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Got my iBook back, was supposed to be fixed, now worse!

nickelbackmac

nickelbackmac

macrumors regular
Original poster
This iBook came back from a repair shop in worse condition than it was. It had 10.3.9 on it, and the repair shop installed what appears to be 10.4.1, and it only has 198MB RAM so obviously it's not going to load. I don't have any install discs or anything, is there any other way I can wipe out the HD COMPLETELY? Thanks everyone!
 
generik said:
It is a FREE upgrade to Tiger, why complain? 🙄
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I wouldn't be complaining if it would go past the "Loading Mac OS X" box. It takes an hour for it to get there, let alone the hard drive makes a loud unwanted clicking. I'd rather have 10.3.9 because it will actually load. But Tiger never lets me past the loading box 🙁 .
 
Oh dear. Always make sure you get the relevant discs when buying from eBay. Since the discs are only licensed to be used with your machine, there's no point in the seller keeping them. Either contact the seller for the discs or maybe get a retail copy of Panther from eBay. 🙂
 
What Ibook is it? getting a modest ram bump to load tiger can't be that much cash... I loaded Tiger on my mom's PB 867mhz with only 256mb of ram the other day.

Put ram in a iBook isn't that difficult.
 
California said:
What Ibook is it? getting a modest ram bump to load tiger can't be that much cash... I loaded Tiger on my mom's PB 867mhz with only 256mb of ram the other day.

Put ram in a iBook isn't that difficult.
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Well, if I do that would it successfully load Tiger or would I need to re-install Tiger?
 
nickelbackmac said:
Well, if I do that would it successfully load Tiger or would I need to re-install Tiger?
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Put a 512 chip in your ibook and you will have no problem with Tiger; it will just load up fine and you won't have to reload it.

But if the hd problem persists, I would work a deal with the people who put tiger on it and tell them your hard drive is now failing due to the fact they put a new operating system on your computer w/out your okay... get a new hd and a discoutn.
 
Although there's a very high chance California is right and it'll now boot up with more RAM, you may have a bad system install or another failed component that's the current reason you can't get into the system. I reckon it might be worthwhile to just invest in some Panther discs. They might come in handy further down the track, if ever your hard drive fails or something. 🙂
 
Why did the seller keep them? Aren't the discs tied to a certain configuration? (ie: a Macbook's discs only works on a Macbook, not MBP or Mac Mini)
 
I bought this iBook off eBay. The seller said he had picked it up at a local pawn shop, and it was just the laptop and the charger.
 
The clicking noises you heard my indicate your hard drive is about to fail

I've had an ibook with 1gb of ram that would take forever to load osx, it had hardware problems.
 
kahos said:
The clicking noises you heard my indicate your hard drive is about to fail

I've had an ibook with 1gb of ram that would take forever to load osx, it had hardware problems.
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Yeah. My friend bought it from me and he was so happy cuz it was his first Mac. It never turned on...
 
nickelbackmac said:
500MHz Dual USB G3
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I had that model. You're right, Tiger's gonna run like crap on it. I had Panther and it was marginal. I preferred Jaguar on it, myself. Good luck.

P.S. That model has the logicboard issues. I got mine upgraded to a G4 iBook after sending it in 3 times for repairs.
 
Tiger will load fine with only 192mb RAM. If your iBook sticks at "Loading Mac OS X" and the hard drive is clicking, then you've got another hardware problem. 🙁
 
Yeah, the clicking really does sound like a failing hard drive. See how far you get with fsck, if you haven't tried it already. 🙂
 
When I last spoke with AppleCare, the gently said it in this way: As long as you own an Apple computer you have license to use Mac OS.

So if you can get a hold on it via different means ... 😉
 
generik said:
Why did the seller keep them? Aren't the discs tied to a certain configuration? (ie: a Macbook's discs only works on a Macbook, not MBP or Mac Mini)
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He said he got it with Panther installed. But if it is an iBook 500MHz as he said, then the operating system, that came originally with it, must have been an earlier version and the seller must have bought Panther separately and thus the Panther discs are not tied to the iBook.

And to the OP: If the hard drive makes clicking noises, that's often a sign for a broken hard drive, or of an upcoming failure of it.
 
Pressure said:
When I last spoke with AppleCare, the gently said it in this way: As long as you own an Apple computer you have license to use Mac OS.
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Mate, that doesn't sound right. I don't think Apple would condone pirating at their expense.
 
2ndPath said:
He said he got it with Panther installed. But if it is an iBook 500MHz as he said, then the operating system, that came originally with it, must have been an earlier version and the seller must have bought Panther separately and thus the Panther discs are not tied to the iBook.
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I bet. The seller on eBay said "Well, I brought it home, shined it up, and installed a fresh copy of OS 10.3..."
 
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