ibook G4 OS 10.4.11 wont boot up.

Dear Ronda

Thank you for replying.

The optical drive has always been reliable so it would be bad chance for that to coincide.

I did wonder about the disc - I beleive it to be the correct one and it is the only one I can find but that isn't conclusive. How can I tell if it is correct?

The disc is identified as iBook G4 Mac OS X Install Disc 1, version 10.4.2 (but I have upgraded online to 4.2.11), AHT version 2.5, Disc version 1.0, 2Z691-5532-A, dated 2005; and disc 2 is version 1.3.

The serial no. of the laptop is W8725048YA2, with other identifiers which may help: 2.0/2X512/80/COMBO:WHITE-GBR and EMC No.2139.

If it is the wrong disc, or if it might be correct but faulty, how do I get another? Can I borrow one from a friend, for example, or must it match exactly? If I sort out the disc should that enable me to solve the problem?

Thanks for help

Adam

Well it goes ti show just how stupid one can be. You are right, it is a macbook.

So another search of the attic reveals a box with more install discs this time definitely for a macbook - but they are too recent, dated 2009 and for OS version 10.5.6. I think they came with my daughter's computer. However the install DVD was read on start up, but disc utility - first aid only found the DVD, not the hard drive. "Start up from DVD" failed with the message "Cannot intall Mac OS X on this computer." System profiler saw the install DVD at "ATA" and at "Serial ATA" it saw "Intel ICH7-M AHCI" at 1.5 Gigabit. Is this the hard drive? And Startup Disc menu item only shows the DVD. Using the applications disc holding D at start up for the hardware diagnostics failed to do anything. So it looks like the hard disc cannot be found.

The only option this DVD seems to be offering me is to "Restore System From Backup..." from Utilities menu item. If I try this a) will it work? and b) if so will it wipe the hard disc clean? I will try yet again to locate original discs but I am not hopeful.

Have you any suggestions?

Adam

Original discs assumed irretrievably lost.

One more thing I tried - I'm not sure what to learn from it - was to use a firewire conection to start from another computer in target disc mode which I have done succesfully before in other circumstances with other machines to retrieve data from a hard drive. The connection may have worked but the host computer didn't find the hard disk on the damaged one, so no help.

For the benefit of other readers of this post: it seems that you can download the orginal discs from various websites - which initially looked attractive. The advice from other sources however is that these are usually trojans or viruses and you should keep clear. So I finally got through the intensely irritating automated voice recognition system at apple uk technical support (0844 2090611) to a very helpful man who is posting me a new 10.4.3 disc free.

I'll keep you posted of the result.

The new disc finally arrived from Apple - labeled "Mac OS Tiger DVD 2Z691-5599A".

- Inserted disc and start up holding C key ... sounds of disc being active followed eventually by flashing question mark. If "disc eject" button is pressed the question mark stops flashing. The only available action is to switch off with power button.

- restart holding down option key (to try hardware test) ... again sounds of active disc, this time followed by blank screen with movable arrow cursor. This time apple-control-power was effective - not to restart but to shut down.

- ejecting disc by starting whilst pressing mouse pad works.

- shutting down seems to vary .. sometimes just a quick press of power button, sometimes has to be held for a few seconds before shutting down.

Maybe Apple have sent the wrong disc?

There is a repeated quiet clicking throughout which I interpret as the hard disc trying to run. It seems like the hard disc needs a little nudge like the needle in a scratch on a vinyl LP!

Reading more from http://support.apple.com suggested a few things to try:

- start up in single user mode (holding Command-S) : failed

- start up in safe mode (holding shift key) : failed

Back to the OSX 10.5.6 install DVD I tried previously: this seems to work and gave a utilities menu:

- "System profiler" found the hard disc under serial ATA - Intel ICH7-M AHCI

- "Disc utility" failed to find it.

- "Terminal" loaded but when I tried to enter sudo nvram boot-args="-x" as suggested to start in safe mode it returned "command not found" so that got nowhere.

- "Restore system from backup" utility isn't active, presumably because it doesn't recognize a hard drive to restore it to?

I have an external hard disc used for some back up. When I connected it to the USB port both system profiler and disc utility found it ok but "start up disc" utility didn't. Unfortunately it doesn't have a system on it. If it did could I start up from it and would that help? How would I install a system onto it? (I'm typing this on an oldish Powermac G4 desktop running OSX 10.4.11)

I will phone Apple first opportunity to check the correctness of the disc. However I do wonder if it can be any better than the 10.5.6 disc anyway.

It seems that what I need is some way of getting access to the hard disc.

Sorry for the length of this - but any more suggestions would be much appreciated.

Adam

Apple say that this is the correct disc; there is no difference she says between the retail disc and the original instal discs. Her only option was to refer me to an authorised apple repairer.

Adam

Thank you for this and the links.

So I phoned Apple again and she was adamant that this was the only disc available and that it is the correct one. I explained that the incorrect 10.5.6 disc got me as far as disc utility (and we redid it again live) and she was certain that if the hard disc were repairable this would have been able to do so. Her explanation why the Tiger disc couldn't get that far was that the hard disc is broken irrepairably!?!? Empasse.

Is it reasonable to assume that since the10.5.6 disc booted up it's disc utility would have worked if it could? I can accept that disc utility, even from the correct disc, might not be able to repair the HD but it does seem odd that it failed so fully under the stress of an inapropriate shut down. I don't know where to go to borrow an original disc, so the only other option is to take it to a repair shop. Apart from the expense I fear that they will just go straight to the simple option of selling me a new hard drive. Then I am also into the extra expense and difficulty of retreiving data from the old one.

Adam

The study has never been so tidy ... but the original discs have been found!

However ... booting up from these discs has worked, as you have said, but the hard disc has still not been found. Using the discs I have reinstalled OSX10.4 onto an external USB hard disc and can use the computer from this satisfactorily. I have purchased and installed a new internal hard drive but this has not been found either so I cannot format it or use it. So the computer works and the hard disc is not faulty, which means that the recognition of the hard disc by the hardware or inbuilt software is failing. Is there a way to get at this or does this mean that I need a new logic board?

Going back to the original (presumed) cause of the problem: I don't understand why inerupting it should have such a profound effect - can you explain?

Adam