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Geoff160

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 25, 2008
5
0
My iBook g3 recently had a new 40 gb hard drive put in. Now when i try to install mac os 9.1 and 10.0.3 ( Both on the same disk labeled for iBook) I get nothing. I hear the CD tray run, but then it stops and displays the flashing question mark. Ive tried booting in open firmware, resetting pram and nvram but it still wont boot. Please help. All suggestions welcome.:confused:
 

Consultant

macrumors G5
Jun 27, 2007
13,314
34
What happens when you hold C or Option when you start up?

Sometimes the disks are not for the right computer and won't work.

Sometimes the disks are scratched of have a piece of lint, etc on it which prevents it from reading properly thus no boot.
 

Geoff160

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 25, 2008
5
0
It will spin but then not boot up. I have 6 different cd and NONE will work!
 

MacHappytjg

macrumors 65816
Mar 24, 2008
1,498
1
Winnipeg
It will spin but then not boot up. I have 6 different cd and NONE will work!

do u have any other mac os' besides os 10.0.3 and 9.1 otherwise try them even if there from a diff computer i bought ibook g4 10.3 discs and worked with my imac g3 and anything else
 

techound1

macrumors 68000
Mar 3, 2006
1,977
7
Perhaps the cd-to-logic-board plug is not fully seated or the optical drive itself was damaged in the hd replacement (seen both happen).
 

OrangeSVTguy

macrumors 601
Sep 16, 2007
4,127
68
Northeastern Ohio
Do you have an external USB CD rom drive and hold down the Option key while turning on your ibook. It will/should read from the external drive and will display it as a boot drive.

Seeing your sig, you do have another mac with a firewire port. Connect the two via firewire. You might be able to boot your ibook into target disk mode by holding down the "T" key on startup. Load the Software in your G4 powermac and restart it and select your ibook's Hard drive.

Your CD drive might also be faulty. I was gonna say your CD might acutally be a DVD but you said it's 10.0.4 and they didn't come on DVD.
 

Consultant

macrumors G5
Jun 27, 2007
13,314
34
When was the last time you used the optical drive? Does the optical drive work? Typically if frequently used, optical drive only last a few years.

Perhaps you want to try the external firewire drive? (I am pretty sure you can't boot from USB, unless you have intel mac).

You want to make sure the disks are the ones that can be used for the computer.

- Gray disks only work with the computers it comes with.
- DVD disks will not run on CD drives.

Most likely reason: the OP doesn't have the correct disks, as demonstrated here in the OP's other post in which he tried to use eMac disks in a PowerMac (and he doesn't even have an emac):
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/473873/

The OP need to go out and buy the proper disks.
 

MacHappytjg

macrumors 65816
Mar 24, 2008
1,498
1
Winnipeg
When was the last time you used the optical drive? Does the optical drive work? Typically if frequently used, optical drive only last a few years.

Perhaps you want to try the external firewire drive? (I am pretty sure you can't boot from USB, unless you have intel mac).

You want to make sure the disks are the ones that can be used for the computer.

- Gray disks only work with the computers it comes with.
- DVD disks will not run on CD drives.

Most likely reason: the OP doesn't have the correct disks, as demonstrated here in the OP's other post in which he tried to use eMac disks in a PowerMac (and he doesn't even have an emac):
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/473873/

The OP need to go out and buy the proper disks.


uhm if they came with another computer u own u can firewire it if it has. um some grey discs work like my ibook ones on my emac imac g3 imac g5 certian ones not sure why but some grey discs work just to let ya no
 
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