New Here I need help with my ibook!

[donnyg20]

Hello all I've been using macs all my life but have never run into this problem. My ibook g4 just recently going crazy on me. I had it running then this dialog box came up with the power symbol in it saying i needed to restart my computer so i did as it said.

After it chimed letting me kno it restarted the gray screen came up and i had the ? folder pop up. So i looked around online and the majority said it was my hard drive. My computer also had a bad battery it wouldn't hold a charge and the ibook itself had to be plugged in at all times. My ac charger pin broke (the part that goes into the computer) so i bought a new one a 45w but just recently finding out i need a 65w! But finally my computer does not turn on at all now. Before i go and buy a new hard drive and battery and charger i was wondering if anyone else has had any of these problems and if buying those things would fix it! I'm able to swap out most things on it since i have had it apart before! thanks in advance!

 

[angelwatt]

That does sound like a hard drive issue. My HD went out last summer. Not sure about your battery though, but it could be related as well.

 

[donnyg20]

That does sound like a hard drive issue. My HD went out last summer. Not sure about your battery though, but it could be related as well.

i'm thinking that as well! I'm trying to boot up from the install cd and it goes to the big apple gray screen. and after a while it just makes a weird noise so i'm thinking that it cannot find the hard drive


updated i got the ibook to turn on and i tried installing a fresh install of tiger from my emac cd's, but i already had leopard on the ibook but no longer have the cd's will i be able to use tiger or will i have to get leopard cds'?

 

[JediMeister]

As has been mentioned multiple times on the forums, you cannot use the Mac OS X install disc for one model of Mac on another system. They are system specific. The eMac's Tiger disc has specific drivers for the eMac alone, it cannot be used at all to install on your iBook G4. Any retail copy of Mac OS X the same or newer than the version the computer was preinstalled with can be loaded onto the iBook. Apple can replace the discs for a relatively minor fee, maybe $16-$20 per disc for 2 total. Based on the computer serial number they can pull up the appropriate set of discs to send to you.

 

[angelwatt]

updated i got the ibook to turn on and i tried installing a fresh install of tiger from my emac cd's, but i already had leopard on the ibook but no longer have the cd's will i be able to use tiger or will i have to get leopard cds'?

Honestly, my first concern would be to get any important data off that HD right away before it totally fails. Once you do that, get the HD replaced. Don't bother trying to install anything further on the HD because the HD won't get better on its own, it's just prolonging the day it stops responding all together.

 

[donnyg20]

ok thanks I'll be replacing it!