iBook G4 Login?

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iBook G4 Login?

I'll see if this sounds familiar to anybody.

I have a 2005-2006 iBook G4 12 inch with 10.4.11 installed. It's been fairly reliable since I got it a couple of years ago, unfortunately I don't have the disks it originally came with. I have never used a login, my husband and I both use it off and on and we just use different browsers. Just turn it on and go. Recently it kind of froze up and I couldn't get it to behave. I had to take out the battery and unplug it to make it turn off. Now when I turn it on it acts normal but goes to the login screen which I never told it to do. When I put in my password, it goes to the generic swirly blue desktop and never puts any icons or anything up there. It did the same thing when I started in safe mode.

I used target disk mode with my iMac and did a repair disk and it said it was OK. That makes me suspect some other part may be going kaflooie. I wish I had the original disks so I could use the Apple Hardware Test. I have not yet turned my computer/sewing room upside down to find my Tiger retail disk and/or my TechTool 5 disk but I intend to do that soon. Only having one computer for two of us is getting old fast.

Does anyone know what is causing this? thanks in advance.

iBook, Mac OS X (10.4.11), 1.33 GHZ 2005

Posted on Sep 18, 2012 9:47 PM

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Answer 1

Sep 19, 2012 1:22 AM in response to Sludgedragon

For future reference, holding down the power button for 5 to 10 seconds is the way to force the iBook to shut down. You may have corrupted the hard drive by withdrawing power in the manner in which you did the shutdown.

If it would not start up in Safe Mode, you are down to needing the original system discs or the Tiger disc in order to do hard disk repair, or, perhaps, even reinstalling the OS.

Apple has put downloads for the older G3 iBooks up on the site,

http://www.info.apple.com/support/aht.html

but no such luck for any iBook G4 (at least none that I can find).

This is what the original system discs look like:

http://www.ifixit.com/iBook-Parts/iBook-G4-12-Inch-1-33-GHz-or-14-Inch-1-42-GHz- Restore-DVDs/IF183-055

but iFixit is out of stock on them. You may be able to find them on eBay.

Good luck.

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