PoweBook G4 troubleshooting.

Hello-

Background: I was given a PowerBook G4 A1004 from a lady at work. She asked if I could troubleshoot it, but this is the first MAC I have ever worked on. She told me she doesn't want to put any money into it, but I am willing to if I can find a reasonable solution.

The problem: When it boots, I get the chime, but it goes to the screen with just a flashing question mark/folder.

What I've tried:
Firstly, I spent most of my day yesterday and today trying to find a solution online, but nothing has worked yet... I have...
1. Reset the PRAM, and NVRAM.
2. I have held down the option-key to select from a boot device, but it does not list any boot device, even though there is a bootable DVD in the drive.
3. I have booted into the firmware, and it does find a HD when I run the command.
4. I have tried hooking a external USB 2.0 drive to read from a CD but it does not find it.

IMO, I think the HD is fried and just needs a new one, but then again it bothers me that It finds it in the Firmware. Also, I hear the DVD/CD drive spinning but still says there is NO boot devices available when I boot with Option. I am going to tear it apart this afternoon and see if disconnecting the HD or removing a memory stick helps.

Thanks much,

Kyle

It does sound like the hard drive may be defective. It would be picked up in the firmware anyway so that really doesn't prove anything.

As to the DVD you've tried to boot with, unless it's specific for that particular Powerbook G4 or it's a retail version of OS X, it won't work. In other words, it should be the original install recovery disk that came with the machine.

What year model Powerbook G4 is it? Some of the older Powerbook G4 machines (2001) shipped with OS 9 and later models with OS X 10.1. The older OS 9 operating system probably came on CDs rather than DVD.

Also, you can not boot that machine from a USB device. You would have to use an external Firewire drive.

Regards.

chscag said:

It does sound like the hard drive may be defective. It would be picked up in the firmware anyway so that really doesn't prove anything.

As to the DVD you've tried to boot with, unless it's specific for that particular Powerbook G4 or it's a retail version of OS X, it won't work. In other words, it should be the original install recovery disk that came with the machine.

What year model Powerbook G4 is it? Some of the older Powerbook G4 machines (2001) shipped with OS 9 and later models with OS X 10.1. The older OS 9 operating system probably came on CDs rather than DVD.

Also, you can not boot that machine from a USB device. You would have to use an external Firewire drive.

Regards.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. The DVD I tried to boot from was Disc warrior, my tech friend let me see if fixed the problem, but I couldn't get it to load. I don't believe the lady I got the laptop from has any software for it. I asked her to bring it today, but she hasn't stopped by.

I am not exactly sure what year the laptop is, except it is version #A1004. It does say that it is a CDRW/DVD combo underneath the battery slot, so I assume it should be able to read DVD's.

I was looking at this HD on newegg, Newegg.com - Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD800BEVE 80GB 5400 RPM 8MB Cache 2.5" ATA-6 Notebook Hard Drive -Bare Drive and I am probably going to purchase this HD if it will work, and I assume it will because of the specs I found online matches this model.

Thanks for your help.

If the firmware can see the drive, it may be there and powered but the disk format is messed-up.

When you booted from the DVD, did you press the C key on pressing the power button (and keep it pressed until it starts to boot from the DVD)

louishen said:

If the firmware can see the drive, it may be there and powered but the disk format is messed-up.

When you booted from the DVD, did you press the C key on pressing the power button (and keep it pressed until it starts to boot from the DVD)

Click to expand...

Hi Louishen;

I just tried to boot from the DVD (by holding down C key), I held it down for about 2-3 minutes and it just stayed at the Flashing folder/Question Mark.

Kyle