iBook G4 Boot Issue

alt · 09-26-2008, 09:59 PM

My sister's ibook booted up to the 'no' sign recently so I booted from the tiger cd and it wouldn't recognize the hard drive. I then booted into the leopard installer and it took forever, but eventually found it. I didn't do a re-install, I just used the disk utility. I figured it was the hard drive so I replaced it. Everything seemed to be working for about a week, same thing happened again. So I repeat the process....doesn't show up in tiger install, shows up in leopard disk util. Reboot after I knew it was still 'there' and it boots fine. If I shut it down, same error occurs. If I suspend or just restart...it continues to work. So...basically if I ever have to shutdown or the battery dies...I have to boot from leopard dvd, run disk utility and just look at the drive...restart, works. Any suggestions on how to make a permanent fix?

**I also want to add that I cannot install leopard on it for some reason..I was thinking that might fix the problem..but I can only install tiger. It just gets errors during the install.

sinclair_tm · 09-26-2008, 10:16 PM

How fast is the CPU? If it is under 866 MHz, then Leopard will not install, which is also why it takes forever to boot from the DVD. But for the main issue, I have never heard of that before. To me it sounds like the hard disk controller is going, and you should take it to an Apple store and show them. The only other thing that I could think of is that there is something wrong with the firmware. I'd [url"http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379"] reset the PRAM[/url] and reset the PMU. If those two resets don't fix it, it does need a trip to the Apple store.

09-26-2008, 09:59 PM	#1 (permalink)
alt Registered User Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: DFW Texas Posts: 255 OS: Hackintosh, FC11, Ubuntu, Win7ULTI64	iBook G4 Boot Issue My sister's ibook booted up to the 'no' sign recently so I booted from the tiger cd and it wouldn't recognize the hard drive. I then booted into the leopard installer and it took forever, but eventually found it. I didn't do a re-install, I just used the disk utility. I figured it was the hard drive so I replaced it. Everything seemed to be working for about a week, same thing happened again. So I repeat the process....doesn't show up in tiger install, shows up in leopard disk util. Reboot after I knew it was still 'there' and it boots fine. If I shut it down, same error occurs. If I suspend or just restart...it continues to work. So...basically if I ever have to shutdown or the battery dies...I have to boot from leopard dvd, run disk utility and just look at the drive...restart, works. Any suggestions on how to make a permanent fix? *I also want to add that I cannot install leopard on it for some reason..I was thinking that might fix the problem..but I can only install tiger. It just gets errors during the install. __________________ This message was sent from my iTimeTravel Device. Last edited by alt; 09-26-2008 at 10:00 PM.*