17" Powerbook partially starting up

Sorry if this is redundant, but I looked through the power issue posts and haven't found anything similar to what's going on here. Have a 17" Powerbook G4 (1.67GHz), pressing the power button will start it up (if connect to AC power), but there is no chime and the screen does not come on. A short time after powering on, it will disable the AC adapter and no longer take a charge from it. The adapter then has to be reset to use with anything else. Tried this with a 3rd party adapter and it was rendered completely useless. Have tried resetting the PMU, PRAM, etc. to no avail. Any suggestions?

There are only 4 components to the charging circuit - power adapter, battery, dc-in card, and logic board. It doesn't sound like a power adapter problem, you didn't say if the system will run on battery power alone or if there's any difference in startup if the battery is installed or not. So, not being able to eliminate the battery, let's place that aside for the moment. Is the socket on the Powerbook that the male plugs goes into loose? There's naturally a little play in it, but if it's loose, that would indicate a dc-in card problem. From what you described, I'd suggest a trip to your local Apple service center, as it sounds like an internal issue.

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Powerbook Doesnt Start Up! HELP PLEASE!

Please help my powerbook wont start up! It goes past the gray apple loading screen and then it moves on to a blue screen several minutes later... and never goes passed that point. Any suggestions? Please any help is greatly appreciated.

Well, I just had the exact same experience. It was preceded by about a week of increasingly slow application launch times. I tried putting the machine into firewire target mode - no luck. My DVD drive has been non-functional for about a month now, so couldn't boot off the OS DVD, but I do have a recent bootable backup on an external Firewire drive, so I connected it and booted off that. Ran Alsoft DiskWarrior, and got some very bad news: the hard drive has had a mechanical failure.
Prognosis: not good. Looks like I lost a week's worth of work (date of my most recent backup). The drive appears to be entirely unreadable at this point.

Powerbook G4 starts unexpectedly when lid opens

The Powerbook seems to shut down normally - HD spins down, screen goes black, sleep light is out, keyboard is unresponsive, etc. When I take the computer out of the case the next day and open the lid, the HD spins up (no startup chime), and the screen displays a large black rectangle over the login window. After a few seconds, the rectangle disappears, leaving the login window in the lower left quadrant. I can login normally and the PB works fine. The battery has partially discharged overnight, indicating that the computer was not actually shut down. I have reset the PMU and PRAM and repaired the HD and permissions. The battery is the original, purchased in 2003. It still takes a decent charge. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Discovered that the computer's Energy Saver prefs had been mysteriously changed to start up during the night.

My Apps wont open, and the computer (Powerbook G4) starts super slowly.

Every time I boot up, my Powerbook boots very slowly, sometime taking up to five minutes. In addition to that, I can't open any apps, except for Finder, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and the basic functional things like settings. By they won't open, I mean the icons will bounce for a while, then a box pops up that says, for example;
The application Microsoft Office Setup Assistant Quit unexpectedly.
Mac OS X and other applications are not affected.
Click Relaunch to launch the applicationagain. Click Report to see more details, or send a report to Apple.
I really need to be able to use Microsoft word and stuff for school, and I can't afford a new computer. I'm running OS X 10.5.8
I've browsed several sites, and I tried all of the following things:
Restarting in SafeBoot mode,
Making a new admin account to see if it launched quicker/ let me open apps (It didnt),
Pressing Control + Option + P + R (it worked once, but it hasnt worked since)
Used OnyX, (which now won't open either)
I checked to see what login items I had, and there weren't any.
Please help!
Thanks,
Avery
Also, I don't have any disks for this computer on hand, as it used to be a family friends. /:
Message was edited by: Avery.Apple.Green

