The infamous grey screen

Hi,

I recently dropped my ibook G4 and the screen broke. Apart from the broken screen, it seemed fine and the sound played when i booted it up. So i bought another screen and when it turn it on, the ibook will only load up to the grey screen with the apple logo (without the circular loading bar).

I've tried all of the apple boot key combos i know (including CMD-OPT-P-R) but nothing happens. I've also tried booting it into firewire mode so i can transfer the files to my iMac and although the firewire logo shows on the ibook, nothing comes up on my iMac's desktop.

Any ideas how i can fix this?

Thank you
Chris

Can you boot from an install disk?

well, the only install disk i have is for the iMac which is for osx 10.4.10. My ibook is installed with osx 10.3.9.
Does this matter, should it work anyway? If it will work, could you explain how to boot from an install disk?

Thanks
Chris

The iMac's disk won't work as it is hardware specific. You will need your iBook disk. To boot from it, insert the CD (or DVD) in the optical drive. Restart while holding down the C key.

I don't have the iBook disk. Is there anything else i can do?

Chris

It sounds to me that the drop has dislodged the connector that joins the HD to the logic board, though you would normally get a flashing question mark, meaning it can't find the drive..
As you don't have the discs it is a bit hard to know for sure (PM me, I may be able to help)
The only solution is to open the back up and reconnect it. Not the easiest job, but not the hardest either.
There is a great tutorial on the web - just google it.