PowerBook G4 Input/output error and a bunch of other issues

[scarlett7447]

I recently bought a 12" PowerBook G4, untested. It's the 1 GHz model.
I powered it on and it showed nothing but a gray screen. I thought this was weird so I tried going into the boot picker by pressing Option afrer a hard reset. There it showed no bootable devices and after a minute or so it froze, it does this everytime I try. I tried NetBoot over ethernet and it does go to the Apple logo and starts loading the OS but after some time it just shuts off without any warning, with or without a battery (plugged into an outlet). I then tried with a Mac OS Tiger install disc and it did actually boot (only after holding C). I opened Disk Utility and tried to format the HDD (it had a 40 GB Hitachi) but that just throws an "Input/output error". I assumed the hard drive needed replacing and this is exactly what I did just now but it still has the exact same issues as before, including the I/O error.
Other things I tried are: resetting the PRAM, removing the Airport Extreme card, trying all of the things above but with a RAM module inserted.
Nothing seems to work.
Another thing about NetBoot is that it just shuts off when I try Tiger (last time it even beeped really loud and then turned off) and Leopard actually crashes and throws a bunch of errors.

 

[juanstdio]

I/O errors can be seen if you start the installer in verbose mode.
It's not a good deal to have a bad drive and try to install a fresh os.
One thing you can try is to put the machine in Target mode (holding T while pressing the power button) and use a FireWire 400 cable and connect it to another mac and try to repair the hard disk using disk utility.
If disk utility in the other macs throw some I/O errors too, unfortunately the disk is death

 

[scarlett7447]

I/O errors can be seen if you start the installer in verbose mode.
It's not a good deal to have a bad drive and try to install a fresh os.
One thing you can try is to put the machine in Target mode (holding T while pressing the power button) and use a FireWire 400 cable and connect it to another mac and try to repair the hard disk using disk utility.
If disk utility in the other macs throw some I/O errors too, unfortunately the disk is death

It does the same thing with a replacement drive (that I tested previously). I also forgot to mention that when I try to go into Target Disk Mode, the screen does not light up at all. It stays off and the other machine it's plugged into doesn't see it