G4 400mhz Crisis

[richiestang78]

On my old Powermac G4 running OS 9 I have a serious problem. The computer will not startup from harddisk or Cd. From harddisk the computer starts up and all I get is a flashing folder icon with a ? mark. With CD I get to the main desktop and the only things that load is the timeclock and the CD icon and it seems to freeze. I tried disabling extentions but nothing, has my mac finally died?

 

[witeshark]

It's possible. Try resetting the pram, usually a small button near the RAM slots inside -- take care to discharge any static, and touch the metal chassis inside to make sure of that

 

[pcjabber]

The Folder icon with a ? thru it means it cannot find a system folder on your hard drive. Your hard drive has either:
A) crashed
B) lost the System Folder (probably by deletion)
But, you can try to zap PRAM. Either there is a button near the RAM slots, OR you can press and hold Option-Command-P-R as you are booting up. Do this 2-3 times, until you hear the startup chimes a few times (press and hold till chime 1st time, then press-release, press-release them the 2nd/3rd)..

PCjabber

 

[CypherStrength]

Id say your HD finally crashed or you deleted your system folder. I had the same problem in my cube and the HD i had in there wasnt apple approved. Swapped the original 20 in there in worked fine.

CypherStrength

 

[Chamorro]

I'm guessing it's the HD, since booting w/ a CD does not allow you to access the HD either.