Hello Avery,
I received an email notification about this topic even though I have this forum set to not send them so I think perhaps you sent it to me deliberately hoping I might have some ideas?
First of all I think we should concentrate on your not being able run your essential apps and the crashes. The disk repaired buttons being greyed out is usually because the account trying to do it doesn't have admin privileges. It's a good idea to create a spare account that has admin privileges incase anything should ever go wrong with your default account. From your post I think you know how to create a spare account via System Prefs.
I'm not sure whether we can fix the problem but we can try to identify it at least. If you have any irreplacable data on your PowerBook I think you should back it up as a priority and if you don't have a backup drive or can't afford one at the moment then beg or borrow one.
I don't want to alarm you but if it turns out that your PowerBook is finally giving up the ghost your precious data will have at least have been backed up and ready to restore to a replacement machine. Not long ago and in good condition a 12" aluminium PB G4, which I believe was 1.33GHz, sold on eBay for £45 ($72). Early white MacBooks still pop up too and are inexpensive and faster and more RAM than PB G4 so all is not lost. If we end up having to go down that route it might come in useful to make a note of this link:
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_g4/index-powerbook-g4.html
Paste it into Stickies or Text Edit as they don't require a lot of system resourses so should be stable when launched. If it turns out you need to replace any components the site will have links to suppliers. Using that link you'll also be able to check the detailed specs of any second-hand Mac being sold on eBay before purchasing.
It would be useful to know exactly which PowerBook you have and how much RAM is installed. Click the Apple logo top right of screen\About this Mac\More info.
My first inclination is that it sounds like a possible RAM problem, either faulty or not enough. You have 10.5.8 installed which might be the most recent OSX that you can upgrade to which we won't know until you let me know the exact model. That the case was with my PB G4 874GHz on which I had 1Gb of RAM installed (512MB is the official maximum but 1Gb worked fine and has been stable). I should say at this point that with 1Gb of RAM it was quite spritely running OSX10.4s but started to struggle when I upgraded to 10.5s. Did you upgrade only to 10.5 only recently I wonder?
Let's try this: go to Applications\Utilities\Activity Monitor\Memory and launch a couple of an app and see how if Activity Monitor is spiking. Start with light app like Stickies. While still monitoring open and use another app, perhaps text edit. Keep them open and playback soundfile perhaps, through a little player rather than iTunes if possible. Is it overloading? Once you've checked the memory do the same for the processor and the harddrive.
I've enabled this thread to receive emails so take some notes, set to with the various things I suggested if you think they might help, and get back to me when you have something. I'm working this afternoon (it's 09.58 here in the UK) but will be around this morning, later this evening and for some of Saturday. I may of course have already given it my best shot but I'm happy to help if I can. If we don't make any progress it might be worth compiling your posts from this forum and posting in the MacBook Pro forum as there are plenty of experts in there that might be able to help more than I can.
Good luck,
K

Powerbook wont start up after os 10.4.3 update

I recently installed the new os x update to my powerbook, along with other updates to airport and something else (I don't remember). The first two went fine, but durring the os x update, an error occured. I got a message telling me the file could not be extracted properly, and that I should restart or shut down my computer, so I shut it down and went to class. When I got home, I started it up to do some work and it never went past the white screen with the apple logo on it (that you would normally see at start up). I tried all of the troubleshooting tips in the user manual, imcluding inserting the CD to reformat or repair my harddrive, but the computer didn't even reconize that there was a CD in the drive, and now will not eject it either. Any sugestions? I would like to save my data, if possible, as most of it is only on that laptop. Thanks!

"...inserting the CD to reformat or repair..."
I trust this was the Tiger installer disk for your computer. If so first power down the Mac by holding down the power button. Then restart and hold down the c key. It should boot from the installer disk. Then try Utilities>Disk Utility>Repair Disk. Please report back.

Powerbook Lombard starts to the gray Apple - and that is ALL

My Lombard had 10.3.9 loaded on it for over a year with no hardware or other modifications. Then yesterday, I stupidly allowed Software Update to install a bunch of updates, including several security updates, itunes, and a few more. Anyway, after a little while, the computer crashed and, when I tried to restart it, all I got was the grey screen with the apple -- no spinning ball, nothing.
I have tried a lot of different things to fix this including:
- reset pram (ctrl-option-p-r)
- reset power management (reset button on back)
- boot into single user (Apple - S) did not work, would not boot into single user so no fsck
- boot into verbose (Apple - V) did not work
- load emergency OSX disc that I made -- wouldn't load
I was able to boot onto an OS 9 emergency disk, but that really only got me to the point of trying to boot into the OS 9 partition that I had on the hard drive. I selected it in Startup Disc, but no go.
So, after all this, I decided to take the HD out of the Lombard and plug it into my G4 Powerbook via USB drive. Using Disc Utility I repaired the disc (actually no repairs were needed) and the permissions, put it back into the Lombard. . . . and . . . . nothing. Same gray screen with the darker gray Apple.
So, I tried to wipe the OSX partition from the HD and reinstall OS X on it. I used Carbon Copy Cloner to copy my 10.4.3 partition from my G4 Powerbook. This worked fine, but when I plugged the HD back into the Lombard . . . . nothing.
I am pretty much out of ideas. Please help!!!
[Also, if you know, what is the name of the screw that holds in the HD to the cage on a Lombard. I need to get a screwdriver for that so I swap in another HD that I have to make sure that the HD I'm using isn't the problem (but Disc Utility says its fine and it reads fine via USB).]

