iBook won't boot from cd

[kdub420]

My Ibook hangs up on the grey apple screen.Well sometimes it will go and give me a "you must restart your computer prompt." This thing is used and worked well enough to load 800 songs on it. Came up against an unknown password problem gave the book to a mac "expert" and it came back "bricked"
I have osx on factory cds but can't figure out how to get to bios to boot from cd-help please.
thanx
ken

 

[wrldwzrd89]

Umm... you can't get to BIOS, because Macs don't have one. What you need to do to boot from CD:

Insert the CD.
Do one of the following:
Hold down the C key while the Mac's booting
-or-
Hold down Alt/Option while the Mac's booting. When the boot manager appears, select the CD and click the arrow.
-or-
If you can get the Mac to start normally, go into System Preferences and click Startup Disk. Select the CD, then click Restart.

If the CD gets stuck, and won't boot or eject, hold down the mouse button during booting.

 

[kdub420]

IBook won't boot from cd

Ya ,your right I'm a wannabe ex windows guy (I'm even trying linux) trying to setup this IBook for the youngest.It's a 1064mhz/256mb/30gb/cd/ap UV4280UQQHW.
(I hope you know what that means 'cause I don't) Won't boot with the hold "c" method -either hangs the wheel freezes or it says (in four languages) "You must restart your computer now" I'll try the alt/option next. Uhmmm when do I hit the buttons-before the gray screen yes but before or after the chime?I don't need any of the files so any way at all to load the os is more than welcome
thanx
ken

 

[wrldwzrd89]

Ya ,your right I'm a wannabe ex windows guy (I'm even trying linux) trying to setup this IBook for the youngest.It's a 1064mhz/256mb/30gb/cd/ap UV4280UQQHW.
(I hope you know what that means 'cause I don't) Won't boot with the hold "c" method -either hangs the wheel freezes or it says (in four languages) "You must restart your computer now" I'll try the alt/option next. Uhmmm when do I hit the buttons-before the gray screen yes but before or after the chime?I don't need any of the files so any way at all to load the os is more than welcome
thanx
ken

Hold it down immediately after the startup chime sounds.

As for the 4 languages "You need to restart your computer" screen, that's not good. That's called a kernel panic, and if it happens when you attempt to boot from the CD, you've probably got a hardware problem. First thing to check is the RAM - have you added any recently?

 

[kdub420]

iBook won't boot from cd

No hardware changes by me. Just the stock factory ram.The guy that I got it from used it mostly for music. Are we talking major death or just a hard drive failure? How do I check for hardware failure? Can this thing be fixed?
thanx
ken
p.s. I belive that when I hold down the apple key I get a screen with the mousepointer, a padlock,an arrow,and the word next. I would call it a log in screen but the password is unknown. as I said at this point I'd wipe out the drive of that what it takes to get back up and running
again
thanx
ken

 

[wrldwzrd89]

No hardware changes by me. Just the stock factory ram.The guy that I got it from used it mostly for music. Are we talking major death or just a hard drive failure? How do I check for hardware failure? Can this thing be fixed?
thanx
ken
p.s. I belive that when I hold down the apple key I get a screen with the mousepointer, a padlock,an arrow,and the word next. I would call it a log in screen but the password is unknown. as I said at this point I'd wipe out the drive of that what it takes to get back up and running
again
thanx
ken

I think whoever used the iBook before you enabled the Open Firmware password, but forgot to tell you what it was. If that's the case, then you won't be able to boot from CD, reset the PRAM, or do a bunch of other diagnostics without that darn password. You'll probably have to take the iBook in for service and explain your situation to the technicians.

 

[kdub420]

iBook won't boot from cd

I,ve learned that if you remove the pram battery you can clear the of password-now anyone know where that battery is located?
thanx
kdub