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atomheartmother

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 27, 2006
214
0
I'm looking to buy a "broken" Powerbook from someone for pretty cheap. The seller stated that he was told by a Mac Store that all it needs is a new hard drive. When asked about what happens when it turns on, he said: "Acts like it's booting into OSX and then a black dos like screen pops up with a login prompt."

Are there any things I can have him do to figure out if that's the only problem?
 

Moriarty

macrumors 6502
Feb 3, 2008
436
208
Get him to try to boot from the original OS disc. If that works, and a format/reinstall on the current HDD won't work, then it probably is the HDD.

Otherwise, it's some other problem. In which case I wouldn't bother buying the Powerbook. Replacing the hard drive is cheap as long as you can do it yourself, most other parts are much more expensive.

If he has lost the OS reinstall discs, I'd give it a miss as well, OS X is expensive to buy brand new to install on an old Powerbook, and I'd be wary of buying a second-hand copy of Tiger or something off the internet.
 

atomheartmother

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 27, 2006
214
0
Get him to try to boot from the original OS disc. If that works, and a format/reinstall on the current HDD won't work, then it probably is the HDD.

Otherwise, it's some other problem. In which case I wouldn't bother buying the Powerbook. Replacing the hard drive is cheap as long as you can do it yourself, most other parts are much more expensive.

If he has lost the OS reinstall discs, I'd give it a miss as well, OS X is expensive to buy brand new to install on an old Powerbook, and I'd be wary of buying a second-hand copy of Tiger or something off the internet.

He doesn't have the discs. I think I have a copy of Tiger at home.
 
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