My Powerbook G4 is not booting correctly

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Hi all,

I'm a new Mac user for about 6 months now. I bought a used PowerBook G4 15" 1.25 ghz notebook that was in good condition. It was well cared for by the previous owner. Only thing she had done was update the ram to 2 gigs.

Recently I began to notice it running slower, programs were freezing and Garage Band couldn't run as many tracks. I installed recommended software updates before it started to get slower and I thought maybe that was the problem.

So I attempted to do a fresh swipe of the hard drive and start from nothing. I saved some files and then tried to run the software installation cd. It didn't really help at all. I can't remember the error but it wouldn't let me reinstall OS X even when I held "c" when starting up. At one point I must have clicked run in target mode because I booted it up and it showed an unfamiliar screen. Then I restarted it once again and saw on Disk Utility that S.M.A.R.T. said something about hard drive failure.

I've heard about these being notorious for hard drives failing but mine doesn't make any loud noises. Only problem I have is when I start it up, it either loads indefinitely with the rotating wheel, or it just sits on the empty blue start up screen.

Anyone have any ideas about what is wrong with this thing? I've been considering buying a new hard drive and installing it but I've heard it's rather difficult on these.

Thanks for your help.

Sean - Busted PB g4 1.25 ghz 15"
 
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G'day and welcome to the forums.

Take notice of SMART warnings they are usually very accurate. The symptoms you describe can indicate a failing drive, and remember they are getting on in years, like me. Have a good look at this how to link and then decide if you can do the job or need to pay for it.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=111925
 
OP
Y
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Also I have one of the boot disks in the drive and I can't seem to get it out. Any ideas on that?

Thanks again

Sean
 
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Reboot and hold down the (left hand) mouse key for starters.
 
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Macbook Pro 15", 2.8Ghz, 4gb, 500gb
This may not help but I'll tell you to get a new Macbook.
 
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MacBook Pro 500GB hard drive 4GB ram PowerMac G5 Dual 2.2GHz Mirrored 500GB HDD, Mac Mini, and more
sorry little late with my 2 cents... the PowerBook is a great machine and with 2gb's of
RAM its worth salvaging IMO

The 15" PowerBooks are the easiest IMO of the G4 line to replace hard drives in...

Done it several times .. just check out this Page Take Your Top Off PowerBook lol

The only thing that is taxing for me is the clips on the front.. other wise its straight
forward..
 
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OP how you progressing? Any news?
 

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