target disk mode won't work

My G4 died on me and I now have a mac book. They (apple store) said the logic board and/or the processor in the G4 has gone bad. It will only boot to a grey apple screen. They said I should still be able to move files off the harrddrive by target disk mode. they emailed me instructions on how to do it and I can't get it to work. My G4 shows a firewire logo bouncing around the screen but it wont show up on my macbookk as a harddrive like the instructions said it would. anyone know anything I can try to make this work?

Target disc is a funny thing, I had no luck on an iBook with a similar problem
You could try this fix for your iBook. It worked for me!

http://www.coreyarnold.org/ibook/