Freezing at install screen on Powerbook

Hi. After deciding that my Powerbook wasn't going to let me reinstall Leopard, I purchased some official Powerbook Software Install and Restore discs. They are the correct ones for my 12" Powerbook G4.
Now, when I boot to the disc, it gets to the "choose English as main language" screen, but no amount of clicking on the continue button produces anything, and I have to plug in a mouse to move the cursor, as the trackpad isn't working during the attempted install.
I have zapped PRAM, and reset nvram, checked the HD which is fine, and the HD is completely clean anyway, as I erased and reformatted it in disc utility.
Can anyone give me some ideas as to why this may be happening?

No answers? Could it be the Superdrive at fault, as the HD checks out, and I did install Leopard on it under a GUID partition no problem.
If it's not able to read discs I guess it can't load.

External disc burner, no OS - will it work?

Hi. My Powerbook won't let me install from it's superdrive, and so I have no OS on it at the moment. If I connect and external reader/burner via firewire or USB, will I be able to use it to boot to a disc and install? Thanks, Kev.

Yes, an external FireWire drive will work (but not USB). Hold the Alt/Option as the computer boots then select the external drive.

Cool, thanks. Cheaper than buying and replacing a superdrive!

Is the hard drive dead?

Ok, thread 3 along similar lines, but no answers yet, so....

My recently purchased used Powerbook G4 will not allow me to install software onto it, so I was hoping someone can throw some light on things for me.

Symptoms:

Installing from Powerbook back up discs or Leopard generic disc it just freezes at the choose language page, and the trackpad doesn't work. Plugging a mouse in lets me move the cursor, but the continue button will not highlight or click.
It came with Leopard installed and working, but I wanted a clean install. Wish I hadn't bothered!

What I've done so far:

Reset nvram, zapped PRAM. Run disc utility in target disc mode and the HD seems to check out, and I installed Leopard on a GUID partition ok, but that won't let me use it on the Powerbook. Got a firewire disc reader, because I thought the Superdrive was at fault, but that made no difference at all.
One thing I notice though. The figures for available space on the HD (as shown in Disc Utility) are different by 1 bit. What I mean is you get a named HD and the Macintosh HD to look at, that's where there's a difference.

So.. is it possible that although it shows as OK, the HD could be knackered?
Is it easy to replace (12" powerbook)?
Could I get a firewire HD and run Leopard on a GUID partition on to the Powerbook?

Please, please help with this, it's doing my nut in!

There is also the possibility that the discs are the problem.
They could be part of why the computer keeps locking up.

Ok. But 2 sets of Powerbook restore discs and a Leopard disc too?

Kevriano said:

Ok. But 2 sets of Powerbook restore discs and a Leopard disc too?

Click to expand...

You didn't mention that in this thread.
You only stated that you attempted to use the set of PowerBook restore discs.

D3v1L80Y said:

You didn't mention that in this thread.
You only stated that you attempted to use the set of PowerBook restore discs.

Click to expand...

Oops, my bad, sorry!
Nevertheless, any suggestions about using a firewire external HD?

Bump!
Can I install Leopard on a GUID partitioned HD from my iMac, and then use it on my Pwerbook?

I realise you may not have the kit, but I would check the Powerbooks ability to take the install by using a Tiger or Leopard installer on an external FW drive. If you still cannot install from the external drive it won't be an issue with the SD. These days I always install from an external drive unless having to use machine specific DVD sets, its so much quicker. You can setup the installer HD with another working PPC mac, the install DVD and Disk Utility.

If you ever need to replace the HD on a 12" Powerbook, it has the worst possible access.

Remember there are many models of PowerBooks and system restore discs are suitable for the model they came with normally. They have blockers built in which prevents installing on machines of even slightly different specifications.

Even if it says 12" Powerbook restore on them? So if they are from a 800 MHZ model they won't work on a 1.5 MHZ model? That's ridiculous if so!

Another idea then. Could I make a disc image of the Leopard disc on my iMac and then install on the Powerbook using target disc mode? This would alleviate the possibility of the disc being a problem.

Kevriano said:

Even if it says 12" Powerbook restore on them? So if they are from a 800 MHZ model they won't work on a 1.5 MHZ model? That's ridiculous if so!

Another idea then. Could I make a disc image of the Leopard disc on my iMac and then install on the Powerbook using target disc mode? This would alleviate the possibility of the disc being a problem.

Click to expand...

Funny I was reading through the above posted threads, and upon reaching the final, you nearly took the words out of my mouth. First GUID partition table is for intel, you will need to partion the G4 under apple partion map. Second Start G4 in target connect to imac via firewire, G4 should show in finder of imac as firewire removable device. Insert 10.5 into imac double click DVD image, after language, select destination drive and erase reinstall under apple partition map. This will work for sure.

powermac G5 said:

Funny I was reading through the above posted threads, and upon reaching the final, you nearly took the words out of my mouth. First GUID partition table is for intel, you will need to partion the G4 under apple partion map. Second Start G4 in target connect to imac via firewire, G4 should show in finder of imac as firewire removable device. Insert 10.5 into imac double click DVD image, after language, select destination drive and erase reinstall under apple partition map. This will work for sure.

Click to expand...

Thanks. Indeed it would we're my iMac a G4, but I just sold that, so am on an Intel iMac now, so it won't let you install unless you GUID it, which is clearly no good, however I have solved my own problem, albeit at the cost of a chunk of HD space.
My work around is as follows... deep breath!

I put the Leopard disc (generic) into the iMac and opened Disc Utility.
From there I selected "new disc image" and created a read only .dmg on my desktop.
Next I connected the Powerbook via Firewire, and started up in target disc mode.
Now, from Disc Utility I repartitioned the Powerbooks drive into 2 sectors, and this is where I lost some space, because the smallest partition I could make was 24.8 Gig (on a 250 GB Hd), and I only needed 7.11 Gb. Once this was done I selected "restore" in Disc Utility, dragged the .dmg image into the top panel, and selected the small partition to restore to. This took around 30 minutes.
I then ejected the Powerbooks HD's, switched it off, and then back on, and bingo! It started up on the installer and about 40 minutes later a fully working Leopard install on the Powerbook at the cost of 20 Gig of usable space, which is a little bit of a pain, but better than a dead Powerbook!
I can't work out why the disc wouldn't install on the Powerbook directly, either via Firewire burner or form it's own Superdrive (which I can now test), but copied as a disc image no problem on the iMac. Still, it did thankfully.

Thanks to those who have helped out where they could, seems I had the answer all along, I amaze myself at times!