iBook won't boot past gray screen

[jolo]

I'm trying to resurrect an iBook (translucent white case, 14.1 LCD) that was long neglected, so not sure on its past service history. The following do NOT work:
- won't boot up past the gray screen with Apple logo and spinning gear icon (just hangs)
- same problem if I try to boot from install DVD ("c" or using "option" then selecting DVD)
- same problem with safe boot with "shift"
- reset PRAM

It will connect via firewire target disk mode to another computer, and I used that to completely wipe the disk and do a clean install of 10.5.

When I tried booting into single-user mode (cmd-s), it fills about 2/3 of the screen with normal-looking messages, but then hangs after this (no keyboard response):
Got boot device = IOService... [various other stuff]
BSD root: disk0s6, major 14, minor 5

I'm out of ideas. Any suggestions? The machine is old enough that it's probably not worth the diagnostic fee of the local Apple shop. Since I can't get it to boot, I can't even run TechTools.

Thanks,
Joseph

 

[4JNA]

I'm trying to resurrect an iBook (translucent white case, 14.1 LCD) ...

sounds like an 'ice book' g3 system, where the outer shell is a clear layer over the white insides. if that's the case, the problem is that 10.5 isn't supported on any g3 systems.

Leopard can run on older hardware as long as they have a G4 upgrade installed running at the 867mhz or faster, have at least 9 GB free of hard drive space, 512 MB RAM and have a DVD drive. Leopard however will not run on the 900 MHz iBook G3 models even though they exceed the minimum 867 MHz requirement. This is due to the lack of AltiVec in the G3 line of processors and the fact that most pre-G4 and early G4 systems do not have video hardware capable of supporting Core Image, two technologies Leopard relies upon heavily, among others. Leopard can be "hacked" (see below) to install on these G3 and pre-867 MHz G4 machines but the system may behave erratically and many of the programs, features, and functions may not work properly or at all.

try 10.4 or 10.3 and i bet it works fine. best of luck.

 

[jolo]

Genius!

Argh, you're right. In fact, after wasting a whole week trying everything else, and finally giving up and posting that question, I went away to a long lunch. I was sitting there chewing on my sandwich, when suddenly I realized, that computer is probably so old that it won't run 10.5. Sigh, came back and popped in 10.3, now it's working fine.

Next time, I'll ask sooner.

Thanks!
Joseph

 

[cocacolakid]

Argh, you're right. In fact, after wasting a whole week trying everything else, and finally giving up and posting that question, I went away to a long lunch. I was sitting there chewing on my sandwich, when suddenly I realized, that computer is probably so old that it won't run 10.5. Sigh, came back and popped in 10.3, now it's working fine.

Next time, I'll ask sooner.

Thanks!
Joseph

lol!

Glad it works.

 

[JackT06]

I'm having the exact same problem! Can anyone tell me where i can download a version of 10.3?