Powebook G4 big issue, won't start.

[TJames]

Hey guys, well recently (somewhere around aprilish 08) my brother gave me his old Powerbook G4, the 12 inch model, i can't tell you the rest of the specs because it won't boot anymore. In july I was just doing what i normally do on that computer and it froze up and shut down, then when i rebooted it i got this grayish blueish screen with a dark gray box in the middle with a big power button on it saying "You need to restart your computer. Hold down the power button for several seconds or press the Restart button.".

So about a week ago i decided to boot it again, and to my surprise it booted for around 12ish hours, then froze up and got the error again. The next day i tried to boot it a few times, and it worked for around 12 hours again then it froze up and got the error again.

If it helps, when it does boot, i get this weird noise right before it dies, then i get the dumb error. If someone could help me i would appreciate it, i just want to use the dang computer lol. Thanks for your time.

 

[WildCowboy]

What you're seeing is a kernel panic.

Try booting from your install disc and running Disk Utility. Try verifying the disk, and then repairing it if verification finds something. Also try repairing permissions from Disk Utility.

This is also a good support document to help you isolate issues.

 

[TJames]

Thanks for the help, but like i said, it's old and my brother gave it to me so i don't have the install disk, anything else i can possibly do?

 

[WildCowboy]

Install discs would be a great help...Apple should be able to send you some for your machine for a nominal fee.

Check out the two links I provided above. If you can get the machine to boot, use Console to check out the panic.log file to see if you can figure out what is causing the kernel panics.

 

[misterredman]

Thanks for the help, but like i said, it's old and my brother gave it to me so i don't have the install disk, anything else i can possibly do?

You can verify the internal hard drive with Disk Utility also form the boot disk.
You won't be able to repair but maybe you will know if there are errors. Just open Disk Utility, select the boot drive and click Verify Disk. Of course you need to boot to use them.
As the other poster said install disc would really help,.


Are you able to boot in safe mode, by holding down the shift key at startup?

 

[TJames]

nope, safe mode didn't work

 

[mustangsally82]

I just retired my 12" PowerBook of over 4.5 years a few weeks ago.

I only had kernel panics a few times, and the most likely culprit in my experience was a loose AirPort Extreme card. To fix the problem, I would shut down the computer, remove the battery, and pull out the AirPort card. Then I would put it back in and make sure it was in there snugly.

It may be a long shot, but it's an easy thing to try. Good luck!