M B1,
The prohibitory sign when booting to an OSX CD suggests a hardware issue. Here is the article on the prohibitory sign when booting to the HD:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106805
Here is an article on a no-start to CD (your issue):
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=88152
A few suggestions:
-I don't think the HD is a problem since you have zeroed/tested/installed 9.x/booted it successfully; something else is causing the boot to CD to fail.
-When you are booted to 9.x (HD or CD), open the System Profiler under the Apple menu and report what memory you have installed. You need at least 128MB and it can be split between the two RAM slots or all in the top or bottom.
-Check to see if the backside L2 cache memory is reported in the Profiler; you should have either 512K or 1MB depending on whether you have the 333MHz or 400MHz CPU. Also, cold boot (not restart) to 9.x, either from the HD or CD; if the L2 cache is damaged, you may get a warning dialogue at startup.
-You may have a Lombard with a microprocessor card that has this known issue: 9.x will run fine with the max of 512MB (2x256) but 10.x will fail with memory in the top slot. Leaving the top slot empty and using a 256MB module in the bottom allows 10.x to run normally. Please download and run this 9.x utility:
PPC Checker
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/G3CARDS/PPCchecker/
If this utility reports this...
PowerPC 750L (LoneStar, Rev2.2) Copper G3 PVR = 0x00088202
...then you have the CPU that cannot run RAM in the top slot.
-If you do not have the bad CPU and since you removed the top RAM module, you may have a bad bottom module. OSX is more sensitive to marginal RAM; 9.x may run fine but 10.x will complain.
-The bottom memory slot requires a low-profile module (1.5" or less, measured from the pins to the opposite edge). The top slot can take a standard-height module (2.0") or low-profile. Lift out the microprocessor card (very easy to do), turn it over and remove the bottom module. Replace the microprocessor card with the bottom slot empty and reinstall the RAM module that originally populated the top slot if it is at least 128MB in size. This will remove the question of a bad lower RAM card.
-MacOS 9.x's Drive Setup can fully prep the HD for both 9.x and 10.x; either is acceptable. I don't believe you need to zero again since it passed Test Disk in Drive Setup. (Don't use Disk First Aid.) When you initialize (erase the HD), you are given the option of HFS Standard or Extended; you want HFS+ (aka MacOS Extended). This is all you have to do when using 9.x's Drive Setup, located in the Utilities folder on the CD.

PowerBook G4 Start-up problem

Start-up problem ---
1. When I recently ran OnyX, I was told to run the Apple’s Disk Utility from the Start-up Disk.
2. However, before doing this, I ran the Disk Utility from the hard drive, but the program would not complete the “Repair” function. It just got “stuck” and I had to stop the repair.
3. While running the Disk Utility from the Start-up disk, I got the following message: “Disk Utility has lost its connection with the Disk Management Tool and cannot continue. Please quit and re-launch Disk Utility.”
4. I did quit and re-launch Disk Utility but received the same error message.
5. Took PowerBook to Apple store and technicians ran diagnostics (for several days), couldn’t identify problem even though computer wouldn’t start after they ran full set of diagnostics.
6. I reinstalled the OS 10.5 from scratch, reformatting my hard drive. Then, I re-installed all programs and documents, etc. Seemed to work OK.
7. Tried to run OnyX, but the computer froze. Ran Disk Utility from the start-up driver and it repair hundreds of permissions as well as “repair disk” function (hundreds of items).
8. While the PowerBook is running OK right now, am concerned about possible hardware failure.
Any thoughts/ideas?
Thanks.

Download Smart Utility from http://www.volitans-software.com/smart_utility.php . It will enable you to see the values of the SMART sensors, and can give you insight into the health of the drive.
When you ran repair disk from the OS X DVD, did it complete normally? No 'failure on exit' message?

Powerbook G3 start up problems

I have a Powerbook G3 firewire 500, 512ram, OS X.2.8. The Power management unit is not working correctly. I have to press the reset button to get the screen to come on every time I turn it on. If it goes into sleep mode,the screen will not come back on and the computer needs to be shut down and restarted after resetting PM unit. Have been doing this for about a year now. I used to press PM unit, press power button, hear a tone and then it would start up. Now I hear a second tone a few seconds after the first tone and no start up, just a HD spinning sound. I would like to get it running and retrieve info for new Macbook. Any suggestions?

