Can't boot Imac G5 (with or without discs)

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I just got an imac g5 in pretty good condition from a friend. When he showed it to me, it had Panther installed and the OS was running just fine. Before he gave it to me, he wanted to wipe his hd, but he didn't have the original installation discs. He tried to use a Macbook install disc and hold C on startup but that obviously didn't work. So he "restored the drive" by dragging the macbook disc onto the hd in disk utility (to be honest I'm not sure exactly what he did), and after that the imac wouldn't boot up on it's own - it just showed the flashing folder / question mark thing on startup. So I ordered a Tiger installation disc and then he happened to find the original Panther installation discs. I tried booting from both discs holding C and a slew of other startup key combos and nothing has worked. I've gotten the no smoking sign without the cigarette, a slightly skewed apple icon, the apple icon with spinning wheel that goes nowhere. I'm about to toss it out the window. Does anyone have any advice on what the problem is?
 
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chas_m

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The problem is likely that the optical drive is nearly shot, or the original Panther discs are damaged. In either event, this machine is so old and past its sell-by date I wouldn't waste much time (or any money) trying to fix it unless I were going to use it (or give it to someone who would use it) entirely off-line as a glorified typewriter. It's just no longer safe to put a machine that can't run any modern OS version on the Internet anymore.
 
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Thanks chas_m. You might be right about the Tiger disc which came to me pretty scratched up, but the Panther discs are almost in pristine condition. The frustrating part is that what you described is exactly what I need it for. I'm an oil painter so I basically need something the holds an image on the screen and plays itunes, the internet being an added luxury...
 
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chas_m

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In that case, see if you can borrow an external optical drive (USB 2.0) and see if that works for you. If it does, then the built-in optical drive is failing (and not worth fixing).
 

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