harddrive as he promied
Problem two is now i can't log in to the system because i don't know his password and i am having diffuculties contacting him.
Problem three is i have tried booting from os 9.2 and a error type 11 comes up during set-up telling me to restart the machine with extentions off which i did to no avail.
Problem four is i tried booting from os 10.2 and it just crash's with white horizontal lines or just tell's me to re-start in four languages.
I have tried zapping the pram , resetting it , taking out one of my memory sticks still !!!!!!!!!! to avail
I need help despertly as i really want it to run.
please please please help me help me help me, apple have not been very usefull apart from telling me it is most probably a hardware issue and that starts at a flat rate of £300 which i have not got after spending £800 buying it , can any users come to the rescue ??????????
__________________
problematic mac boy
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
you really booted from the OS 10.2 install CD and it kernel panicked?
that's really your only hope, there. if you can't get that fixed, you'll have to wait till you can get the password from your friend or buy a new hard drive, i guess. and there are no guarantees that the latter will work, if the laptop is broken to the extent that it can't read a disc, but i can't imagine how that would happen.
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answer : the cd rom is not broken it reads from disk just the powerbook won't install from cd.
__________________
try booting from an external hard-drive.
If that works, you'll be able to check the machines drive.
otherwise find a tech, really, 300 squid, fark
__________________
Find another mac that has firewire, and make sure you have the 10.2 CD handy.
Boot the powerbook into firewire disk mode by holding down the 't' key while you power it on. Hold the key until you see the firewire symbol on the screen.
Connect the two macs' firewire ports. The powerbook's drive should show up on the other mac's desktop. Erase it. Now using the 10.2 CD, install OS X onto the drive.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Acctually, you want to connect the two machines together before you boot the firewire target computer.
Regards,
Gus
__________________
A similar thing happened to my 15" AlBook where I installed some bad ram and when I put the original ram back in, I couldn't get past the gray Apple logo on startup - I'd always get the "You need to restart your computer" message, even if I try to boot from the Install DVD. What worked for me was that I took out the HD from the AlBook (I know, very bad idea, but I was feeling very brave, and it was actually quite easy!) and put it into my iBook, put the Install DVD in the iBook, and reinstalled OS X. Putting the AlBook in Target Disk Mode just made my iBook crash when I hooked them both up. If you don't have another laptop to do this, you can try getting an external case for laptop drives. If you're not willing to open anything up, then I'm afraid I can't help you there.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Firewire target disk mode solution is your best bet-assuming this is a software issue. If this doesn't work, you have either motherboard or drive problems. Target disk mode doesn't use RAM (only the openfirmware and the hard drive) so that would not be a factor.
1) Turn your PB off and connect a 6pin-6pin Firewire cable from it to another Mac's Firewire port. Preferably, that operating Mac will be running OS 10.2.x.
2) Now power-on your PB while holding the T key down until you see the FireWire icon on your screen. Cross your fingers and watch your PB show up as a firewire drive on the other Mac's desktop.
3) Run disk utility and erase your PB's drive
-decide if you want to install OS 9 or use this as a firewire drive on OS 9 machine and if so, install the OS 9 drivers. Partition the drive the way you want. I believe it is useful to make at least two partitions-especially if you install OS 9 on the other partition. That way, you can boot from the other partition if you have disk problems.
4) That should solve your problems. Install OS X and be on your way.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
i hope it is not a hardware issue but i am dodgy about my samsung ram ,which i tested by taking one out and vice versa to no avail if it was a ram issue one of them at least would be working, or maybe not i hear these samsung's are problematic, but if that was the case then the os version already on thier would not have booted from cd when originally installed, i think it may be a openware problem where it is protected against booting from cd if you don't know the start-up passwords, i can not see it being a harddrive problem as i have run fsck -y and it says the hd is fine, maybe just maybe the firewire thing may delete whatever settings on on the hd stopping it loading from cd , i reset the pram so it is unlikely to be a bios issue if it is maybe i can upgrade the bios in firewire mode. !!!!
anyway i will let you guys know happened hopefully good news
can someone attemp to answer any of the questions above so my mind can rest as to whether it is or is not a hardware error because i really am lost !!!!
__________________
problematic mac boy