How do I restore an IBook

[dabber]

I bought a broken G3 Ibook a couple of weeks ago. I took into the apple store to see how much it would cost to fix it and they said it would be a free fix. Mother board bad and Apple is still warrantying them for free. I now have the computer and it's working fine but it still has the previous owners info on it. I tried to do a restore with the factory discs but it prompts me for a password. I contacted the previous owner and she though I was nuts asking her for her password and told she wouldn't help in any way. Is there any way around this or am I just doing it wrong? Any help would be great. Thanks

 

[bankshot]

At what stage does it prompt you for a password? If you insert the Install CD and hold down the 'C' key while rebooting, it should boot from the CD and allow you to install clean at that point. If there's a password along the way, the only thing I can think of is that there's a password on the Open Firmware. If that's the case, then I believe this is what you do to reset it:

Shutdown, open up the case and remove or change the memory in the machine. It's pretty easy to do, and you can get instructions at http://www.info.apple.com/usen/cip/index.html

Reboot and hold down Command-Option-P-R. Do this 3 times.

Shutdown and put the memory back in.

In theory this should clear any password in Open Firmware, and there shouldn't be anything else stopping you from doing a fresh install from the CD.

Hope this helps.

 

[jackieonasses]

At what stage does it prompt you for a password? If you insert the Install CD and hold down the 'C' key while rebooting, it should boot from the CD and allow you to install clean at that point. If there's a password along the way, the only thing I can think of is that there's a password on the Open Firmware. If that's the case, then I believe this is what you do to reset it:

Shutdown, open up the case and remove or change the memory in the machine. It's pretty easy to do, and you can get instructions at http://www.info.apple.com/usen/cip/index.html

Reboot and hold down Command-Option-P-R. Do this 3 times.

Shutdown and put the memory back in.

In theory this should clear any password in Open Firmware, and there shouldn't be anything else stopping you from doing a fresh install from the CD.

Hope this helps.

I had that all typed out, (maybe not all that detail) and you beat me too it!

{edit} my internet must have been messed up because your post never showed up (or i didnt scroll down )

 

[dabber]

Thanks!

All I needed to do was hold the C key down. How easy. Thanks.