So, I have a G4 Powerbook (from about 2002) that is no longer starting up.
There has been no physical damage to it and in fact it has not left my desk at work for the last 3 months. After a weekend I came in and turned it on, but all I heard was the initial "vrrrrr" sound when you hit the power button. However the screen did not start up - it stayed black - and the hard drive did not spin.
After trying to boot it in hard drive mode (start up then holding down "T") I decided my only option would be to hit the master reset button on the back of the Mac. I held it down until I heard the "force shut down sound" and then when I started it up again it started up immediately. Only the time and date needed to be set again.
So for the last week in order to start the computer up again after a complete normal shutdown, where all of the programs are closed and the power adapter is removed, the only way to get it to start up again is to hit this master reset button.
Somehow, I feel that is not good. I have run disk utility on the unit, there is more than 10 gigs of head room in the drive, etc.... However the performance is still not good and now I have this start up problem. Is my unit just doomed to die or is there something more I can do. I just want to basically use it for emailing, web and data entry.
G4 Powerbook
400mhz
768 Ram
OS X 10.3.9
There has been no physical damage to it and in fact it has not left my desk at work for the last 3 months. After a weekend I came in and turned it on, but all I heard was the initial "vrrrrr" sound when you hit the power button. However the screen did not start up - it stayed black - and the hard drive did not spin.
After trying to boot it in hard drive mode (start up then holding down "T") I decided my only option would be to hit the master reset button on the back of the Mac. I held it down until I heard the "force shut down sound" and then when I started it up again it started up immediately. Only the time and date needed to be set again.
So for the last week in order to start the computer up again after a complete normal shutdown, where all of the programs are closed and the power adapter is removed, the only way to get it to start up again is to hit this master reset button.
Somehow, I feel that is not good. I have run disk utility on the unit, there is more than 10 gigs of head room in the drive, etc.... However the performance is still not good and now I have this start up problem. Is my unit just doomed to die or is there something more I can do. I just want to basically use it for emailing, web and data entry.
G4 Powerbook
400mhz
768 Ram
OS X 10.3.9