Powerbook G4 starting trouble

Question

Level 1

0 points

Powerbook G4 starting trouble

Here are a few observations that I made in the recent past
a. Getting the Powerbook G4 from sleep plays the chime but nothing is displayed on the screen, the only solution is to force shutdown.

b. Sometimes upon power up, I don't hear the startup chime, I hear just the slot drive spin sound and nothing comes up.

c. At this time, I thought it could be a hard disk issue and then inserted OSX Install DVD and tried bootup, then after startup, only the drive spin sound and the fan were heard but nothing appeared on the screen, however after repeated trials the system used to come up with the install DVD.

d. Sometimes during the above trials, I used to see the sleep light glow upon startup and some peculiar "Poop" kinda sound.

e. Suspected hard disk or software issues earlier and installed Tiger twice and Panther once in the past 2 weeks, but in vain.

f. The problem is intermittent and is happening more frequently of late.

I would like to know, if this is a RAM, Hard disk or Hardware failure.

g. What are the symptoms if HDD or RAM is gone ??

i. Any Hardware tests available to check the issue ??

Please do help me sort the Powerbook G4 issues.

Powerbook G4, 1.33 GHz, 1.25 GB RAM, Mac OS X (10.4.9), Dec 2004 purchase

Posted on Jul 25, 2007 6:02 PM

Reply

Answer 1

joeuu

Level 5

5,089 points

Jul 26, 2007 10:19 AM in response to thandava

Welcome to the Discussions thandava!

If it is a RAM problem, you still should get a Display.

If it is a hard disk problem, you should still get a Display.

You can run Apple Hardware Test:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=114042
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86645

Joe

Message was edited by: joeuu

Reply

Answer 2

thandava Author

Level 1

0 points

Jul 26, 2007 3:17 PM in response to joeuu

Thanks a lot for the information, I ran the extended version of the tests yesterday and all the tests have passed without any issue. Is there someway to pinpoint what this issue is ??

Reply

Answer 3

joeuu

Level 5

5,089 points

Jul 26, 2007 3:31 PM in response to thandava

Try resetting the PMU according to:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449

The PMU controls sleep issues, among other things. If done properly, your system clock will need to be reset.

I would advise performing another clean install of 10.4, bring it up to the lastest versions of firmware and software, and leaving it at that until you figure out what is going on.

Also try resetting the PRAM and NVRAM and get back to some sort of baseline.

Joe

Reply

Answer 4

thandava Author

Level 1

0 points

Sep 6, 2007 4:17 AM in response to joeuu

Last login: Thu Sep 6 19:44:24 on ttyp1
Welcome to Darwin!
manjunath-bss-powerbook-g4-15:~ rudra$ vi Powerbook-issues.txt

I tried all this and yet it had issues. I got the whole thing reinstalled after
taking it to the GeniusBar and things were working fine till yesterday (for
around 5 weeks).

Yesterday suddenly after coming out of sleep mode, within a few minutes, the
display got jazzy with repetitive vertical lines and then the system stopped
responding.

I forced a reset and then switched on, but again the laptop was not coming up.

Tried a PRAM reset and it didn't work, repetitive Power ONs gave no startup
chime and showed no signs of bootup.

After certain Power ON trials, the laptop went to a state where in some strange
sound instead of the startup chime started playing and the sleep light was
glowing intermittently.

I tried changing memory dimms and still it failed to come up.

The strangest part is that the machine does boot up after like 1 in 10 trials,
although a long gap upto 12 hrs was given between successful trials. Still not
able to narrow down the problem however. Kinda scared to shutdown, as it may
not boot up 😉

Any suggestions would be really great.

Reply

Answer 5

cornelius

Level 6

17,826 points

Sep 6, 2007 8:19 AM in response to thandava

thandava:

Try this:
1. Shut down the computer.
2. Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
3. Turn on the computer.
4. Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
5. Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the third time.
6. Release the keys after third chime and immediately hold down "Shift" key.
7. Computer will start up in Safe Mode. This process takes a bit longer than a normal boot, so don't get anxious.
8. Once booted, log in and Empty Trash.
9. Restart normally and log in.

Once you are logged in
Go to Apple Menu > About this Mac > More Info > Hardware > ATA
In the second section of the main pane look for S.M.A.R.T Status; it should read Verified. Although a Verified status is no assurance that you HDD is completely sound, a Failing status means that you need to be sure that you have an up-to-date backup (do it, anyway) and start shopping for a new HDD.

Please report back when you are done.

Good luck.

cornelius

Reply

Answer 6

thandava Author

Level 1

0 points

Sep 10, 2007 6:16 AM in response to cornelius

Hello Cornelius,
I tried the method you've suggested and the laptop is currently working fine (tested only a couple of times). Thanks a lot for the timely help. It would be great if you could tell me what exactly was the issue and how your procedure fixed the same.

Regards,
/Thandava

Reply

Answer 7

cornelius

Level 6

17,826 points

Sep 10, 2007 10:00 AM in response to thandava

thandava:

I am glad that the procedure I suggested was helpful in getting your PowerBook going again. It is difficult to tell exactly what the issues troubling your computer were, but I can tell you what the procedure I recommended was intended to test:
The procedure was actually a combination of two procedures:
1. Reset PRAM, which often helps in start up situations, particularly where the startup stalls.( Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM)
2. Safe Boot, which tests and does a number of things as explained in the article, What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode? (Mac OS X). It does something to similar to disk repair, and the second part is that it starts without some extensions and start up items. Sometimes start-up items that have problems can cause the startup to hang as the system cannot load them. Starting in Safe Mode can help to isolate them.
3. Empty Trash after Safe Boot. In OS X 10.4x Safe Boot cleans out the user font caches, which can also cause startup issues.

Which of these issues were specifically involved in your particular case, it is difficult to tell. However, whatever they were, they will likely respond to a regular maintenance schedule. Here are four articles with excellent suggestions for maintaining your mac's OS in top shape. Read through them and post back with any questions or comments.
Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance
Mac OS X 10.3/10.4: System maintenance
Maintaining OS X
Tuning Mac OS X Performance

Good luck.

cornelius

Reply