ibook G4 not booting

[buttercup]

I bought an ibook G4 back in December 2003 and it has worked perfectly for me up until a week ago. After a plane trip in my backpack it started refusing to come out of sleep (a problem I had seen before) forcing me to reboot it. On one of these occurrences it stopped booting altogether.

Instead of booting I hear the computer begin to start up and the fan come on - but it never goes any farther and the fan continues on full speed. This laptop is *not* included in the logic board replacement program and is no longer under warranty (It is an A348).

I have tried a number of things and have managed to get it to boot a couple of times. Firstly I reset the PMU off battery power and the computer successfully rebooted, quite a glorious moment in fact as I assumed I had solved the problem. However a few hours later it had stopped booting even after continual PMU resets. I tried it with the battery out, I removed my airport and extra ram and also tried that. I couldn't get it working for a few days. Finally a read a post suggesting I remove all power sources a few hours. I did that for about 24 hours and booted on the battery. Success! I rebooted a few times and still had success. I then ran the hardware diagnostics (off battery) and in the middle of the memory test my screen turned off and the computer stopped responding. After giving it a reasonable amount of time (15mins) to finish the tests and come back I forcibly rebooted it, this time with the power plugged in. It is now dead again and will not boot under any configuration. I have also tried booting with no battery off more then one power cord so that does not seem to be the problem.

Has anyone seen this before or have any suggestions? With a bunch of googling I was able to find a few postings from people with similar problems but no solutions, and no one posting back to say what their end result was.

Thanks ahead of time for any help, I have been reading this forum for a while but this is my first post!

buttercup

 

[JudsonMerrill]

It is as if I wrote the description of your problem myself. This is exactly the porgress my ibook has taken over the last week. After my initial PMU discovery I had a glorious 24 hour window of normality. Now I'm very lucky to get past the grey screen. Did you find a solution? I am beyond warranty and dreading a logic board replacement.

 

[mad jew]

Is it making any strange noises? I'm wondering if it's a failing hard drive.

 

[JudsonMerrill]

No. Nothing indicates the hard drive is bad. In fact, I got hte HD replaced two months ago. Then it was making noises and running hot and slow. Now, when it does work, it's fine. Then nothing. I talked to Apple today. They listened, wrote it all down, talked amongst themselves for several minutes and then told me there was nothing they could do they had no idea what it was.

My look service provider is at a college and is currently inundated and can't look at it until the 21st... alright, now I'm just complaining.

 

[ThatSoundAgain]

Whoa.

I have the same problem - very scary. It's a bit inconvenient, but I was toying with the idea of upgrading to a powerbook anyway as I recently acquired the means to do so. Of course, now there'll be a gap where I'll be without a lappy, but I'll try to manage.

Next time it's Applecare all the way!

Any updates on solutions etc?

 

[JudsonMerrill]

Well, my iBook is back in my hands. And I am grateful.

But. The solution was a $315 trip to Memphis to hang with the Apple techs. They had to replace the logic board. I spent a bunch of time on the phone with them trying to convince them to pay for it on the shaky premise that the G3s had problems with their logic boards. Ultimately they convinced me it was just a weird freak thing. I footed the bill.

Back in the day, I dismissed AppleCare as a $250 scam. Now, $550 dollars in repairs out of warranty have me convinced it's an expense you have to factor in when buying a Mac. Some of the sheen has definitely come off my love affair with Apple. If you can make the switch to a Powerbook you should definitely do it. I contemplated it breifly but ultimately couldn't swing it. I guess I can tell myself that with a new hard drive and a new logic board in the last three months it's sort of like I have a whole new computer.

Good luck.

 

[ThatSoundAgain]

Glad your problem was solved.

Actually, I think I'll try calling Apple, as the law requires a two-year warranty here in Denmark. Last time I had problems, Apple changed the screen at no charge, but that was within a year after purchase. I'll probably have to argue a little with them, but I'm not going to spend too much time and energy on it.

I'll do this mostly to see if I can recoup some of the cost of a new computer, but if it falls through I'll try and part out the iBook. There's an HDD, some RAM and an Airport card there, plus the new screen. Maybe I can get a little money back that way.