broken imac g4! please help!

my imac g4 is not working, when i turn it on it loads past the bar thing and then goes to a black screen with white writing on it
i have no idea what to do
if anything, i would really like to recover the files in the computer

sorry for my lack of technical jargon, i'm no good when it comes to that


really appreciate any help given

thankyou!

Could you post what it says on the screen? (picture would be great!)
For now, give these a try. We'll see if we can isolate the problem. Just need as much info as possible. (specs for your iMac, etc..)

Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck

The Apple Hardware Test