Power PC G4 Start up Problems

[CDRJR]

All,
My 17" G4 powers up with chime, apple logo appears, then changes to a dark square covering the logo, powerbook runs for 10 seconds more, than shutsdown.
Any suggestions on what's going on or not going on?
It's a beautiful machine and i hate to get rid of it.

Thank You & happy New Year!

 

[11colmil]

It sounds more like a software problem than a hardware issue. Boot from an OS X install CD and try to repair the hard drive and permissions from disk utility. If it fails, you may have to reinstall OS X.