AlexLove

Q: PowerBook G4: Flashing Question Mark

Hello, and thanks for taking the time to read this

So My Grand-pops has a PowerBook G4 from 2004 (yeah old I know just bear with me) and all of a sudden it stopped working. On its startup it displays a blue folder flashing folder with a smiley face simultaneously (yes the old blue folder with the half smiley face). He thought it was some 'technological glitch" and waited a few days for it to go away. A few days later it was still there. He tossed the laptop to me (and dear lord that thing is heavy), told me what happened and demanded me to fix it. Now, the farthest I've gone with his PowerBook is factory resetting it using the terminal and that is about it. Trust me, I've told him to get a newer computer, but he is stubborn, refuses and says he has important stuff on there. What is it I have to do? Buy a new disc (the version of the laptop is 10.5.8 btw) or look at some internal issues?

PowerBook, Mac OS X (10.5.8), G4

Posted on Nov 9, 2015 5:00 PM

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Q: PowerBook G4: Flashing Question Mark

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  • by ChitlinsCC,

    ChitlinsCC ChitlinsCC Nov 9, 2015 5:57 PM in response to AlexLove
    Level 5 (7,507 points)
    Notebooks
    Nov 9, 2015 5:57 PM in response to AlexLove

    What you see means that your Mac cannot find a System Folder - not only where it 'expect to find it' but anywhere

     

    If a flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac - Apple Support

     

    you can safely skip the first part

  • by Jan Hedlund,

    Jan Hedlund Jan Hedlund Nov 9, 2015 7:36 PM in response to AlexLove
    Level 6 (9,869 points)
    Nov 9, 2015 7:36 PM in response to AlexLove

    ChitlinsCC provided you with a link to an article with additional information. Unfortunately, recent support documents appear to focus mainly on the latest operating system versions, which may be confusing for users of older Macs. The following excerpt from an earlier article (TS1440 - April 06, 2011) could possibly be of some extra help in this case:

     

    1.    Select your Mac OS X startup disk with Startup Manager by restarting and holding the Option key. After your Mac starts up, restart again to verify that the flashing question mark does not appear.

     

    2.    If the issue persists, insert your Mac OS X installation disc. Be sure to either use the disc that came with your Mac, or, if you installed a later Mac OS X version from disc, use the newer disc.

     

    /.../

     

    3.    Restart the computer, then hold the C key during startup.

     

    4.    From the Utilities menu, choose Disk Utility. Don't click Continue.

     

    5.    Select your Mac OS X disk (named "Macintosh HD" by default) in the left side of the Disk Utility window.

     

    6.    Click the First Aid tab.

     

    7.    Click Repair Disk to verify and repair any issues with your Mac OS X startup disk.

     

    8.    After repairing the disk, try to start up normally.

     

        Important: If Disk Utility finds issues it cannot repair, you may need to back up as much of your data as possible (or use Time Machine to back up to a different disk), then erase the disk and reinstall Mac OS X. You should back up important files and data before erasing a drive. Erasing deletes everything on the hard disk (including things on your desktop). Also, you can install Mac OS X onto an external disk, start from the external disk, and use Migration Assistant to transfer items from your usual internal Mac OS X startup disk to the external disk, then erase the internal disk and reinstall Mac OS X.

        

    9.    If the issue persists, and Disk Utility didn't find any irreparable issues, quit Disk Utility, quit the Installer, select your disk when prompted, and restart.

     

    10.    If the issue continues, reset PRAM. Note: After resetting PRAM, if the computer starts up normally, reselect the startup disk in the Startup Disk preferences.

     

    11.    If none of these steps resolve the issue, start up from the Mac OS X Installation disc and reinstall Mac OS X.

  • by ChitlinsCC,

    ChitlinsCC ChitlinsCC Nov 9, 2015 8:38 PM in response to Jan Hedlund
    Level 5 (7,507 points)
    Notebooks
    Nov 9, 2015 8:38 PM in response to Jan Hedlund

    Touché mi Scandinavian amigo! [Vikings rule = in  my genes] = I tire of dissing our Apple hosts (not the ASC Hosts) - I also tire of weeding through the much more relevant Goggle SITE search results = finding a relevant one is EXCITING!