EMac running 10.4.X won't boot

Question

Hello All -
I am running an eMac that has been upgraded to 10.4.X (not sure what exact version) and it has been upgraded to 1 GB of memory, has the superdrive and 60 or 80 gig HD. It is about 4 years old. The OS upgrade to 10.4 was done a long time ago, this isn't a recent upgrade.
Now for the problem.
It won't boot. It gets to the 'white' page with the grey apple and the little spinning disk and just hangs.
I can't get it to 'safe boot'. When I do try to get it to safe boot, the hard drive appears to 'turn' a little bit longer, but the end result is the same (apple image plus spinning ring of death).
I can get it to the 'command line' (single user mode) by holding down the apple+'S' and I have tried a number of the items starting with item 4 from the following support page
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106464
even though it references 10.3.9 or lower, I saw another post that some of those steps might work.
I also tried the suggestion of applealt+PR and that didn't seem to help either.
I tried to hold down the 'option' key and select the volume to boot (only one volume to select on this machine) and that took me to the 'apple' and the spinning ring of death as well.
Any suggestions on what else to try are appreciated. I am happy to discuss 'cash' incentives to solve this problem.
Just to be clear, I am never getting to a login screen.
Thanks,
Laura
eMac   Mac OS X (10.4)   1 GB Memory, 60 or 80 GB HD, Super Drive
eMac   Mac OS X (10.4)   1 GB Memory, 60 or 80 GB HD, Super Drive

Answer 1

My advice is to break out two discs. First is the system disc that came with your eMac, the other is your 10.4 disc.
I would try starting the eMac in Visual Mode first. This involves holding Cmd+V when you boot. What we're looking for are any error messages, and at what point does the system hang.
If there are any I/O errors, or inabilities to read or write to files, I would put the 10.4 disc in the drive and boot from it (just boot holding Option, then click on the CD to install, don't worry). When the installer comes up, in the menu bar you should be able to find the Disk Utility. Once DU is open, check the S.M.A.R.T. status of your disk. If it's failing, you'll want to get a replacement, and see about trying to recover your data.
If there is no error on the 10.4 disk checking, this does NOT rule out the possibility of your disk failing, especially if you do notice any I/O errors. S.M.A.R.T. failure prediction only works about 40% of the time, so there's a wide margin for error.
If there is no S.M.A.R.T. warning, I would run the Disk Verification job in DU, and see what that turns up. I would also repair permissions, as that has been known to cause some problems.
If the disk check passes, there is no S.M.A.R.T. error, and no I/O errors, put your original system disc in the drive, and start the Apple Hardware Test. Instructions for booting into the AHT should be printed right on the disc, however holding Option at boot-up should show it as a bootable disk. Do the most thorough test the system will let you do, and see if it comes back with any errors.
If the AHT comes up with nothing, DU has nothing, and there are no I/O errors, then I'd have to ask what happened just prior to the system failing to boot. Depending on what happened, you might want to reinstall 10.4. You should be able to do this without overwriting your personal files, or without overwriting your applications. However, as far as many applications will be concerned, you never installed them, and you might be asked for serial numbers again.
iBook G4 12-inch (1 GHz PPC)   Mac OS X (10.4.9)   768 MB RAM, AirPort Extreme