Powerbook g4 15 "only boots to grey apple screen

Anybody out there who can help? all advice greatfully received I live on an island in the Outer Hebrides, so a trip to an Apple Store is a bit of a logistical nightmare.

I don't get a switch on (diagnostic) chime, do not have CD/DVD access so cannot boot from disk, harddisk does not appear to run up, a grey screen appears with the apple logo in the centre - no spinning wheel below and just freezes there, I did get to a blue screen by holding down a combination of keys but have forgotten which combination this was, the blue screen had an arrow on the leff hand centre of screen, an icon of a hard disk with a cross through it, middle centre and what appeared to be a refresh (circular arrow) arrow on the right hand centre of the screen, I get the usual arrow cursor at this point (appearing top left of screen) however only have access to this cursor for a split second then cursor freezes.

Prior to this problem my mac was running a little warm/hot, I have never noticed the fans come on in over 2 years, I was experiencing occasional system crashes after a couple of hours or so, to compound the situation my dog got his legs caught in the power cable and dragged the mac off the table onto the floor, the mac did appear to work ok after this.

Have done the usual comd+ctrl+o+f & P+R no joy.

I am not put off by delving into the Mac to do repairs if necessary, I have already replaced the HD to no avail, I also have access to the wifes G4 12" so if any remote diagnositcs are available I would be able to carry them out.
Any advice would be greatfully received. Cheers in advance.

Have you got a firewire cable?

Yeah! can get hold of one, you got some ideas?

Oh and thanks for amazingly fast response

You can use the wife's computer to mount the G4s internal disk in Target disk mode.

If you can see the contents of the disk you can then run Disk utility to fix the drive, or if you have any OS disks, re-install the operating system if the disk is unrecognizable

How to use and troubleshoot FireWire target disk mode

Just to keep you up to date, have located the ethernet cable, not the firewire cable. Booo!

Am currently searching for firewire and will carry out your recommendation soonest, will post you results when I get them.

Thank you for now, be in touch soon.

Have just discovered the firewire cable is in the office in town, so will pick it up tomorrow morning and try from there, will keep you info'd about progress.

Cheers for now.

a bit of firewiring

Hi louis

Been into town and retrieved the firewire cable, unfortunately this has not been much of a success, I am unable to boot the G4 into target disk mode (holding down T on boot) as the puter just sits there and wont boot at all, can still boot to grey screen if I don't hold any keys down with cable connected but cannot see my mac from wifes computer. Am at a loss, have tried with firewire cable attached and not attached, any further ideas greatfully received.

Cheers Rory

Any one else out there that can take this problem a stage further? I work at sea and return to the briney on Thursday so am limited for time to try any fixes (send away for new parts) I would have liked to have taken the mac with me as I will now be without t'internet for nearly a month.

Any help greatfully received - No disrespect meant Louis!