Help... Please - iBook won't boot up

Hi all,

I'm in a bit of bother with my iBook 600mhz G3 OS 10.3.9. It fails to boot up, I get the Apple logo and animated circle thing and some light hard disk activity but then nothing happens. I've disconnected the power and taken the battery out for 2 hrs then hooked everything back up again to no avail. Is there anything else I could try as I need some information from it. I was thinking if all else fails I would take the hard disk out and put it in a firewaire enclosure and see if I can read it from there from another mac. But I'm now starting to get a but worried about the whole thing.

So please if anyone could point me in the right direction it would be a great help.

Many thanks

Gary

Start by zapping the PRAM.
Hold down the Apple + Option + P + R keys while you start the iBook. Keep holding the keys down until after the computer chimes 3 times.

If that doesn't fix it, try…
Holding down the Apple + S keys. This should start in single user mode. The screen will fill text. When it is finished key in fsck -fy and press enter. When this task is finished key in Reboot and press enter.

If you can't get the iBook to start, you can access the drive with another Mac using the Target Disk Mode. (provided the other Mac meets the requirements)

This is from Apple's Help file…

Transferring files between two computers using FireWire

You can use FireWire to connect your computer to another Mac and have one of the computers appear as an external hard disk on the other computer. This is sometimes called Target Disk Mode.

To transfer files using FireWire:
1. Shut down the first computer and leave the second computer on.

2. Connect the two computers using a 6-pin to 6-pin FireWire cable. (If both computers have higher-speed FireWire 800 ports in addition to the standard FireWire 400 ports, you can use a 9-pin to 9-pin cable with the FireWire 800 ports to transfer data at higher speeds.)

3. Start up the first computer while holding down the T key.
A disk icon for the first computer appears on the desktop on the second computer. Drag files to and from the disk to transfer them.

4. When you finish, eject the first computer's disk by dragging its icon to the Trash.

5. Push the power button on the first computer to shut it down and disconnect the FireWire cable.

If the computer to which you connect your computer is running Mac OS 9, it must have FireWire version 2.3.3 or later installed. Use Apple System Profiler (located in Applications/Utilities) to check the version of FireWire installed. If it has an older version, get an update at the Apple FireWire website at www.apple.com/firewire.

One more thing (I think)
Try using Disk Utility, which is on the OS X Install CD. Insert the disc into the optical drive and restart your computer holding down the C key. Continue to hold down the C key until the Apple logo appears. After the Installer window appears on the desktop, choose Installer > Disk Utility from the menu bar at the top of the screen. When Disk Utility opens, follow the instructions in the First Aid pane to see if the utility can repair your disk.

WOW! Thanks for all thoese subjections immdb. My iBook is at home so I will have to try these later tonight. However, a nice cut n paste will do the trick.

Thanks once again for all your help.

Gary

immdb,

Sorry for the late replay. Still no joy on my ibook. These are the steps I have taken:

Reset the PRAM
and
Reset the PMU

The ibook doesn't even boot in single mode or from the cdrom. Its all very strange, the hard disk spins up but doesn't seem to want to boot. Even stranger I can't even boot from another source. I've even tried the original Diag disk and mac os 9 to no avail and mac os 10. One thing that might work is the target firewire disk. When I boot holding down the T key the firewire logo appears.

So, there is some hope, I've ordered and new G5 and it will be here around the 20 May
hopefully I can salvage the data from there, if not then I will house the disk in an external casing the see if I can read if from there.

In the mean time I'm not too sure what to do about my iBook - I dont know if its dead or not? I think maybe its time to open it up and put an old hard disk in and see if that works.

Thanks for all you help once again.

Gary

Gary, I found this at the Apple site. There are a couple of things that are on the list that I didn't consider. Maybe something there might do the trick.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=50959

Two in particular…
1. removing ram
2. restarting while holding the control key, the command key, and the power button simultaneously.

Mod note: changed title

immdb,

Thanks, that seems to have got everything working again. I'm right in the middle of backing iPhoto and all my iTunes! Although the OS is a bit jerky and hard disk activity is above normal - I'll take a further look at this later.

But thanks once again for all your help.

Gary