G4 imac fails to boot after 10.4 install and update

[jsarrasinjr]

My uncle's imac g4 (700mhz , 256 mb, 40gb) was running 10.2.8 without any problems until 3 days ago. He bought a new shuffle and was unable to load the new version of itunes that it requires without also loading a new version of osx.

I found a copy of 10.4 and I installed it without any problems and was able to install the new version of itunes and load up his shuffle. The problem was seemingly solved. Later on in the same night the automatic update ran and told him to get a variety of updates, which was nothing new for him. He downloaded them and installed them and restarted when prompted.

This is when the problems started. The system failed to boot past the apple logo and spinning gears, he assumed it was becasue his system was slow and didn't do anything about it for close to 12 hours. The next day it was still on the same screen. From the 10.4 disk I reparied permissions and the disk. It still failed to boot.

I just bought disk warrior in attempt to fix what I assumed were bad blocks on the HD. Disk warrior seems to have failed on Step 7 and the status bar has not moved past halfway in over an hour. I am lost and frustrated. Does anyone have any new ideas?

BTW , it won't boot with the shift key, wont boot in single user mode, wont boot into verbose mode and I flashed the Pram

 

[robert05au]

Does it have the current firmware installed?

Will it boot from the 10.4 DVD/CD still?

Was it a clean install or upgraded?

You may need to reset the PMU which can be done by following the info in the link below.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=95165

 

[mad jew]

Did the 10.4 disc come bundled with another machine or is it a full retail (boxed) version?

 

[jsarrasinjr]

yes it will still boot from the install dvd

it was an upgrade ( bad idea I know, but I had high hopes)

retail box edition of 10.4, but rather old as far as that goes, it was very first release

 

[mad jew]

OS upgrades can put a bit of strain on the hard drive, so it might have failed. If you have another Mac handy, I'd try using Target Disk Mode to salvage your uncle's data (if necessary). Then I'd look at getting a new hard drive. Even if this hadn't failed with the upgrade to 10.4, it would have failed in the not to distant future.

 

[jsarrasinjr]

Well I'd like to thank everyone for the help, but I had to take an extreme route.

I installed 10.4 on my ipod and used it to move all of his important data off the imac. Then I erased the disk and installed 10.4 fresh. Everything seems to be working now.

Cross your fingers.

 

[mad jew]

Okay, but keep everything backed up because relying on this hard drive might come back to kick you in the nuts. Ideally, you'd buy a new one.