Kernel Panic, Startup Disk, Prohibitory Sign ... Can't startup...HELP

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Level 2

200 points

Kernel Panic, Startup Disk, Prohibitory Sign ... Can't startup...HELP

I just got my ibook back from the APPLE store yesterday and it has a brand new hard drive and logic board installed. Its a 1.2 gig iBook G4.

All day it kept freezing and beachballing on me. At some instances I couldn't even FORCE QUIT.

When doing normal tasks (resizing windows, trashing docs, etc) it will beachball and or just sort of freeze. Sometimes it unfreezes, sometimes it wont and I've had to FORCE RESTART MANY times.

I had to FORCE SHUTDOWN and now when I reboot it wont boot up...i get the QUESTION MARK in the FOLDER indicating that it cant find startup disk. I restarted a few times and now I'll get the PROHIBITORY sign.
I put in my PANTHER disc 1 and tried to boot holding "C" to boot from CD and it'll get to the screen with the grey apple and thats it.

I reset the PRAM and also reset the PMU ... both to no avail.

Can SOMEONE help me PLEASE! This is frustrating me to NO END!
I have a MacBook that I bought that I can use but i NEED this ibook to work with.
THANKS!

iBook G4, Mac OS X (10.4.6), 2 Gigs Ram

Posted on Oct 19, 2006 2:20 PM

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Answer 1

Ticia

Level 2

240 points

Oct 19, 2006 4:02 PM in response to Dallas Kruse

Can you mount your ibook in Target mode onto your MacBook?

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Answer 2

Dallas Kruse Author

Level 2

200 points

Oct 19, 2006 10:33 PM in response to Ticia

Yes.

I mounted it and ran Disk Utility and repair the disk. When it ran, it said there were no problems with the disk.

I unmounted it and tried to reboot and got the QUESTION MARK. I shut it down and rebooted and it got me to the desktop.
I then mounted my MacBook on the Faulty iBook and transfered some files over successfully.
After I was done I tried to to some other things and the iBook just beachballed and I had to FORCE RESTART. It then would not boot up and it gave me the PROHIBITORY sign.

I'm frustrated with this thing!!!!

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Answer 3

Ticia

Level 2

240 points

Oct 20, 2006 4:48 AM in response to Dallas Kruse

It sounds to me like you have backed up your data successfully.
Can you mount the iBook on Target mode and use your MacBook to reinstall the OS? That may be the easiest thing at this point.

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Answer 4

Dallas Kruse Author

Level 2

200 points

Oct 20, 2006 7:19 AM in response to Ticia

I've reinstalled the OS about 5 times.

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Answer 5

Ticia

Level 2

240 points

Oct 20, 2006 9:51 AM in response to Dallas Kruse

OK, I had not understood you had done that though your MacBook, I thought you had tried directly on your iBook with your CDs. Sorry.
One more thing I would try is to mount the iBook on your MacBook, choose Disk Utilities and zero your iBook with 7 passes (you'll have your choice of the number of passes), then try to reinstall the OS. It worked for me once when I was getting desperate with an PowerBook 17" that just did not want to behave. Let me know.

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Answer 6

Dallas Kruse Author

Level 2

200 points

Oct 20, 2006 2:51 PM in response to Ticia

Well ... since this is a brand new hard drive (2 days old) and installed by APPLE, I dont think its a hard drive issue.

ALL of these issues started about a yr ago IMMEDIATELY after an OSX Software Update.

This is the 4th hard drive in the ibook and I'm almost to the point of thinking the computer is a bust.

Any OTHER suggestion?

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Answer 7

Ticia

Level 2

240 points

Oct 20, 2006 3:08 PM in response to Dallas Kruse

I agree the hard drive is probably fine, but you'll allow me to disagree with what I perceive as your assumption that whatever is on the hard drive is not creating a problem. I know that first hand with that 17" PowerBook: it belongs to my boss who jumped it from 10.2.8 to 10.4. Something went wrong with that update and his computer started behaving weird. I took it home and tried to see what I could do. I reinstalled the OS many times and each time I was getting something different that would go wrong. Our IT guys recommended replacing the HD, which my boss did. After installing Tiger 10.4(.0) on it, it worked fine for 2 hours. When we tried to go to 10.4.6, it started acting up again (with the new HD).
I tried to reinstall the OS several times. What fixed it was to zero everything in 7 passes. Now it might have been pure luck, but it has been working fine for 2 months. That's why I suggested it.
I'm also out of ideas and what you are experiencing is probably then above and beyond my abilities. Sorry.

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Answer 8

Dallas Kruse Author

Level 2

200 points

Oct 20, 2006 3:27 PM in response to Ticia

Thanks for the reply .... I'll try it cause at this point I"ll try ANYTHING.

It wont boot up so I'll have to try and mount it on my Macbook and zero it out that way.

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