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iBook G4 ? folder

S

SusanK

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Oct 9, 2012
1,676
2,655
Yesterday my beloved iBook booted to the blinking question mark. I rebooted and it was OK. Repaired permissions and could not quit Disk Utility after that. SBOD. iBook rebooted normally. I didn't have time to do anything more. May be near the end. I hope not.

Still love that iBook after all these years. Great machine!
 
or pram issue

pram battery is on the underside of the motherboard and is most likely dead. Without a good regular battery that pram battery has no chance of keeping the settings when shut off.

Suggest two boots unless you replace the battery.

I have 3 ibooks and all do the same type of thing when unplugged or turned off as the main batteries were toast years ago.
 
havokalien said:
pram battery is on the underside of the motherboard and is most likely dead. Without a good regular battery that pram battery has no chance of keeping the settings when shut off.

Suggest two boots unless you replace the battery.

I have 3 ibooks and all do the same type of thing when unplugged or turned off as the main batteries were toast years ago.
Click to expand...

iBooks and 12" PowerBook G4s do not have PRAM batteries.
 
maybe

wording may be wrong but a capacitor that saves pram with a good onboard battery that needs replaced is there and causes issues.

Much like the ibook G4 kernel panics and airport being at the bottom of it.
 
havokalien said:
wording may be wrong but a capacitor that saves pram with a good onboard battery that needs replaced is there and causes issues.



Much like the ibook G4 kernel panics and airport being at the bottom of it.
Click to expand...


The capacitors are soldered onto the Logic Board and I have never heard, seen, or witnessed even Intell post about them failing. This is more likely a hard drive failure considering the age. Your computer spends most of 10 years spinning the drive at 75 MPH and things are bound to happen.
 
If you're running OS X, try running SMART Utility and see what it says about the hard drive status.

If it reports the hard drive as "failing" or "failed", you have your answer.
 
The PRAM capacitors can and do fail, but rarely. They get the standard puffy syndrome and can sometimes leak. When this would happen to me, I'd just cut them out and not replace them. In all, I've only ever come across about three that have failed, all in G3 iBooks. I do need to stress that it is extremely rare for this to happen and it will only cause problems if the main battery is dead or the capacitor leaks causing damage to the logicboard.
 
SusanK said:
Yesterday my beloved iBook booted to the blinking question mark. I rebooted and it was OK. Repaired permissions and could not quit Disk Utility after that. SBOD. iBook rebooted normally. I didn't have time to do anything more. May be near the end. I hope not.

Still love that iBook after all these years. Great machine!
Click to expand...

Hello!!!!

Befoe you go trying to check the HDD or the capacitors or anything like that, just check the HDD ribbon cable to make sure that it is properly attached to the LB. When I was fixing an iBook (albeit a G3) for another member, I noticed that the reason it wasn't booting properly every time was because this connection had become loose.

You'd still have to remove the top and bottom case to get to it, but it might be that simple.
 
RedCroissant, thank you for your post. Very helpful. So much appreciated. I really love that iBook.
 
SusanK said:
RedCroissant, thank you for your post. Very helpful. So much appreciated. I really love that iBook.
Click to expand...

No problem. I have owned a few, so I learned from a few mistakes and then from a few mistakes made by previous owners, and then I made some awesome discoveries about that machine's capabilities.

I have owned 3 iBook G4s, 4 iBook G3s (sort of) and I was just recently given another iBook G3 by my brother in law bc he got bored with it.

I took them all apart at one point or another and it's that stupid LB connection that I disliked the most. But once that's connected properly (with a little bit extra yummy yellow tape) then it should work perfectly (if that's the issue that is). But if you've been using it a lot and taking it with you more often that usual, that might just be the problem.
 
I don't use the iBook a lot. It's only been out of the house 2-3 times in it's life.

I needed a CD drive on Friday so iBook is my go to. The blinking question mark came up when I tried to boot. Next boot was OK.

I got an error that either the file was corrupt of Preview cannot read it. I tried with an old XP unit. It could see the CD but not read the file. Was fun. I was finally able to open the file using the AOL client from back in the dialup days.

Interestingly enough my MBA running Mountain Lion cannot read the file. I can read the file and email from iPad mini 6.1.3

No idea of why that was such a deal. I have an eMac here with an optical drive but I didn't try that one. CD was from a lawyer and those guys are all Windows folks.

Thanks again for the tip on the iBook. Much appreciated!
 
