G4 displays flashing question mark and blue face at start-up

like the title says, my powerbook refuses to go to the desktop and instead gives me a dark screen and in the center you can just make out a folder icon and on the folder icon flashes a question mark and then that picasso-esque blue smiley face. these two images flash sequentially, one after another.
this started happening about three days ago. the day it started, i got up, checked my email, and then shut the computer down. but then i saw the soft light flashing on the closed laptop that tells me that it is still on. so i figured that i hadn't completed the shut down process all the way. i opened the laptop and almost knocked it off the perch it was on. i grabbed it in time to prevent it from falling, but in the process i mashed some buttons with my thumb. when i turned on the computer, it briefly flashed the desktop and then went dark and started flashing the icons as i described above.
i am in japan right now, so getting ahold of apple in the states is somewhat difficult. any amount of help is very much appreciated. i've already tried a full shutdown by taking the battery out and holding down the power button for 5 seconds, as described on the apple website. this didn't work. i'm not sure which version of OS i have, but i'm pretty sure it is at least 10.0. i got the computer last year right as tiger was coming out.

also, the power icon on the power button is not showing any light, and it wasn't showing any light for a day or so before this event happened.

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Message was edited by: Tony Hague

It sounds like you may have an intermittent issue with that hard drive. I would get it replaced--especially if it's under warranty.
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(105838)

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Hey there! I am hoping one of you folks can help.
I noticed my iMac running really slow.
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I think you are going in a totally wrong direction. Your profile indicates you have Leopard (10.5.X) however I don't believe that what you recently purchased. I think you purchased Snow Leopard (10.6.X), these are two totally different OS's! Unless you got extremely lucky and found someone selling 10.5.x then naturally you would have the problem you did trying to boot from it. My advice is:
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Not booting from DVD drive | Flashing Question mark and face folder S

Hey there! I am hoping one of you folks can help.
I noticed my iMac running really slow.
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Hey,
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