DKay
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Q: Power Mac G4 won't boot properly

Trying to boot up an old Powermac G4. It makes all the right noises, but the display screen isn't showing the happy mac and then displaying the desktop - It seems to be stuck at grey screen. Internal battery has charge... tried the pram zap. Tried two screens that work fine with my G5

PowerMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8), G5, G4 and all the way back 2 1985

Posted on Jun 18, 2015 11:30 AM

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DKay

Q: Power Mac G4 won't boot properly

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  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Jun 18, 2015 12:12 PM in response to DKay
    Level 10 (123,745 points)
    Jun 18, 2015 12:12 PM in response to DKay

    Do boot choices show up if you hold alt key at power on?

  • by DKay,

    DKay DKay Jun 19, 2015 7:58 AM in response to BDAqua
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 19, 2015 7:58 AM in response to BDAqua

    I get two small icons - one is a circular arrow and the other is an arrow pointing right but I also get the spinning i-watch of death!

  • by alfonsojon,

    alfonsojon alfonsojon Jun 19, 2015 8:22 AM in response to DKay
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jun 19, 2015 8:22 AM in response to DKay

    This isn't a professional diagnosis, but I'd say the hard drive went. My Mac was just doing the same thing - taking out the faulty hard drive fixed it.

  • by DKay,

    DKay DKay Jun 19, 2015 8:25 AM in response to alfonsojon
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 19, 2015 8:25 AM in response to alfonsojon

    It's a possibility. Any way to further investigate that theory?

  • by alfonsojon,

    alfonsojon alfonsojon Jun 19, 2015 8:28 AM in response to DKay
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jun 19, 2015 8:28 AM in response to DKay

    Kind of complicated, but I burned a DVD with a Linux live session on it. I then booted the DVD through open firmware (the hardest part), then opened the Linux-based disk management utility. I then found out that it was failing SMART tests, and decided to replace it.

  • by DKay,

    DKay DKay Jun 19, 2015 8:50 PM in response to alfonsojon
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 19, 2015 8:50 PM in response to alfonsojon

    That sounds way beyond my level of expertise.  If I put the MacOSX disc into the CD drive and then run disc utility from it, one of the discs (the Maxtor) in there passes with flying colours and says it's fine - the other disc the smaller older one (Macintosh HD) won't repair... though maybe that's because it has a much older operating system on it. I don't recall what operating system was on it. if I change the start up from CD to HD only one system 10.3.9 shows up but then I get the grey screen hang again.