B Rob,
If you cannot get the Pismo up and running, you can always remove the HD and buy a very inexpensive ATA > USB cable assembly that allows you to connect a bare HD to a USB port on a host computer. You can also put the HD in a USB or FireWire HD enclosure and not only transfer data but use the drive as a backup device.
OWC Unversal Hard Drive (ATA/IDE) to USB 2.0 Adapter - Plug and Play your HD via USB.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/bargains/
OWC 2.5" USB 2.0 HD enclosure:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MOTGU2/
OWC 2.5 FireWire HD enclosure. I prefer FireWire; there seem to be fewer problems than with USB 2.0 but it is more expensive, especially if you stay with the desired Oxford 911 chipset:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MOTGFW400/
Any number of failures can cause your startup woes: Failed backside L2 cache; bad AirPort card; bad microprocessor; bad logic board; bad power supply card. I would try this:
-remove the optical drive;
-remove the main battery (make sure the display is upright so the 'book doesn't tip backwards);
-disconnect the power adapter;
-remove the AirPort card if present;
-make sure the microprocessor card is fully seated: lift off keyboard > remove heat shield > remove top memory module > press down VERY hard on the right side of the microprocessor card next to the HD and nearest the palm rest...this is where the connector to the logic board resides.
http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac/PowerBook-G3-Pismo/6/
Without any reassembly, connect just the power adapter and try starting; reset power manager if necessary.
If no start but you do hear the startup chime, are you sure the HD spins up?

Powerbook wont start up

today after installing some software, my 15inch powerbook G4 wont start up. i get the grey apple screen, then the blue progess bar flashes up for a split second then it gets stuck on a solid blue screen.
so far i've tried repairing disk, repairing disk permissions, resetting the PRAM and resetting open firmware none have worked
anyone have any ideas that will save my having to completely reinstall os x?

FrontRow--Hmmm.
Any chance you tried the Intel version rather than the PPC?
Joe

Powerbook Aluminum Start up issue

Gurus,
I have a Powerbook G4 1 ghz, 1046, that has been laying around for a year or two, it had what I was guessing was a bad DC board, (I bought a macbook.) Now that the price of DC boards has come way down, I was thinking about fixing the powerbook and giving it to the squids...
It would be nice to separate them from the same desktop.
I took the old drive out of the mac and made it into an external USB drive and migrated my stuff to the new Laptop.
I have the new DC board in, put the old drive back in also, hit the power button, and the PB chimes, but nothing on the screen. I have one stick of ram and have tried using it in either slot. It is aftermaket ram, I think I sold the old ram on craigs. I had one stick left over, not sure how old it is and if an update had rendered it useless.
I am old and my memory fades. Also are there any pins on the drive that need to be inserted like slave or master?
I can hear the drive spin, but no blinking light or anything else. Should I try fresh new ram? I also have no battery, but don't see where that would matter.
TIA

yaqui: If you didn't change any jumpers on the Powerbook's drive when you took it out and mounted it in an external enclosure, then you certainly don't need to change any to put it back into the Powerbook and use it internally again. It's possible that you jerked the hard drive cable when you were disconnecting it, and caused it some damage. In that case you'll need to replace the cable (probably about $20).
But first, in case the cable is OK, try resetting the PMU:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1431
If that doesn't enable the machine to start, you may need to disconnect the PRAM battery. Presumably you've had the machine plugged into AC power for at least six hours since you began trying to revive it, and if the PRAM battery were able to take a charge, it would have taken one by now. If it can't, it may be preventing the machine from starting up, and disconnecting it should get it out of your way. You would then need to find a replacement PRAM battery if you want the computer to keep track of time and other parameters, and finding a good one might be difficult.

My Powerbook wont start!

Yesterday i was writing on my powerbook. I closed my "precious 17" " in sleep and put it in my bag. Five minutes later i wanted to write some more, and then it was off. There was much charge at my battery. I also tried to start it again with power, but nothing happens. I hear a little noice in one second whwn im pulling the start button, but thats it! What to do?
My one year warranty was out 14 days ago. (Not funny at all), but in Norway we have a five year buyers warranty. So, shall Apple Store fix this or what. They said I had to pay for it... It will cost a fortune!
Help me! (im apologize for my bad english, hope you understand) Sir Henden

Torgeir,
Welcome to Discrssions!
The first thing I'd would be to run Disk Repair. Boot from your install CD. Once it's done click on the Apple and select Disk Utility. Run Disk Repair to see if it resolves the problem.
If not then reset the PRAM. Here's the instructions.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238
If that doesn't do it reset the PMU. Here's some more instructions.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449#faq4
Good luck.

