powerbook g4 12 dvi aluminum wont boot

[jcstuckinmuck]

Hi my powerbook was playing up yesterday and i had to power off via the switch and now it wont boot,
All i get is a grey screen no apple logo and no spinning dial, in stead i get a picture of a happy mac face and then a question mark and sometime not even that, any anybody help and explain what is going on, it was running os x 10.48 i think any ideas would be great,john

 

[andy.barron]

Hi.
The question mark means that it cannot find the system to boot from. You could try booting while holding the shift key (safe boot) but if that does not work, boot from either your install cd or an external drive with a system on it.

Try deleting the 'com.apple.finder.plist' (Users/user/Library/Preferences) & try restating. If this fails I would then recommend a system re-install.

After that, run 'Software Update' & then run disk Utility to repair permissions & you will be good to go mate.

 

[jcstuckinmuck]

ok i will give it atry,by the way any ideas on how to get a disk out of thedvd drive as i left it in there by mistake ,john

 

[jcstuckinmuck]

Oh and another thing if i leave it on long enogh there appers a picture of happy mac and then it changes back agin to the question mark and the back anso on, does this mean there is another option,john

 

[andy.barron]

From memory, there is usually a small hole next to the drive (use a straighted paper clip to push in & it will manually eject) but I don't know for sure on your mac.
It may be that the question mark to the happy face is it is trying to boot from the dvd/cd in the drive, but there is no system there.

 

[jcstuckinmuck]

Cheers for that i will give it a try, i dont have any install disks of the osx 10.4.8 or start up does any one have a copy of one or know the best place to get one, this has been a long road for me after rebuilding this machine as the screen got smashed and the case changed its taken ages to get a replacements,as they are not cheap even second hand and now this happened , i feel a bit jinxed,john