Hello,
I bought a ibook g4 online, it was working everything was great. I was searching and it asked if I wanted to install Chrome I meant to hit no but it installed laptop restarted now it just shows the apple icon and the circle loading icon. I left it on all night thinking it would load up by the morning, I was wrong. I've tried the reboot codes still doesn't go pass that. I don't have the original disk. Can anyone give help me. Thanks
iBook, Mac OS X (10.5.4)
Simply installing Chrome is unlikely to stop a Mac from booting - the Chrome web browser doesn't support PowerPC as far as I can tell so you may have tried to install something else or possibly installed some malicious software.
You probably have a Mac that has failed in some other way, eventually all hardware fails.
Please list the startup key combinations you tried - it is simpler than trying to list all the possible ways to troubleshoot if we have an idea of what you already tried.
Also do you have access to other Macs? They may help you to fix this one.
You need some other way to boot the Mac - do you have a backup of any sort? Otherwise you may need to find or purchase 10.5 install disks to stand any chance of examining the Mac.
Here are a couple of things to try …
How to reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support
Try safe mode if your Mac doesn't finish starting up - Apple Support
Hello, I've tried the following keys control key and s, typed in mount -uw /
rm/var/db/.AppleSetupDone
shutdown -h now
It shuts down and when I turn it back on it chimes and shows the apple icon and the loading circle. This is my first Mac so I don't have any other device or backup
Why have you done that?
Removing 'AppleSetupDone' will trigger the setup assistant next time you boot. It does not help with your current situation. If it ever manages to boot you will have to step through the setup process again (as if the Mac was new). All your data will still be on the Mac, but you will probably end up with a new user account.
You can reverse the process by 'touching' to create the file…
Boot using single user mode (by holding cmd+s at startup).
How to start up your Mac in single-user or verbose mode - Apple Support
fsck -fy
mount -uw /
touch /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
reboot
Notice I also added a 'fsck -fy' - that will check the filesystem, run it until it reports no errors.
Try the NVRAM/ PRAM reset and also try a safe boot that I linked above.
If you can't get any results from those then I'm afraid you may be stuck without any other disks to boot from. This older OS does not have any tools built in for system repairs, so you really need to find a suitable 10.5 (or a copy of the original grey disks). Apple may sell you a 10.5 disk (do you have an Apple store nearby?) or you probably have to look on Amazon or Ebay etc.
I googled things to do and came across a link of rebooting the computer so I followed the steps. Now should I do the links first then try the code if that doesn't work?
It's up to you, resetting the NVRAM is practically harmless. Using safe mode may work depending on what type of fault you have.
I don't think you should have removed the AppleSetupDone file which is why I explained how to undo it. If you think it was a good idea & know better than me leave it as it is, having to go through setup can be tricky if the Mac is failing to work OK.
I did both things I'm at the Apple icon and it's loading. I didn't know I was removing that file
ibook g4 won't start up
