12.1" G4 IBook shut off this morning on it's own.... won't start back up.

Question

Hi everyone,
I have a 12.1" 1.2 GHZ G4 IBook. I've been using it with little to no problems, up until the last week or two... which culminated this morning. I could use some advice/ help if you all so inclined.
Let me preface this by saying that in the last week or so, I've had 2 times that the backlight seemed to go out. It's never done that before, and after resetting the PMU etc it seemed to be just fine.
Cut to this morning...
I was on the IBook checking a few things online and stepped out of the room. I came back in the room and while reaching for the Ibook (and looking at the screen), I saw (and I think "heard") the computer shut off. I thought that maybe the backlight went out again or finally died, but when I tried a restart, it did nothing.
I've tried several key combos but nothing seems to do anything. I've unplugged the computer, taken out the battery (which reads fully charged) then tried and still nothing.
I have had no processor or HD issues with the laptop, so I'm guessing (optimistically) that it's a hardware issue perhaps and that the HD is intact and can be pulled. I've got virtually everything backed up on my external, but you know there's always some stuff that isn't.
Does anyone have any advice? I know a pretty decent amount about Macs, but this is getting out of my realm of knowledge and could use some assistance. I wonder if it's possibly a logic or motherboard issue, but that's just an uninformed guess and I could be WAY off base.
I've got a few emails out right now to see if I can pick up a used IBook off Craigslist to swap my HD into (as an aside.... am I limited in G4 IBooks I can put this one into as far as screen size models etc) but if it is something I could possibly take care of, that would be great.
Any advice, suggestions, tips or help would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks,
Jeff

Answer 1

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
Does your iBook show any signs of life at all--drive noise? startup chime? anything? If nothing at all, it sounds like a power problem of some sort. In that case, chances are that your hard drive may well be OK, and is just not getting power.
Did any of your key combos include resetting the PRAM?
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379?viewlocale=en_US
You might want to try the steps in this article to see if anything helps:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA25686?viewlocale=en_US
If you decide to get another iBook, you should try to get one that is exactly the same build as your current iBook, as the OS is optimized for each individual build. With an iBook of a different build, there might be problems with your hard drive working properly.
You could also put your iBook's drive in an external enclosure, and access your files that way. If you did that, you could move them to any computer.
If you have access to an Apple Store, it may be that they could try booting your iBook from the store feed and running their hardware test on it. That wouldn't cost anything, and it could tell you exactly what you are dealing with.
It's probably worth making the effort to see if you can get your iBook to boot up. If it is truly dead, then you can look into alternatives.
Good luck!