my ibook crashed?

[kate kuwait]

i just got an iBook from my parents, given it is an old one. I guess like four years old.
I have never had a mac computer before, but I'm having a ton of trouble with it.
The track pad no longer works, but I just plug in a mouse.
But now when I turn it one it gets stuck in the load screen.
sometimes it tells me to restart it, but that does not work.
And the last time that I tried turning it on it gave me a crash screen.
Does anyone have any idea of what I should do?

 

[Insulin Junkie]

Can you post some specs? Also, what version of OSX are you running? Some of those problems could be happening because you might not have the recommended amount of memory for your OS.

 

[techound1]

I'm wondering if it took a bit of a bump - it sounds like the trackpad connector to the logic board has come off. Kernel panics can be caused by RAM issues and I'm also thinking that perhaps the stick is a jar in its slot. There are several sources for instructions on replacing RAM (it involves popping the keyboard off) - you can take a look at them and then reseat the RAM.

Barring that, reset the PRAM and PMU. Apple's support site has instructions for that as well.