RJAndre

Q: Just bought a new (unbroken factory seals still in place) G4 15in 867 at an estate sale. No disk included will recognise the HD. Most disk options are greyed out. Your expertise would be greatly appreciated.

An elderly client of mine just bought a brand new (still sporting the orginal unbroken factory seals ), G4 867 15 in. at a local estate sale. Looking at it zaps me back to watching "Old School" when it first hit, or speaking of watching; back in the day when if a Britany video came on - who cared if someone forgot to hit the unmute button long as I never went blind. lol.

 

I have tried several things to get HD recognised - all to no avail. She tried to "set it up" herself and being old and forgetful, was unable to explain just what she did or didn't to bring it to the state it's in. None of the several disks included have helped as most options are greyed out. I have run them all - A G4 install/restore disk, a hardware test disk - which comes back a 100% perfect, a Mac OS X Xcode tools disk and (3) Mac OS X Panther disks.

 

If anyone can help me tonight it would be greatly appreciated. I know people close to her are anxious to see her enjoy this as a Christmas present. So it be like doing a good deed for the darlin' at Christmas time. Go figure.

 

Thank you in advance, RJA

PowerBook

Posted on Dec 23, 2011 9:42 PM

Close

Q: Just bought a new (unbroken factory seals still in place) G4 15in 867 at an estate sale. No disk included will recognise the HD. M ... more

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by Cattus Thraex,Helpful

    Cattus Thraex Cattus Thraex Dec 24, 2011 8:21 AM in response to RJAndre
    Level 4 (1,714 points)
    Notebooks
    Dec 24, 2011 8:21 AM in response to RJAndre

    ‘Unrecognized’ means not displayed? Does system run?

    You wrote a long text, but without details. ‘I have tried several things to get HD recognised ’. Vague. What did you try? What does ‘unrecognized’ mean? did you install?

    If you tried to install, and disk was not recognized, perhaps there is no disk inside or disk is damaged.

  • by BGreg,Helpful

    BGreg BGreg Dec 24, 2011 10:14 AM in response to RJAndre
    Level 6 (17,522 points)
    Dec 24, 2011 10:14 AM in response to RJAndre

    You should level set your elderly client that an 867Ghz Powerbook with Panther is next to useless in todays Internet/web world.

     

    Have you inserted the first Panther disk or G4 startup disk and rebooted holding the C key down? That should boot to the DVD. From the utilities menu bar, bring up Disk Utility.

     

    However, if this is effectively a NOS Powerbook, it's odd that you have the issues you've described.

  • by RJAndre,

    RJAndre RJAndre Dec 24, 2011 6:19 PM in response to RJAndre
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 24, 2011 6:19 PM in response to RJAndre

    I am a relatively new PC tech who so far has been able to handle his own, however I have had little experience working with Apple. I enjoy the challenge of taking on the new. Here's what I did.

     

    1. I ran Panther Disk one. At the HD display screen no drive appeared. I waited as I had heard at times the drive may take a while to appear. It never did.

     

    2. The same exact thing happened when I ran the G4 disk. With one exception - you know how the display screen shows two rectangular boxes, well in the bottom box it noted for me to start up in the single mode. (I now know what that the entails but didn't at that moment, so I ignored it.

     

    3. So I then physically checked to see if there even was an HD present and there was. The was no sign of the seal being broken either.

     

    4. So at that point I figured it's all down to the drivers. I ran the hardware test after that and the Xcode disk - at no time on any screen was a drive visable.

     

    5. Later last night I basically repeated the above only this time I tried opening every option - like I said - most were grayed out.

     

    6. During this time I became resided to this not being a quick fix. So I read much deeper into some of the blogs out there. I did boot holding down the c key after the opening music coda. I thought the disk utility was going to be the answer - but again no drive ever became visable.

     

    That's about the time I sought your help. I will explore on other people's computers but will only "experiment" on my own inventory.

     

    7. Also I did try the single mode and at one point to open in the safe mode. Everything I did led me to a small flashing globe against a grey backround.

     

    8. Then the black/white screen with   "we are hanging..." message hit, about the same time all the the Guiness I had been pounding did. So it was lights out or aka an inproper shutdown on my part.

     

    When you mention the Panther set is no good in today's internet work on the computer.  Does than me non compatible? Keep in mind it was like opening a time capsule when my client brought me in on it. She will get what it needs providing it's cost effective. So far out of pocket she paid 150.00 for the unit and by the looks of things, coming up on a case of the aforementioned G.

     

    Thank you, gentlemen

  • by Cattus Thraex,

    Cattus Thraex Cattus Thraex Dec 25, 2011 3:01 AM in response to RJAndre
    Level 4 (1,714 points)
    Notebooks
    Dec 25, 2011 3:01 AM in response to RJAndre

    1. It seems disk is damaged or, at the best, with a bad connection (happy situation). You must solve / clear this detail, then you may go on.

  • by BGreg,Solvedanswer

    BGreg BGreg Dec 25, 2011 8:06 AM in response to RJAndre
    Level 6 (17,522 points)
    Dec 25, 2011 8:06 AM in response to RJAndre

    When you boot it holding the alt/option key, does the hard drive show up as an option to boot from? I'm guessing not.

     

    When you ran the Apple hardware test, did it show any errors, specifically anything that might be associated with the hard drive?  Did you run the extended test?

     

    If the drive is in fact dead, and there are no other hardware issues, you'll need a 2.5" parallel ATA hard drive to replace it. A serial ATA (SATA) drive won't work.

     

    If your clients intent is to use the Powerbook on the internet, you'll want to upgrade to the last OS X release that will run on Powerbooks, which is OS X Leopard 10.5. Apple no longer sells it. http://www.hardcoremac.com is one source in the US for unopened Apple software. That may require increasing memory too.

     

    However, even with an update to OS X 10.5, some plugs in, like Adobe Flash, only support what is now an older one for PowerPC. Some web sites now require Intel-based systems to access, and streaming video, even on the last, faster PowerBooks, is getting more and more difficult to view as time goes on. To do things like email online is fine, however, much more than that can be frustrating. 

  • by RJAndre,

    RJAndre RJAndre Dec 29, 2011 9:27 AM in response to RJAndre
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 29, 2011 9:27 AM in response to RJAndre

    I want to thank you for all your feedback. Since my last post; I was able to sucessfully install a replacement Toshiba hard drive in the unit. Too much time was a wasting so I just cut to the chase. My client is now actively seeking the software she'll need to bring the unit as close to up to speed as possible. I passed along the website you noted. Again thanks I appreciate you.

    rja