Q: iBook Stuck On Happy Mac

You could try & start in Safe boot mode, (should start in reduced OS X)

• Try safe mode if your Mac doesn't finish starting up - Apple Support

as part of a troubleshooting procedure. This can help; but there may be

damages to the startup section of data on the hard drive. - If Safe boot

does not work, try & see if you can start from the Installer disc #1 - and

from there you could run Disk Utility; to see if a repair can be performed.

Starting up in safe mode

Follow these steps to start up into safe mode.

1. Start or restart your Mac.
2. Immediately after you hear the startup sound, press and hold the Shift key.
3. Release the Shift key when you see the Apple logo appear on the screen.

After the Apple logo appears, it might take longer than usual to reach the login screen or your desktop.

This is because your Mac performs a directory check of your startup disk as part of safe mode.

To leave safe mode, restart your computer without pressing any keys during startup.

• OS X Maintenance and Troubleshooting - macattorney:

http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html

• Troubleshooting Startup and Login Items:

http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/startupitems.html

There are other helpful items that could be handy, should you get past

the above startup and then find other probable causes. When you restart

to get out of Safe boot mode, be sure to choose the Mac's hard drive as

the Startup volume in the system preference. Sometimes that may be a

cause of failure to re-start normally.

Hard to say what else to try; most of these things take little time to determine

the next step (in real time) so until you try one thing and it works, (or doesn't.)

The software from the iMac G3 may have been missing parts that iBook G3

needs; so to use a retail Mac OS 9.1 is better than a system disc for specific

Macs. This can be problematic. Also, be sure the drivers are intact if you did

any erase & install; OS9 drivers are separate from OS X install.

Good luck in this matter!