Powerbook not starting

Hi,
I can' t start my powerbook!
I get a screen with a question mark, then a folder and then the mac face.
And it's also making a tic tac tic tac noise like a bomb to explode.
I've tried resseting pram. I've looked for my leopard install cd but I couldn' t find it, I found the original tiger install cd though.
What should I do?
please help, thanks in advance

Try to start the machine in Single User Mode and run fsck:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1417
If any problems are reported to have been fixed, run fsck repeatedly until no further problems are reported. If it reports problems that it can't fix, you will have to use a more capable disk utility such as DiskWarrior, or reformat the hard drive and reinstall everything on it from scratch.
If Leopard is installed on the PB, do NOT start up from your Tiger installer disc and use Disk Utility's *Repair Disk* routine. You should only do that with an installer disc for the same or a newer major OS version than is installed on the hard drive — in this case that means a Leopard or Snow Leopard DVD. If you do find your Leopard installer disc, you can do it using that disc.

Powerbook only starts up in safe boot after kernal panic

Hi everyone,
Here is my problem, My mom.. lol was working on in mail and she though the powerbook crashed, thus she turned the machine off. When she tried starting up again, and it doesn't start up at all.. but gives an error message asking her to restart the system. Thus I did a little research on the internet.. and tried the varouis methods of trying to get the machine to startup into OS X, but it still keeps asking to restart the machine everytime I startsup. I did manage to get it to boot into safe mode /boot.. and then it works ok besides for the airport card that doesn't work. I've tried reinstalling the Tiger, with the archive and install setup.. but that doesn't work either. I'm probably going to have format and reinstall macosx, but i'd rather not because that would mean a lot of valuable info would be lost.. and, no.. I didn't make a recent back up.. stupid me. So, does anyone no what else I could try besides wiping the harddisk and doing a fresh install of Mac OS X Tiger??????? Please help..
Thank you,
Sebastiaan
Powerbook G4 1.5 12-inch Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Hey Matt,
I just though I'd let you know, and it might be handy for the other PoBo 12" inch users out there, it wasn't a software problem after all. I tried re-installing tiger, got the same you must restart the computer error message. So I tried putting the original software back on the machine, panther. Once again it gave the same error. So I remembered reading somewhere that the airport extreme card could occasionally cause the kernel panic if it became loose. So I tried removing the card and the system starts up perfectly. This also explains why the computer starts up in safe mode and gave the restart error when i tried booting it normally. Thus I reinstalled tiger for 3rd time, which work fine. I re-inserted airport card, and thank god.. no more errors. The only thing i don't understand about the whole deal is that my mom didn't drop the computer or expose it to heavy vibrations, this would explain how the card could become disconnected. In Apple's own hardware test, the airport extreme card was found to be functioning correctly. Odd, if you ask me..
Thanks anyway Matt for your help,
Sebastiaan

Help my powerbook wont start

Im having trouble starting my powerbook. When I turn on the computer first I see a folder with the question mark, then a grey screen with a black square in the middle saying that i need to restart my computer. I know its a Kernel panic. I tried to use the disk utility to repair it. It repairs but it still wont start up. I tried re-installing the software and it cant find a drive to install it. I try to turn it on in safe mode and a bunch of information about the kernel appears and at the end it says "panic: We are hanging here. . ." So i dont know what to do. Can someone help me please. Thank you so much.

It could be your ram. Inspect that is in place properly.

Help please, my Powerbook wont start after a crash...

Any help would be much appreciated as I'm in absolute panic! My Powerbook crashed after a modem/internet error and wont restart - the little light on the front 'breathes' until you open it and then it goes out when open. The restart/power button when held down will chime, then nothing happens - no restart. No lights or anything. The battery is charging, I've also tried taking the battery off and then restarting but still nothing. Am I not doing something really obvious? Can anyone point to what has happened, or is happening? Is it anything serious? Please help! Many thanks, JP

You could start in Single User Mode and do a File System Check (fsck).
Start the computer and hold down the s key until it starts.... it will be a text based interface. It should happen rather quickly.
After it is done displaying the start-up text.. you can type
fsck -f
remember the space between the k and the -
hit Return
you will have to type in your password...
It will check the disk.. and let you know if there were any errors.
If there are.. run the command again until it says "the file system is ok"
When you are done, type
reboot
then hit return
You computer should reboot.

17" Powerbook partially starting up

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