RedCroissant said:
No problem. I have owned a few, so I learned from a few mistakes and then from a few mistakes made by previous owners, and then I made some awesome discoveries about that machine's capabilities.

I have owned 3 iBook G4s, 4 iBook G3s (sort of) and I was just recently given another iBook G3 by my brother in law bc he got bored with it.

I took them all apart at one point or another and it's that stupid LB connection that I disliked the most. But once that's connected properly (with a little bit extra yummy yellow tape) then it should work perfectly (if that's the issue that is). But if you've been using it a lot and taking it with you more often that usual, that might just be the problem.
Click to expand...
Hmmmm…you had a PowerMac G4 Quicksilver at one point too! ;):D
 
RedCroissant said:
Ha! Hi Erik!

That's true! Along with 2 iMac G5s if I recall correctly......... Gee, where did the 20" iMac go? Did I lose that in the move to CA???
Click to expand...
Gee…I don't know. Maybe it fell off the truck somewhere around my house or something. :D:D

Now, just where is that old iPhone 3GS I used to have, LOL!!!! :)
 
Altemose said:
New iMac for Erik!
Click to expand...
LOL! Well, it was new to me a few months ago - around June. :D

Actually, it's the one functional PowerMac out of my personal Macs that's running right now.

17" 1.0 Ghz needs a new logicboard
12" iBook G4 needs a new hard drive
17" 1.67 Ghz - died. Maybe I'll use for parts but I have no intention of resurrecting this one.
Quicksilver is waiting on parts (when finances align) before I throw myself back into it.

One of the reasons I have not been active here. The iMac G5 is the family Mac. Everybody else is still using their own PBs or iBook.
 
eyoungren said:
LOL! Well, it was new to me a few months ago - around June. :D

Actually, it's the one functional PowerMac out of my personal Macs that's running right now.

17" 1.0 Ghz needs a new logicboard
12" iBook G4 needs a new hard drive
17" 1.67 Ghz - died. Maybe I'll use for parts but I have no intention of resurrecting this one.
Quicksilver is waiting on parts (when finances align) before I throw myself back into it.

One of the reasons I have not been active here. The iMac G5 is the family Mac. Everybody else is still using their own PBs or iBook.
Click to expand...

So your iMac has replaced the QuickSilver until it can be fixed.
 
Altemose said:
So your iMac has replaced the QuickSilver until it can be fixed.
Click to expand...
Not really. The QS I was using for specific things. I can still do some of those specific things on the iMac if I have to, but the QS I had set up for all of that.

If the iMac is a "replacement" for anything right now it would be the 17" PB 1.0Ghz. That's my main browsing Mac, and now…I'm using the iMac for that until I can get a new logicboard for the PB.

That's the one downside of PowerPC. When stuff goes it's a hassle to find new parts at a cheap price and then a hassle to get it all replaced and back up and working again. I want to get this all out of the way at once so I'm waiting until our tax refund and then I can start getting what I need for all the Macs. In the meantime I at least have something at home I can use.

The iMac is nice, but it's not strictly mine so it's set up differently.
 
eyoungren said:
Not really. The QS I was using for specific things. I can still do some of those specific things on the iMac if I have to, but the QS I had set up for all of that.

If the iMac is a "replacement" for anything right now it would be the 17" PB 1.0Ghz. That's my main browsing Mac, and now…I'm using the iMac for that until I can get a new logicboard for the PB.

That's the one downside of PowerPC. When stuff goes it's a hassle to find new parts at a cheap price and then a hassle to get it all replaced and back up and working again. I want to get this all out of the way at once so I'm waiting until our tax refund and then I can start getting what I need for all the Macs. In the meantime I at least have something at home I can use.

The iMac is nice, but it's not strictly mine so it's set up differently.
Click to expand...

I hope that you can get everything worked out the way it needs to be. I thought the 1.67 was working, did the whole logic board die?
 
Altemose said:
I hope that you can get everything worked out the way it needs to be. I thought the 1.67 was working, did the whole logic board die?
Click to expand...
Not exactly. Rather not get into it, but suffice it to say I pretty much killed it on my own. :(:eek:
 
eyoungren said:
Gee…I don't know. Maybe it fell off the truck somewhere around my house or something. :D:D

Now, just where is that old iPhone 3GS I used to have, LOL!!!! :)
Click to expand...

I think that one fell out of a moving airplane into my very appreciatively cupped hands!!!!
 
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