G4 won't boot

I took it to the apple store and it booted fine - wouldn't boot from home when I got back home

Is it a G4 Power Mac, iMac, iBook etc?

By not booting do you mean no chime, nothing, or it chimes, you have a display, but the OS fails to load?

I doubt the Apple store would have been able to assist anyway, as they class all G4 based Mac's as vintage, with no support.

The G4 mini tower won't boot at home - I press the load button - light comes on - goes off nothing happens. But when I took it in for service - they hooked it up and it booted fine. I thought it was fixed but when I took in back home it wouldn't boot again

boldo said:

The G4 mini tower won't boot at home - I press the load button - light comes on - goes off nothing happens. But when I took it in for service - they hooked it up and it booted fine. I thought it was fixed but when I took in back home it wouldn't boot again

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Just a thought. Is the PRAM battery dead? Sometimes with some models...a dead PRAM battery can cause problems.

Next question...What & where is the PRAM battery?? It looks like this (if you don't know):

or this

FYI...size DOESN'T matter!!! Just different photo sizes!

You need to test it with a multimeter for "life".

- Nick

The above was the cause when my G4 had those symptoms, you can get them from Radio Shack

Just a thought, are you using a display connected to an ADC connector on the graphics card? It so you'll have only the lead going to the G4 and no mains lead. Many times I've seen situations like yours where a short in the display (Formac 17" ADC displays were well known for this) shuts down the G4. If not you may simply have an intermittent power supply. Batteries can sometimes cause problems, although their main problems related to certain LC and Performa systems from way back.

techiesteve said:

Batteries can sometimes cause problems, although their main problems related to certain LC and Performa systems from way back.

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I agree. Dead PRAM batteries are usually more problematic with stuff from the mid-late 1990's. I have some Centris and early Powermac's (7100, 8100) where dead PRAM batteries can cause havoc!

- Nick