iBook G4: crash, can't boot, loud fan (?) noise

I was having similar problems myself. For me, it was a power issue - the power source was irregular or something and causing jumps across the logic board. Tell me, is it the same if you try to start it without being plugged in to the power supply? Try it with battery power only, if that doesn't work, take out the battery and try it with power adapter only. As this was my issue, it might make sense to rule it out to start with.

D

this is what you do:
1. throw it away
2. buy a new PowerBook G4 with everything upgraded
3. then not have that problem again

YEAH DAWG

Hi Alexander,

It sounds like a bad logic board. If it's under warranty contact Apple or take it to the Apple Store.

John

Mine is doing the EXACT same thing! When I start up it will either run the OS for about 2-5 minutes before blacking out or it will simply start up with a backlit black screen and the fan whirring incessantly. Unfortunately mine is no longer under warranty. I've been looking for possible solutions and nothing is working yet. I have reset both the pram and the pmu, It didn't do anything. I have tried the battery or power cord deal, nothing. I can startup in targetted disk mode, so I was able to back everything up. I was almost completely convinced that it was the logic board that wass giving me issues but I was finally able to boot from the hardware test cd and I started running tests. The logic board passed the test! HOWEVER... once the testing fell on the memory, it went black again! It has repeated this effect twice today. The last little bit of weirdness, and I may be imagining it, is that when it has gone to a black screen with the fan whirring loudly it seems that the screen will stop being backlit if I close the computer and pick it up or move it. Possibly a bad connection inside on the logic board? I barely know anything about computers so I don't know what I am talking about. Has anyone had to replace their logic board? How much did it cost? I don't have apple care for the computer anymore. Thanks for any help someone can give!

Alex


Mine started to play up with similar characteristics of yours, within a week the harddrive had completely failed ( on a 14 month old machine )

my advice to you would be to back up all of your data asap and take it to apple.

Depending upon how old the machine is I know that Apple are fixing known logic board problems as long as your serial numbers are with in a set number


take a look at the apple web site for more info http://www.apple.com/support/ibook/faq/


hth _ jeff

Alexander,
My iBook is doing exactly the same thing as yours. Did you ever find out what the problem was? If Apple repaired it what was the charge?

Thanks,
Doug

I was using my iBook G4 (Tiger w/ latest updates) when it suddenly crashed. The screen went black I couldn't get out of it, so I turned it off and tried booting up again. It worked but crashed a second time minutes later. After attempting to reboot a second time, random colors came up on the screen - fine pinstripes of pink, green, blue, etc.

Able to shut the computer down by holding down the start button. Also will not boot up with the Install CD in and holding down the C key. It's as if it slowly is losing power. Battery is charged and have tried it wih the power cord plugged in. Some vibrating noise at startup when holding the C key down on occasion.

When it will start up it will freeze after a minute and then the screen slowly deteriorates until it turns black again. Backing up is impossible as it will not stay booted up long enough to do it.

I discovered that resetting the PMU and the PRAM solved the problem.

Take out your wallet, it's the logic board. I just got mine back today, $300 later, and it's still wacky. In fact, I'm on hold right now trying to resolve startup issues AFTER the repair. Now it's going to a DOS-like screen and going through several lines of text before booting up. They had me reinstall the system software and see if that helped. It didn't. Now I am calling back to see if I can get it resolved and the techie keeps pointing out that it DOES eventually start up. Yeah. And my confidence level is in the crapper right now.

Anyhow, I had the horizontal colored lines, the black screen, the fan stuck on. Reset the PRAM, took out battery, unplugged. Finally, I brought it (1 hour away) to the Apple store, where they sent it in for repair.

Sigh.

Try resetting the Power Management Unit (PMU). Details at
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449

I have a G4 iBook that was doing the black screen/fan thing and did the following a couple times then reset the PRAM and it's working fine now...

For iBook (16 VRAM) and later models of iBook, there is no physical reset button.

If the computer is on, turn it off.
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.
Wait 5 seconds.
Press the Power button to restart the iBook computer.


iBook Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Hi Alexander,

As suggested before, resetting the PMU might help. When you turned your iBook on, do you get any messages? You may want to look at Knowledge Base Document #106214 on Troubleshooting Startup Issues.

Jon

Mac Mini 1.42Ghz, iPod (All) , Airport (Graphite & Express), G4 1.33Ghz iBook , G4 iMac 1Ghz, G3 500Mhz, iBook iMac 233Mhz, eMate, Power Mac 5400 LC, PowerBook 540c, Macintosh 128K, Apple //e, Apple //, and some more... Mac OS X (10.4.5) Moto Razr, iLife '06, SmartDisk 160Gb, Apple BT Mouse, Sight..

Trya,

The resetting of the PMU is a good suggestion; I would try it. You may want to look at Knowledge Base Document #106464 on Your Mac won't start up in Mac OS X (Mac OS X 10.3.9 or earlier).

Did you try starting up in Safe Mode? from Install disk? Did you try fsck?

Jon

Mac Mini 1.42Ghz, iPod (All) , Airport (Graphite & Express), G4 1.33Ghz iBook , G4 iMac 1Ghz, G3 500Mhz, iBook iMac 233Mhz, eMate, Power Mac 5400 LC, PowerBook 540c, Macintosh 128K, Apple //e, Apple //, and some more... Mac OS X (10.4.5) Moto Razr, iLife '06, SmartDisk 160Gb, Apple BT Mouse, Sight..

Well never mind the above. It worked for 2 days then crapped out again to the black screen/fan issue. Apple says it will be $800 to replace the logic board (not covered under the logic board replacement deal). Compusa is over $1,000. Obviously that isn't going to happen, so in the trash it goes after 2.5 years!!!
Apple 'customer service' was not willing to help at all and basically could care less.

So adios Apple!

I decided to try Apple computers for the first time a few years ago with this iBook, and that was a short test. It's back to PCs for me.

Could this kind of thing be caused by trying to over fill the HD?