G'Day...
I have a pristine PowerBook G4 1.25 GHz, 2GB, 80GB HD that passes the long form Apple Hardware Test but still will not load any type of system s/w including that of 10.3.2 which is what this machine came with using the restore disk. The same goes for trying to load 10.4 from a retail disk.
Any ideas as to what's up?
TIA
This is a long shot but easy enough to try: Remove one RAM stick.
I have encountered some installers that won't work properly if the computer has over a certain amount of RAM. The original max RAM for your PB was 1GB. With newer, larger modules it runs nicely on the 2GB you now have. However, the instller may be looking for the 1GB and that hung up something in its little brain.
Also remember you must you use the gray disk that came with the computer, not one "like it." Those gray install disks changed faster than most of us change socks. A grey disk from another powerbook may not work if there is the slightest difference in how the disks are configured for a different PB model.
Have you tried a full retail install disk? They are black with a big silver "X".
I purchased this from the original owner in 2004 and he stated that it was a special order from Apple with maximum RAM and a 7,200 rpm 80GB HD. The original disk was 10.3.2. The HD had been wiped and original OS installed. It worked flawlessly. Several months later, I asked a friend who was an Apple support engineer if it would be worth upgrading to Tiger and he said emphatically, "yes!"
So we did one Saturday and it went perfectly including installing "Classic" for older applications like PageMaker that I still used quite a bit.
Mostly this computer was used when traveling and rarely at home. But every time that I called on it, she rose to the occasion.
During my most recent trip back in September of this year, I started having problems with applications working correctly and downloading replacement from a trusted source failed to self expand and install etc. Since I had brought along a firewire external drive I shifted the apps to it and they would expand and be usable there. So I began to suspect something was amiss with the PB's internal drive. Never the less, the PB was again usable.
Shortly, I hope to have in hand another external FW drive to see if I can install a system on it through the PB. (NOTE: The other external drive serves as my boot drive for my everyday Mac Mini late 2009 running Leopard.
In answer to your questions as to my system disks, yes the original 10.3.2 disk came with the PowerBook and yes, the retail version of 10.4.8 are the black with "X" on them which came in the original retail box.
I'm wary of disassembling almost anything as I am not a dexterous as I used to be. I think that it's the four screws in the back but the last time that was touched was by Apple prior to sale to the original owner.
Finally, the reason that I want to bring this machine back to life is that I recently acquired an old film scanner as I need to digitize a lot of my photographic files and this machine would be perfect in original configuration of 10.3.2 as that is the last compatible driver for the Dimage IV from Minolta.
So let's wait a few days to see if my proposed scheme will work.
Update:
I received the external drive enclosure, (it's USB 2/3), installed a new 500GB SATA drive (exactly the same model/make of the external HD that is my Mac Mini boot drive but no go...
I then switched my Mac Mini, (late 2009 running 10.6.8), since I was able to use it previously as an application launch point but no go again.
Then I returned it to the Mac Mini, restarted with the external boot drive along with the "new" USB external where upon a successful reboot it then asked whether I wanted to "initialize" the new foreign drive and a "yes" answer yielded a no go.
Any attempts with Disk Utility to erase and reformat the USB drive results in an eventual "Disk Erase failed, Disk Erase failed with the error: File system formatter failed"
Now, I'm really at wit's end...
g4 aluminum powerbook won't load tiger
