iBook + Leopard = Not Booting?

[funnylookinhat]

Hey Guys,
I recently received a friend's iBook (G4 - not sure about other specs) and it isn't booting. The computer just hangs at the Apple logo when I try to boot from the hard drive.

So I decided the easiest way to fix it would be to simply take my retail leopard disc and install it on the machine (they don't need any data recovery). When I hold the option key the Leopard disc shows up fine, but after I select it and click the arrow to continue it just sits at the apple logo with a twirling loading icon. Anyone else had this issue? Any ideas?

Do I need to reset the system profile or something? Sorry I am an old-school mac newbie... my own machine is a MacBook and I'm much more familiar with it than this G4 iBook.

Thanks for the help!
-David

 

[SHADO]

I would try two things: 1) run a hardware diagnostic by holding down the D key on startup, and 2) zap the PRAM by holding down command+option+P+R on startup.

 

[sidewinder]

Is it an 800MHz iBook G4?

S-

 

[animaxcg]

hold the "command V" (apple key V)
this might work

 

[funnylookinhat]

What does Command+V do?

I tried replacing the hard drive... turns out that wasn't the problem.

I'll try running a diagnostic test.

It's a 500 Mhz G3 with 512 RAM.

 

[11800506]

What does Command+V do?

I tried replacing the hard drive... turns out that wasn't the problem.

I'll try running a diagnostic test.

It's a 500 Mhz G3 with 512 RAM.

That machine is unsupported with Leopard because of the G3 processor and 500 Mhz clock speed. FYI it's an iBook G3, not a G4. This may be why you are having issues trying to install Leopard on it. I would try to find a Panther disc or Tiger disc (although Panther would run better) for that machine and you may have more luck.

 

[funnylookinhat]

Well, now I am trying Tiger and I continually get the message "Installation has failed. Please restart and try again."

I've ensured that my discs are good... so I have no idea what the problem could be.

 

[11800506]

The logic board may be dying? I have no idea. That sounds like an odd issue. Have you tried booting into Target Disk Mode from your Macbook?

 

[ppc750fx]

Might wanna check the RAM. Got a spare DIMM lying around that you can swap in?