Q: when I turn on my computer, all I see is a small icon in the center of the screen which alternates between a question mark and a smiley face.  clicking on it does nothing.  help!

Your Mac is not seeing the OS X version installed.

The PRAM battery in your PowerMac G4 maybe getting weak.

Try a PRAM reset by holding down the Command-Option-P-R keys on your keyboard when you first startup your Mac. Hold these keys down until your hear your Mac chime twice, then let the keys go and see if your Mac boots up properly.

Good Luck!

Try startup manager

hold down option or alt key. poweron machine.  click on OS to install. click on large right arrow on screen.

Sometimes if volumes don't appear in Startup Manager (what you get when you hold down the Option key at startup), you need to reset the Mac's PRAM, NVRAM, and Open Firmware. Shut down the Mac, then power it up, and before the screen lights up, quickly hold down the Command, Option, P, and R keys, until the Mac has chimed twice more after the powerup chime.

Then, before the screen lights up, hold down Command-Option-O-F until the Open Firmware screen appears. Then enter these lines, pressing Return after each one:

reset-nvram

set-defaults

reset-all

"The reset-all command should restart your Mac. If so, you have successfully reset the Open Firmware settings."

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1812?viewlocale=en_US

Should the fail...

Try taking the battery out for 10 minutes.  Put battery back in.  Cross fingers. Power the machine back on.

How to eject a cd from the internal cd drive:

eject cd

List of devices:

devalias

List of variables:

printenv

More than you ever wanted to know about open firmware

http://www.firmworks.com/QuickRef.html

In PowerPC PowerMacs, resetting the PRAM is the same as resetting the NVRAM in Intel Macs.

If this issue persists, it maybe time to replace your PowerMac G4’s PRAM battery.

The battery is located inside your PowerMac and is a half height AA battery.

These batteries only last between 5-7 years (if this is the original PRAM battery it maybe time to replace it).

If from the U.S., these batteries can be purchase either from Radio Shack or more cheaply from Online Mac source OWC.

Here's the link to PRAM battery you need.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/BAA36VPRAM/

I think what he's saying is that different variables are held in PRAM & NVRAM in PPC Macs...

CMD+Option+o+f ?

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=42642

reset-nvram (press Enter)

set-defaults (press Enter)

reset-all (press Enter)

& I forget what, but the Beiges had a slightly different NVRM reset.

I've been copying the above post for awhile.  It is intended for the PPC.  I found it somewhere and it seems to help some people.

Do you need to do:

Command, Option, P, and R keys

and

reset-nvram (press Enter)

set-defaults (press Enter)

reset-all (press Enter)

Robert

It's tough to tell what is needed, usually a PRAM Reset does it, but sometimes an NVRAM reset needs to be done, as I recall, they do overlap a tiny bit, but mostly different stored variables.