Powerbook g4 15" won't boot - help

[ezsober]

I restarted my computer and it won't boot. It gets to that screen where where the Apple symbol is displayed and that circular "thinking" symbol rotates, before it gets to the Mac OS loading screen with the blue bar beneath. This is very sudden and has never happened before. I've never really had problems with the computer. The circular "thinking" circle just keeps rotating ad infinitum.

Any thoughts?
Thanks

 

[northernleitz]

Try this: while the think symbol is whirling, put your OS X CD in the computer. Then restart holding down your option key. Eventually, you should see a few icons. Select the CD icon and click on the arrow pointing to the right. That starts the computer using the CD instead of the hard drive. If that works, you know the problem is with the hard drive or the OS installed on the hard drive.

 

[yenko]

I restarted my computer and it won't boot. It gets to that screen where where the Apple symbol is displayed and that circular "thinking" symbol rotates, before it gets to the Mac OS loading screen with the blue bar beneath. This is very sudden and has never happened before. I've never really had problems with the computer. The circular "thinking" circle just keeps rotating ad infinitum.

Any thoughts?
Thanks

From your boot CD:

1. Repair Permissions.

2. Boot to Single User Mode and run "fsck -f"

3. If it returns OK, type "reboot", else repeat (2.) until it does.

 

[ezsober]

Powerbook G4 Won't Boot Up

Thanks for the replies. Any suggestions for what to do if I don't have the bootup disk? I'm travelling now and the computer is on the fritz again, idling at the initial screen where the apple logo shows, and never booting into the welcome to mac os screen...

 

[California]

Is it your hard drive? Memory is loading at that gray symbol. Try a firewire hd with OS on it if you can. Or make sure your hd is properly seated. I recall this is what happens when it can't find the hd. But could be totally wrong.

 

[yenko]

Thanks for the replies. Any suggestions for what to do if I don't have the bootup disk? I'm travelling now and the computer is on the fritz again, idling at the initial screen where the apple logo shows, and never booting into the welcome to mac os screen...

1. Start the computer.
2. As soon as you hear the boot chime, hold down the "command-s" keys.
3. When the screen stops writing info, type "fsck -f" and hit return.
4. If the file directory was repaired, repeat the fsck command until you get an "OK" response.
5. Type "reboot" and hit return.

When typing the "fsck -f" and the "reboot" commands, don't use the quotes, just what's between them. There's a space between fsck and -f.

 

[ankushpatel]

replace

take it back and they will replace it

it sounds like a hard drive probl