Q: Gray screen when turning on iBook G4 with tiny file folder in center of screen blinking the finder icon and a question mark.  Have tried several things.  Any help please??

Hello and welcome to the support Community

If your iBook has a flashing folder on startup it means that your iBook can't find an Operating System (OS) to load.

This could be due to a faulty drive or a problem with the OS.

Here is some information that may help you;

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1440

Do you still have the orginal system restore disk supplied with your iBook?

If so your going to need these to disgnose the hard drive and restore in the event of a faulty drive.

Hello,

Ideally you need to boot from the disk as you have no other media advisable. (e.g your hard drive)

Without some form of system disk or restore you wont be able to diagnose the problem with your hard drive.

By using a Mac OS X system disk you can load up the Disk Utilities and repair the hard drive if shown it's available. If it's not available you would need to replace the hard drive and reinstall Mac OS. Without any disk to support you, you are going to struggle.

You can obtain replacement disk, both retail copies or system disk on the Internet.

If you know what version of Mac OS X you had install (I'm guessing that it would have been 10.3, but would recommend 10.4) A retail disk is normally black with a colored 'X' on it, while system disk are always.

Always try and obtain a copy of the system restore disks (Gray) for your iBook

Ebay is another outlet that has genuine system disk for sell, but like any auction site, it's as and when someone is selling them.

The only other thing you could do is take it to a Apple repair agent who could check the hard drive on your behalf. That way you can get confirmation if the problem is the drive or some other fault. They may even help restore the OS for you.

I can't think of anything else to try without some form of disk to help you.

There maybe just one other small thing you could try.

When booting up, firmly rest your palm of your hand on the iBook next to the tracker pad on the left side.

If it works then it's another fault that I'm aware of.

Hello,

To me is sounding more and more like the hard drive in your iBook as failed.

You can't install the iMac 10.5 disks, but you can use it to access the disk utilities. If the utilities are stating no hard drive has been found on your iBook, then we can be sure it's the drive is at fault or an internal problem.

I would keep your appointment and see the Apple shop. They can run further tests to confirm the drive has failed and maybe offer a solution. The solution would be a replacement drive, which can be costly if your not fitting a replacement yourself.

It's not that difficult to fit yourself and a replacement drive can be cheap depending on where you get one. I think the bigger issue is getting some system disk as without them you can't restore your iBook.

You will have to think about if it's cost effective to spend the money on a shop fitting you a replacement drive and replacement system disks. Would it be cost effective. It wont cost any money for Apple to run some further diagnostics on your iBook and offer further advise.

Wishing you the best of luck.