Computer doesn't boot. can't boot from install discs

my quicksilver g4 running on os 10.3.9 has been booting up very, very slowly and once booted running slowly as well. so i was able to verify & repair permissions. however then the computer wouldn't boot up from the boot drive at all. i tried booting up from the install discs but when i tell it to boot up from the install disc it keeps returning to the installation menu. none of my installation discs (3) actually say on the label that they can booted from so i'm wondering if they're bootable. i try to run disk utility but it says it reading configuration for a very long time and never goes anywhere. i was able to run the hardware tests and it tells the video ram test failed with error code disp/13/2. can anyone shed some light on this mess? thanks.

Hi! The video card failed test could be the result of the machine having a different card than the stock one that came in it or it could mean it's actually bad. The install discs are bootable by definition "IF" they are the correct ones for that machine. Retail OSX install discs are bootable but machine specific discs are only bootable on specific machines. The slow boot could be a bad hard drive. I would unhook the hard drive and try booting from the install disc to see if it will boot that way. Hold the "c" key down at startup with the disc inserted. Tom

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    Message was edited by: a brody

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