[Jeff]

I recently bought a G4 Cube off of ebay. The first time I started it up, I didn't have a USB mouse or keyboard to use, and I just wanted to see what it would do. I got the flashing question mark inside of the folder. I've seen that one before on my old B&W G3, and have been able to get around it. Now when I start it up, keyboard and mouse attached, I get nothing but a greyt screen. No question mark inside of folder.

Here's the kicker. I put a CD in the drive to make sure that it worked, and now I don't know how to get it out. I don't have a new Apple keyboard, and the one I am using is from my G3. So I can't boot from a CD until I get that solved.

I have already tried a PRAM reset too.

Any ideas how to get the CD out, or how to get the thing to boot?

[NanoBite]

G'day Jeff,

Try rebooting and keep the mouse pressed down.

[Jeff]

You mean just hold down the mouse button?

[NanoBite]

Yep, when you hear the Chime or whatever sound the Cube has, hold down that mouse button.

[Jeff]

Edit:Awesome Pulse! The CD came right out. Now I can boot from the OSX CD. Thank you so much!

[NanoBite]

I haven't seen a Cube up close but do they have a Disc Tray? Is there a small pin hole next to it. You can use a paper clip to release the tray. Just straighten it out and push it into the little hole.

OR

1. Boot Cube, after chime press and hold down ( option , apple , O , F ) keys. Hold them down until you see a white screen with text.

2. Type; "eject cd" . without the quotes and hit enter.

3. Wait a couple of secs and cd should be ejected.

4. Once your CD is ejected, you can continue to boot by typing "mac-boot" and press enter.
Or you can shut the Cube down by pressing "shut-down" and press enter.

[Stretch]

The flashing ?/folder means that the computer can't find a OS to boot from.

[NanoBite]

Great Jeff

Let us know how the Cube goes....

[Jeff]

I remember seeing a post by MHC that had an "option-apple-..." command that to make it look other places for the OS. Anyone know what it was?

[NanoBite]

Command+Option+Shift+Delete

Bypass startup drive and boot from next available boot device. Can be used to boot from external CD-ROM drives.

[MacHeadCase]

It's just holding down the Option key, no Command key in that startup sequence. The Option key forces the Mac to look elsewhere for the OS then where it is looking for it at the moment of booting.

Edited to add:

Oops! Pulse posted... I'll look this up.

[MacHeadCase]

Ok got this from the Wikibooks entry, Mac OS X Tiger/Appendix A:

At Startup
Force Mac OS X Startup - "X" during startup
Bypass primary startup - "Delete-Option-Command-Shift" during startup
Startup from Optical Drive (CD/DVD) - "C" during startup
Netboot - "N" during startup
Safe boot mode - "Shift" during startup
Single User mode - "Command-S" during startup
Verbose mode - "Command-V" during startup
Open Firmware - "Command-Option-O-F" during startup
Startup Manager - "Option" during startup
Reset Parameter Ram - "Command-Option-P-R" during startup
Eject CD - Hold down mouse button at startup
Target Disk mode - "T" during startup

So it looks like both could do the trick. But if I can interpret what I read, bypassing primary startup is like for looking into another partition or hard drive. But... Apple has this on the Startup Manager: How to Select a Startup Volume. So maybe they both work the same. :girl:

[MacHeadCase]

Apple has this, Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts and in the startup sequence keyboard shortcuts, the Startup Manager isn't listed? Hmm

But the Startup Manager keyboard shortcut does appear at Rixstep's Shortcuts.

Go figure...

In any case both keyboard shortcuts should work. :girl:

[Jeff]

Geez, MHC. Not only do you double post, but you go and triple post. Shame on you! JK

But it's all in the name of helping me! Thanks to you and Pulse for the help on that. I think I am going to have to do a fresh install though. It's just not finding the OS, so I think that's my last option. I tried about every one of those commands that might benefit me, but none of them got me anywhere.

Thanks for the effort though guys (and gal)!

[MacHeadCase]

Did you try booting into Safe Mode?

Sorry for all the consecutive posts. I got carried away...