Hi, and welcome to Apple Discussions.
A Mac doesn't have bios, as such. Not knowing a lot about Windows (or the underpinnings of the Mac GUI, for that matter), I would guess that the closest thing to BIOS in a Mac is Open Firmware.
Apple's suggestions for dealing with a flashing question mark can be found in this Apple Knowledge Base article:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1440?viewlocale=en_US
Some things to try:
Hold down the X key while starting up. If a bootable OS X volume exists, this will force it to start up in OS X.
You could try
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1431?viewlocale=en_US.
Did your purchase include the original system CDs? They are invaluable for troubleshooting (and/or recovery).
If Mac OS X 10.2 or later is installed, holding down the shift key at startup boots into Safe Mode, repairing errors on the hard drive in the process. Sometimes this will help if you don't have the system CDs (or even if you do; it's a faster and easier way of repairing the hard drive).
Holding down the s key during startup boots into Single User Mode.
You could try to reset the PRAM and NVRAM in Open Firmware.
Start up in Open Firmware by pressing Command + Option + O + F during startup. This gets you into Open Firmware with a command line and a > prompt.
At the Open Firmware prompt, type:
reset-nvram
- Press Return.
- At the Open Firmware prompt, type: set-defaults
- Press Return.
- At the Open Firmware prompt, type: reset-all
- Press Return.
Example
0 > reset-nvram
Press Return
0 > set-defaults
Press Return
0 > reset-all
Press Return
The reset-all command should restart the iBook. If so, you have successfully reset the Open Firmware settings.
I hope something here helps (and that you have the system CDs to Restore the system software if nothing here did).
Good luck.
