Imac G4 won't boot - again!

My son has an imac G4 which had OSX 10.2 loaded (have installation discs 1 & 2), which had the dreaded grey screen refusal to boot, a while back. Fortunately then, it did boot occassionally and on one such occassion, although it was deadfully slow, we managed to fix it. At that time we downloaded an update to v 10.4.

It has now 'died' again and won't go beyond the grey screen. Also, it won't boot from the installation disc(s) (I don't think it would last time either), so we're realy stumped and would very much appreciate any help please?

ps. I'm fairly certain that these problems are, somehow, being caused by Apple 'Logic 7' (music software).

I don't (necessarily) expect anyone to know the answer(s) regarding Logic 7 but some help on how to get the machine to boot again would be much appreciated.

Did this problem happen out of nowhere? What happens when you put the install dvd's in?

Griffo said:

I don't (necessarily) expect anyone to know the answer(s) regarding Logic 7 but some help on how to get the machine to boot again would be much appreciated.

Click to expand...

There are several threads that have solutions to your dilema. I would suggest taking a moment to use the search function to find them.
I will start you off with a link I found on these very forums, by using the search featrue:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106464#symp3

Good Luck!
:black:

msb86

thanks for the response. Yes it did come out of the blue, when my son was using Logic Pro 7. As mentioned, the PC will not boot from the installation CD's.

D3v1L80Y

Your point is fair and well made. I had already used the search facility and found the page you kindly gave the link to. Unfortunately, we can't get the PC to boot into Single User mode and, it seems, most (if not all) of the repair functions require the system to boot one way or another. That is our problem, we cannot reach that point.

I am not very conversant with macs, having only used windows and my son is in the same situation but with even less experience. Furthermore, he's on a degree course 3 hours away, so our logistics are messy to say the least. That is why I am hoping for some shortcuts to (hopefully) resolve the immediate problem, whilst we learn more of the workings of macs.

Thanks for your reply, if you're able to help any further it will be much appreciated.

I've searched everything I can find on here and can't find an answer, so I guess nobody has one, hey **!

The only idea I have is:- we have a 250GB Maxtor Onetouch USB HDD. Could we install OSX 10.2 onto a partition on this and boot from that? If so, could we then, perhaps access the resident HD to retrieve important files, the reformat and re-install OSX onto it? Probably a daft idea but opinion(s) would be appreciated as this is now seriously interfering with my son's Degree work.

macs can no boot from usb, you need firewire.

in theory you could get your files off if you can get your mac into target disc mode, and have another mac.

As you say you are not very Mac savvy, I would be inclined to ask a couple of questions of current progress:

When you tried to boot from the CD's, did you hold the C button down on startup?

Have you tried booting and holding the X button down on startup?

Have you tried resetting the NVRAM and PRAM?

PowerbookG4

thanks for the reply. The Maxtor HDD does have a firewire connection and cable so that should be OK. We planned to attach it to another mac and install OSX 10.2 into one of the empty partitions. if we then re-attach it to my son's imac, will it find the OS on the external HD and boot?

If that does work (am I dreaming?), will we be able to access the resident HD to extract work files before reformatting it and re-installing OSX?

cheers

Kyomii

thanks for your reply. We have tried booting from CD when pressing the C key and we've now tried pressing the X key - neither works.

We've also tried re-setting the PRAM & NVRAM and neither of those has achieved anything - sadly!

cheers

My son gained to use of another imac (Intel model) and tried to install OSX onto the external HD but it refused to do it. He copied the files across then attempted to install from there but again it refused. Has anyone got any ideas please or are we on our own with this one?

I have just read the following in another thread but don't wish to hijack it:-

"Do they have firewire connections? If so, hook the bad-mac up to the good-mac with a firewire cable and press 't' (on the badmac) at startup.

The hardrive of badmac should show up on goodmac's desktop and you can then use the disk utility to restore the working installation onto the harddrive of the badmac.

Open Disk utility, select the badmacs partition and click 'restore'. Drag in the working OS X partition as 'source' and hit copy."

We have access to another imac, it's an Intel model, does that make any difference? Also, is it imperative that both macs have the same version of OSX. By that I mean 10.4.whatever vs a more/less updated 10.4?

Griffo said:

I have just read the following in another thread but don't wish to hijack it:-

"Do they have firewire connections? If so, hook the bad-mac up to the good-mac with a firewire cable and press 't' (on the badmac) at startup.

The hardrive of badmac should show up on goodmac's desktop and you can then use the disk utility to restore the working installation onto the harddrive of the badmac.

Open Disk utility, select the badmacs partition and click 'restore'. Drag in the working OS X partition as 'source' and hit copy."

We have access to another imac, it's an Intel model, does that make any difference? Also, is it imperative that both macs have the same version of OSX. By that I mean 10.4.whatever vs a more/less updated 10.4?

Click to expand...

No, it doesn't make any difference as the Intel is backwards compatible with the PowerPC's. What I mean is the Intel can read the PPC but it doesn't work the other way.

I don't even think that both computers even have to have Tiger for Target Disc Mode to work. I could be wrong there....dunno.

Just connect the rogue HD to the Intel and press T on the rogue as it's started up and in theory it should appear on the Intel's desktop and be accessible.

All this will be acomplished with a FireWire cable.

Cheers Pulse-8, we will give it a try later and report back. Thanks

Got another imac G4 (non-intel) but without it's keyboard. Tried connecting via Firewire and pressing T on badmac when starting but it doesn't appear on the screen of goodmac.

Goodmac came with OSX 10.1 installation disc, which actually works in badmac (our 10.2 discs won't!) and we've opened Disc Utility, selected the HD but it only offers 'Verify'. We did that and it says ' keys out of order, this volume needs to be repaired' but doesn't offer the Repair option.

Can anyone help please??

Given up on that and installed OSX onto the external HD and that has worked OK but we have another problem now! The external HD (3 partitions) is only showing the second partition, where the OS is installed, the other 2 are greyed out.

I've done a Verify and Repair on both partitions but that hasn't helped.

Again, any advice will be welcome.

P.S. I've connected the external HD to another imac and all 3 partitions are fine.

This one seems to have everyone stumped?