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My ibook won't boot up?!

T

Tibb

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 15, 2007
8
0
When i try to turn on my ibook g4 with os X.4 all i get is the gray screen that shows the apple pic and the loading spinny thing. i had the day before connected to my freinds network, only to access the internet, downloaded a bit of stuff and then went away.
when i tried to turn on my ibook the gray screen is as far as it gets. i left it on for a few hours because its making sounds like it is loading but it won't go any where.
i tried holding the apple key, optoin and P and R keys to reset the preferences but that only resets the computer and starts it all over again. some help wold be really nice, i'm also new to macs so i don't really know how they work underneath.
 
If you boot from OS X DVDs that came with your iBook you should be able to repair permissions.

If that does not works then there is an option to re-install OS X without loosing your app or documents.

It doesn't seems to be the problem, but you could also check if your HD is selected as the one from where to boot.

EDIT: when you say "making sounds like it is loading" do you mean the HD makes a clicking noise?
 
Roco said:
when you say "making sounds like it is loading" do you mean the HD makes a clicking noise?
Click to expand...

not a clicking noise, but the normal sound that i hear every time i boot up my ibook.
i tried to boot with the dvd in the drive and it changed nothing.

Roco said:
If that does not works then there is an option to re-install OS X without loosing your app or documents.
Click to expand...

how do i do that? with out being able to log in or even boot up.
 
Tibb said:
how do i do that? with out being able to log in or even boot up.
Click to expand...

When you turn on the iBook (with the DVD in) press "c" and it should take you to a window where you have some options from where to select.

There you can repair permissions, check what hard drive is selected to boot from, or, if needed (or if nothing else works), make a re-install. Just make sure that you select the one that says it won't erase your documents and apps.

There is also an option to make a Safe Boot (clicking "Shift" during startup), but I am not sure if this might help you.
 
holding c and the shift key did nothing as either. i pushed both of them in right at the chime sound that what i'm supposed to do?
and when i held shift i it made and electronic beep sound every so often, not loud but just a short "beep"
 
Tibb said:
holding c and the shift key did nothing as either. i pushed both of them in right at the chime sound that what i'm supposed to do?
and when i held shift i it made and electronic beep sound every so often, not loud but just a short "beep"
Click to expand...

Make sure you hold c for a while after the start-up when you boot from the Install Disc. You probably just pressed c for one second or so.
I am also starting to think that this could be a dying hard drive.
 
Tibb said:
holding c and the shift key did nothing as either. i pushed both of them in right at the chime sound that what i'm supposed to do?
and when i held shift i it made and electronic beep sound every so often, not loud but just a short "beep"
Click to expand...

At the moment the screen turns grey press "c", and don't release it until a window appears.
 
ok thats all working. but when i get to the part where it wants me to select a destination drive nothing pops up. does that mean my hard drive is dead?
 
Tibb said:
ok thats all working. but when i get to the part where it wants me to select a destination drive nothing pops up. does that mean my hard drive is dead?
Click to expand...

Very possible, yes.:(

The same happened to me. That's why asked if you had a clicking noise come from the HD. That seems to be the first sign of a dying HD.

What I recommend is not to touch that iBook any more. You could still be able to save your documents or important info.

I am to guess that when you click Disk Utility there is also nothing appearing?
 
no it just says "gathering disk information..." and thats it. So what do i do. turn it off by force, and how do i fix the problem?
 
Tibb said:
no it just says "gathering disk information..." and thats it. So what do i do. turn it off by force, and how do i fix the problem?
Click to expand...

For now turn it off. Not sure if you click the blue apple at the left top corner you will see an option to turn the computer off. If not, by force.

If it is still under warranty, go to an Apple Store and they should replace it with a new one.
As for trying to get back all your info, check if they can help you in that. My store (an apple-resseler) made me the favor to try and recover something, but with no avail.

Did you have a back-up?:confused:

EDIT: Not sure if could just be disconnected. But then it would not even get to the grey screen (not sure about this). Anyone knows if it could just be disconnected?
 
sadly i didn't think to back up. this was a very sudden thing. i will look into getting a new hard drive for my baby, do you know if it might work to use an external hdd as the boot drive? i have one that would work for that, but that would make me lose the usefulness of a lap top.
 
Tibb said:
sadly i didn't think to back up. this was a very sudden thing. i will look into getting a new hard drive for my baby, do you know if it might work to use an external hdd as the boot drive? i have one that would work for that, but that would make me lose the usefulness of a lap top.
Click to expand...

You could try FireWire Target Disk Mode if you have another mac and a firewire cable (6-pin to 6-pin).
 
Tibb said:
sadly i didn't think to back up. this was a very sudden thing. i will look into getting a new hard drive for my baby, do you know if it might work to use an external hdd as the boot drive? i have one that would work for that, but that would make me lose the usefulness of a lap top.
Click to expand...

You can use an external hard drive, but as you say, it is not very practical.


READ THIS There seems to be a possibility that if you boot from an external hard drive you could save your files.
 
no i don't. thanks alot for your help. it was some bad news but it still was nice to know. i'm sad now, but hopefully i can get her fixed. once again thanks for your help.
 
Well if your warranty is up you can Look here if you mechanical incline to take on this challenge to replace the HDD yourself
 
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