Spinning World Globe on Gray Screen when Startup

Yeah!

Unfortuntately it doesn't locate the internal HD.

I can boot up from the external HD but then I really can't do all the fun stuff that I need to do because then I can't use the DVD, my music keyboard (for programming), printer, or download pictures from my digital cam.

Are you supposed to do all those things when you are booting from the external HD?

I wish I could get a consistent answer on whether this is a internal HD problem (which seems like it would be) or the dreaded logic board problem.

Interesting.

I can do everything you mentioned as far as booting up from the external HD.

However, once I am up and running - the only thing I can do is surf the web (so Airport is working), and write on AppleWorks.

When it comes down to using the DVD player, I get "initialization error. a valid dvd drive could not be found. (-70012)"

When it comes down to burning a CD from iTunes, I get "disc burner or software not found".

I can't plug in my M-audio Keyboard and use it.

I can't plug in my iPod because my external hard drive is plugged in the firewire port.

I can't download pictures from my digital camera.

I can't use a printer from the USB.

I have been using the option key to boot up to get the external drive to appear - but the internal hard drive doesn't come up at all.

When I use System Profiler, the ATA section comes up with "no information found". But does that happen because I am using the external hard drive?

So we are back again - to what is the problem. When I call Apple Tech Service they say it's not a logic board issue.

All I can say is that I can't get the computer to boot up from my OS X discs and it doesn't seem to be able to locate the internal hard drive.

I don't hear a fan anymore.

I don't hear the hard disk run anymore.

Hi Ronda,

I've tried booting from both OS X and OS 9 Install CD with the optical drive. They don't come up at all.

I tried the Apple Hardware Test again and nothing comes up.

This is how it was for the last 3 weeks.

As I wrote in another post, this morning, the iBook located the internal HD and I was able to use DVD player, read CDs or DVDs from the optical drive, and I was even able to put in the OS X Install CD and it loaded it right up.

So with this brief encounter, I was optimistic that everything works in tact - it is contigent upon the computer finding the internal HD.

Being over confident, I decided to do the OS X Install from scratch.

And unfortunately, while at 45% complete on Disc 2, the computer screen when black!!! I thought it may have gone into energy saver mode but once I tried to bring it back up, it wouldn't. After a couple of minutes, the black screen came back to life and it was still stuck at 45% complete. The spinning beachball was there. And well, I waited like five minutes and nothing was evolving.

From there, I did a power shut off.

And that was the last time that I was able to get the computer to show me the internal HD or even read a CD from the optical reader.

What gives?

Hi Ronda,

Actually I have Panther - I just never updated it in my Mac specs. Ever since I got the computer I updated the OS X with whatever Apple gave us through Software Updates, which I think was somewhere around 10.2.8 or so and then I jumped to Panther last November reluctantly.

So I have been trying to reinstall with OS X 10.3.

Anyhow, for what it was worth I took my comuter to an authorized Mac repair center and despite the $50 diagnostic fee, the computer was diagnosed as not having a working hard drive. The man was very nice to me and didn't charge me $50 afterall.

So I ordered a 40gb @5400 rpm 2.5" hd to be installed by the center next week or so. Their labor rate is $75. My hard drive came to about $88 with shipping and handling.

I can live with that as a last effort to keep this baby running.

All I can say is that the logic board better not be the next thing to go.

well i am hoping that it is the hard drive.

i've heard really intense clicking earlier this year which eventually got worse in september. something that has never happened.

I don't think by any means its a normal noise for the iBook.

hard drives aren't meant to least forever as a computer doesn't either.

but we'll see.

the last time i did the hardware test which was about two weeks ago, everything passed - even the logic board.