Powerbook G4 freezes at startup (blinking folder question mark)

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Powerbook G4 freezes at startup (blinking folder question mark)

My mother gave me a powerbook G4 asking if I could fix it. Having been given troubleshooting details to the effect of, "it was wierd for a while and then it froze." coupled with the fact that I have never used a Mac before and I am totally lost.

When I boot the PC normally I get the flashing folder\question mark, AND if I let it sit for a minute or two on that screen it will just freeze (no more flashing).

When I try to boot to startup manager I get a clock cursor, a circlular arrow button on the left, and a right arrow button on the right. I can move the cursor (just barely) for a while, but again if I let it sit a minute or two on this screen it just freezes and I can't move the cursor or do anything.

Any ideas?

PowerBook, won't boot

Posted on Jun 15, 2011 11:43 AM

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Answer 1

Jun 15, 2011 11:50 AM in response to gnvh

Hello gnvh,

The flashing folder and ? is an indicator that the computer is not seeing a compatible System Folder to boot from.

Do you have access to the discs that came with the system? One should have diagnostic software on it. These discs are model specific and not interchangeable.

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Answer 2

gnvh Author

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Jun 16, 2011 5:27 AM in response to J D Knight III

Thanks for the reply,

Unfortunately I do not have the discs, but one thing I did try was booting to a linux live cd.

The problem is that when I reboot with the option key pressed startup manager freezes before I can do anything. I only get the clock cursor, a circlular arrow button on the left, and a right arrow button on the right and then it freezes. Is there a way to boot to a CD without going to startup manager?

When I power on the PC I don't even see a bios screen or anything. I just have a black screen and hear the apple ding. I don't know anything about the booting process of a Mac.

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Answer 3

Jun 16, 2011 7:48 AM in response to gnvh

Make sure nothing is attached to the system except for the power cord.

Boot into single-user mode and perform a fsck repair attempt. Detailed instructions at Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck

If you get it to boot into single-user mode and encounter freezing try resetting the PMU, then retry fsck.

Resetting PowerBook and iBook Power Management Unit (PMU)

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Answer 4

gnvh Author

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Jun 16, 2011 8:18 AM in response to J D Knight III

The powerbook is at home so I'll give it a shot tonight and add comments tomorrow. Thanks for help so far!

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Answer 5

gnvh Author

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Jun 17, 2011 4:06 AM in response to gnvh

Following the links I tried:

Safe booting - I got the flashing folder again

booting into single user - I got the flashing folder again.

Tried reseting the NVRAM - After doing this I didn't get the flashing folder but just a blank grey screen

Tried reseting the PMU: according to my model (12 inch 1.5 DVI)

"Reset the power manager by simultaneously pressing and then releasing Shift-Control-Option-Power on the keyboard. Do not press the fn (Function) key while using this combination of keystrokes."

- After doing this I didn't get the flashing folder but just a blank grey screen. I waited a few minutes and the flashing folder came back and it eventually froze.

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Answer 6

Jun 17, 2011 5:57 AM in response to gnvh

Look at A flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58042

 Cheers, Tom 😉

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Answer 7

gnvh Author

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Jun 17, 2011 8:36 AM in response to Texas Mac Man

Uh yeah, I have been all over that link- which I thought it would have been obvious from my previous post. I'm going to see if I can borrow someone's OSX disc to see if I can boot to it by holding the C key. Apart from this, what else can I do to troubleshoot this further or at least identify if this is a hardware or software problem?

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Answer 8

Jun 17, 2011 10:39 AM in response to gnvh

If you startup the system and immediately hold down the Option key what do you see? If you see a window to enter a password, then the system has a Firmware Lock turned on.

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Answer 9

gnvh Author

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Jun 20, 2011 9:09 PM in response to J D Knight III

Ok I finally got a leopard disc. I can boot to the CD, but when I try to verify the disc I get "Invalid B-tree node size". And if I try to do an install at the "select a destination" prompt there are no discs displayed. How can I be sure my HDD is really dead?

As of right now Apple's support site is down/throwing errors ("We can't find the page you're looking for.") when I try to view articles so I can't try the fsck procedure at this moment.

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Answer 10

Jun 21, 2011 11:31 AM in response to gnvh

Use Disk Utility on the Leopard disc and run a Repair. Select the physical drive (top item) not the logical drive (sub-item).

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