12" PowerBook G4 Won't Boot

[ingenious]

I posted this awhile back, but didn't find a solution...

Anyway, my 12" PowerBook G4 is back from the shop, where, I found out, they haven't worked on it for three weeks or so (it's been there two months!)!

It still will not boot. The battery charges, and when I press the power button, I can hear the "click" noise that means it's trying to start. I can never hear the HD spin all of the way up. It sounds like it tries and then fails. Nothing ever appears on the screen... ever. I have to do a hard shut down, and then it sounds like the HD spins down.

Ideas?

For awhile, it did the "double dinging" noise, but I don't know what that means... and couldn't find anything on support.apple.com about it.

I would really like to have this working again!

Thanks.

 

[TheScavenger]

Have you tried booting from an external? Do you have access to another 2.5" ATA hard drive that is running OSX that you can swap into your PowerBook? I am just trying to help you eliminate or discover the hard drive as a problem.

Not to sound creepy but where in Kansas do you live? I am from Overland Park but I live in midtown KC right now.

Josh

 

[ingenious]

Have you tried booting from an external? Do you have access to another 2.5" ATA hard drive that is running OSX that you can swap into your PowerBook? I am just trying to help you eliminate or discover the hard drive as a problem.

Not to sound creepy but where in Kansas do you live? I am from Overland Park but I live in midtown KC right now.

Josh

I've got two external USBs (not that the PB can boot from these) and access to a FireWire. Honestly, I don't know what makes a hard drive ATA or not (haven't read the wikipedia page yet), but i have some around, including one i pulled from a Sawtooth. It doesn't have an OS, but I could put it back in my Sawtooth and install Leopard on it.

The problem is, I can't see anything on the screen, so I don't know how to select an external HD after holding down option.

Nah, it's fine. I'm from Oswego, a small town so far southeast we're almost in Oklahoma and almost in Missouri.

Thanks for your help!

 

[TheScavenger]

Thanks for your help!

I've heard of Oswego!!

 

[product26]

if you have the mini dvi to vga or dvi adapter I would suggest hooking up an external monitor. I would also follow the previous suggestion of hooking up an external firewire drive to boot from.

 

[ingenious]

if you have the mini dvi to vga or dvi adapter I would suggest hooking up an external monitor. I would also follow the previous suggestion of hooking up an external firewire drive to boot from.

I'll give that a shot this afternoon after school.

Okay, so since I can't see anything on the internal screen, I'm just going to plug in the external monitor and hold down option after I press the power button and hope something appears on the external screen. Does that sound right?

Will I need to hold down fn+f7 to force it to appear on the external monitor?

I've heard of Oswego!!

😀 You're one of the [ahem, lucky] few!

 

[hob]

When you say it "double dinged" to you mean the Apple Chime or some other kind of beep?

If a PB/iBook double beeps (not chimes) it normally means that the RAM is bust.

That may mean your onboard RAM or any additional RAM you have added.

Is there RAM in the upgrade section? If you're stuck for ideas, take a screwdriver to the bottom of the case, remove all four screws from the little hatch you find under there and take out the RAM that is in there. Perhaps that will work...

Good luck 🙂

 

[ingenious]

When you say it "double dinged" to you mean the Apple Chime or some other kind of beep?

If a PB/iBook double beeps (not chimes) it normally means that the RAM is bust.

That may mean your onboard RAM or any additional RAM you have added.

Is there RAM in the upgrade section? If you're stuck for ideas, take a screwdriver to the bottom of the case, remove all four screws from the little hatch you find under there and take out the RAM that is in there. Perhaps that will work...

Good luck 🙂

It was the other noise, the beep, not the chime.

At one point I did add RAM, a 1GB stick, of which the PB could only recognize 512 MB, of course. It did some funky things after that, but, if I remember right, I removed the stick, reinserted the original RAM, and things were, for the most part, back to normal.

I still have both sticks, but from what you're saying, it sounds like the onboard memory. Is there any way to test that? The computer hasn't made any noise in quite a while.

 

[ingenious]

Okay, so tonight, my PowerBook started! I plugged in my iMac via FireWire (iMac in Target Disk Mode) and a monitor and my charger, while hitting "option" and it started (after failing).

Here's what I've learned.

-The PowerBook froze when the power cable came loose.
-The computer will only start if a key is pressed on the keyboard.
-Every time the computer tries to start (whether it does or not), the HD tries to spin up.
-TechTool said my HD is okay.

This makes me think that the issue is related to power and whether or not the computer thinks is getting any power. That's why the computer froze when the charger came unplugged, and it only started when a key is pressed (repeatedly).

So, does that sound right? Is it power management? Is it the logic board? Are those two one piece?


----

Okay, today I installed Leopard over Target Disk Mode (just to wipe the HD and because I was going to do it before all of this happened.) and it installed (i finally got the laptop in TDM) just fine.

The laptop KP'd on boot, but i added the extra stick of RAM and it booted... then gray-screened right before it went to the normal blue screen (gray transition screen after white screen with apple and before blue start up screen) and froze. No such luck booting after that.

 

[ingenious]

After varied success with booting, tonight it gave me a long, never-ending beep. I just shut it off again.

It's been freezing more and more after I get it to start.

Ideas?

Anyone still there...?

Edit:

Okay, now it gave me three beeps and flashed it's sleep light at me.

Edit 2:
Gray curtain right after power on (froze before restart notice came up)

Later...

One beep.

 

[ingenious]

what about this?

Is it the DC-DC board?

 

[TheStu]

what about this?

Is it the DC-DC board?

The DC-DC Board is used for connecting the Logic Board to the Battery, if the system works great without hte battery in it, then that is probably the problem. However, if not, then it is probably the DC-In Board, which is where you plug the power adapter into the PowerBook. It will cost you about $50 on ebay, and is a bit of a pain to replace.

If the Logic Board is fried, then you are looking at hundreds of dollars to just get the board, and then if you aren't willing to do the work yourself, another few hundred just to get it put in there.

At that point you are better off finding a working on ebay or elsewhere, or simply biting the bullet and getting a new system all together.