iBook startup and operation issue

[galstaph]

Ok, so my g4 iBook (12" 1.33ghz, 512mb ram soldered, running 10.5.7) is having issues

On startup I get the one beep then the chime... supposed to mean there is no ram detected right? but the ram is soldered on the board....
second, if put to sleep it is more often then not now turning the fans on full and not waking up, requiring reboot...
On a side note, I haven't been able to repair permissions since I had a kernel crash a while back that required the whole OS to be reinstalled

So is my ibook pooched or are there some possible solutions for it?
Should I zap pram, and downgrade to tiger? will the downgrade even help?
could it be my HD is going?

suggestions are appreciated

[Skeletal-dæmon]

Oddly enough that is exactly what happened to mine. It was running 10.4.6 or something, and then one day it locked up and I had to reboot, and after that it would give the RAM error tone on boot. I reset the P-RAM and it was fine for a week before it did it again.

I haven't used it much since I got the MacBook so I don't exactly know what's happening with it, but the last time I tried to boot it it still gave the tone before the chime and locked up pretty soon after.

Also, I must say that is an excellent choice in signature quote! RHMIT all the way!

[MacTech68]

Normally, one beep (No RAM installed/detected) would halt the Power On Self-Test process and the machine shouldn't chime and then boot.

I'd suggest an VRAM reset and disconnect any external devices (USB, Firewire etc).

If the beep persists, try plugging a set of headphones into the headphone socket, and see if the beep is indeed coming from the audio circuit. It might be that your hard drive is having trouble initially spinning up from a stopped state and what you're hearing is the servo motor beeping.

A memory test certainly won't hurt either.
________
Honda CB900C specifications (http://www.honda-wiki.org/wiki/Honda_CB900C)