iBook G4 won't boot anymore! help!

hello everyone!
after going through the "instant fixes" thread and not getting very far there, i have to ask specifically:

here are the facts:
ibook G4 1,33 GHz 768 MB Ram, Mac OSX 10.3 (latest version)
bought in dezember 2004, no similar problems so far.

here's the problem:
i left my flat today, setting my screen to black via the hot corner...when i came back and brought the screen back, the OSX had frozen and the ram was making rythmical noises.
i pulled the plug since it didn't want to turn off via the power button anymore.
after a few minutes i turned it back on, the welcoming sound came up and then the gray screen with the apple and the little spinning wheel...and nothing more. just the rythmical sounds from the ram again.
i tried booting in single-user mode (command is the button with the little apple right? sorry for asking ), but then just the grey screen came up with not even the apple or the wheel...and yes, rythmical ram sounds
what could it be / what could i do?
have i done something wrong trying to get into single-user moder? i pressed command (apple button) + S while starting up
hope someone can help me! thx in advance!

chris

little update:

i tried booting it with alt-apple-p-r waited for the sound to come up 3 times and then it slowly booted until the first plain blue screen and then froze again with the rythmical sounds again (not sure anymore whether its the ram or actually the hdd any more)...

hope someone can help. thx.

can nobody help me?

Do you have the original OSX CD? If so, try booting it with the cd in place holding the "C" key and see if you can boot to CD and run disk utility.

RAM does not make sounds. It's probably your Hard Drive going bad. Do what rcltrh said and boot with your OSX disc that same with your Mac. Hold C and it should boot. If it does, from one of the menus, run Disk Utility and see if it finds any problems with the HDD.

ok i will thank you...i dont have my osx cd with me atm (i just recently moved) but i'm having it sent to me as we speak...

but i just found it so strange that it had frozen just like that without me doing anything special...i was just online, running mail and msn messenger as usual and downloading something at the same time...
its not a good sign when it just freezes like that is it? because the hdd was already making those rhythmical sounds then while it had frozen...also, i can't even enter single user mode (command + s) to run fsck :/

does anybody have any experience on hdd-replacement (price, best way to do it etc.)?

thx again!

chris

If you run Disc Utility and it does show problems with the drive, There is a Tutorial on the net. I will find the URL and post it for you.

It's not the easiest thing to change the Hard Drive in the iBook, but it can be done.

I found this website about upgrading iBook G4 HD:

http://www.macmod.com/content/view/247/1/

dtravis7 said:

If you run Disc Utility and it does show problems with the drive, There is a Tutorial on the net. I will find the URL and post it for you.

It's not the easiest thing to change the Hard Drive in the iBook, but it can be done.

Click to expand...

thnx for all your help...
i hope it will work out with running disk utility, because i dont really know if i dare to put in a new hdd myself...and having it put in by apple is probably very expensive no?
looking forward to your tutorial tho

My iBook was also purchased in December 2004 and it did the exact same thing. It's most likely your HD. It actually happened to me twice! If this is the problem, Apple covered for the repairs both times. Always get AppleCare!

Yeah, the thing a lot of people don't understand is Hard Drives sometimes do die. Apple uses name brand hard drives just like every PC maker. I have noticed more issues with Laptops and Hard Drives dying that are carried all over the place probably due to all the bangs and bumps they get.

DV'sG4 said:

My iBook was also purchased in December 2004 and it did the exact same thing. It's most likely your HD. It actually happened to me twice! If this is the problem, Apple covered for the repairs both times. Always get AppleCare!

Click to expand...

unfortunately i dont have applecare
does anyone know how much it would cost to send it in to apple and have it checked and put back to work when you have to pay for it yourself?
or is it maybe possible to get applecare now and then send it in afterwards?

thx

hello again!
i just had my macosx dvd sent to me and am running disc utility as we speak...first i tried to verify the hdd, it failed, saying that it needed to be repaired. so i tried to repair it (he tried to repair 2 volumes, one HFS and the other one it didnt say)...
the first repair was successful, the other one failed...

what do you suggest i do now? is there any chance for me to access fsck from this point?

thx for yor help!

update:

after some more verify / repair tries he gives me the following error:

verifying / reparing disk failed with error could not unmount disk (-10000)

any ideas?

now all of a sudden it doesnt even let me enter disk utility any more...

it just says "gathering disc information" and nothing else happens :/

i just got this used ibook g4. any reason why it's not downloading yahoo's os x version? i have tiger installed? pls help! i'm a new mac user. thanks a lot!

Gday - I am new to Mac & setting up my mum & dad and a fewother people as well. Totally green with Mac but had enough of MS.

I am getting the same error on Disk Utility "gathering system info" just hangs.

This is my mums iBook - it froze while downloading - she turned it off & then it wouldn't reboot. I formatted the HDD
And then tried to re-install 10.3 but it freezes on the second screen.

Any suggestions? I reset PRAM & PRU but didn't help - is this a hdd / ram issue?

Sounds like the hard drive is going - I had a similar issue with a g3 ibook recently. Mine installed os 9 but wouldn't correctly reboot, yet Disk Utility cd and Hardware test cd both gave it a pass. As soon as I put a new drive in all was well.