G4 Powerbook won't boot following 10.4.11 update installation

I successfully installed the 10.4.11 upgrade today, along with the latest version of QT. Upon reboot, I am able to reach the login box to enter my user ID/password but the desktop will not appear. Instead, I get a solid blue screen with the cursor being the only functional item.
Prior to the upgrade, I repaired permissions. After the upgrade and subsequent problem, I tried a few things:
1) I went into terminal mode and ran fsck; report indicated all as OK.
2) I booted from the E-drive I have partitioned on the PB and ran disk utility and Tech Tools Pro; no major problems noted.
3) Finally, I connected the laptop to another computer and booted it up in Target mode; hard drive + E-drive both appear with contents of each visible and accessible, including folders related to the upgrades.
That's as far as I can go and need assistance, please.
Thanks!

Couple of things to try...
applesetupdone...
This was Posted by: JoseAranda at September 9, 2006 3:48 AM
"OK, restart your computer, hold down Command-s and type in the following:
/sbin/fsck -fy Enter
/sbin/mount -uaw Enter
rm /var/db/.applesetupdone Enter
# The rm command is the remove command which deletes the file.
# Robert: I'd rename the file via: mv /var/db/.applesetupdone /var/db/.applesetupdone.old
reboot Enter
Once you've done that the computer reboots and it's like the first time you used the machine. Your old accounts are all safe. From there you just change all other account passwords in the account preferences!!
end of posted by: JoseAranda"
Reset OS X Password Without an OS X CD...
http://theappleblog.com/2008/06/22/reset-os-x-password-without-an-os-x-cd/

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Message was edited by: MixtapeChick

MixtapeChick:
Welcome to Apple Discussions. Congratulations on your "new" PowerBook. I suggest that you begin with this combination procedure:
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• Locate the following keys: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously later.
• Turn on the computer.
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Hi, Pat. How much time did you give DW to complete its work? Locating the data it needs to rebuild your directory can take a while — that's the step at which DW far outperforms other utilities. It digs deeper and tries harder than anything else, and that can take a long time. The longest successful DW "fix" I've seen reported here in the seven and a half years I've been participating in Apple Discussions was *14 days* of continuous work to find the necessary data and reconstruct a hard drive directory from it. That was after all other disk utilities had been tried and had failed; it was the user's last hope to save data that hadn't been backed up anywhere. If you haven't allowed DW at least a few hours to accomplish its task, give it another chance. And don't try to use the computer for anything at all while DW is working.

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Did you run the correct version of DiskWarroir on that drive?
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(Originally posted as topic "will only boot when in Verbose mode")
When booting up, my PowerBook only gets as far as the initial black screen and audio chime. After approx. 20 seconds the hard disk/super-drive dies with a high-pitched squeak, just before it was supposed to show the grey screen and then the Apple logo.
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Could it be caused by a problem with a faulty video DVI adaptor or socket? (plugs in directly under the power switch - I got an unwanted power-down message as I unplugged the adaptor tonight). The last time the machine worked ok was when I had it plugged in to a multimedia projector throught the DVI adapter.

I'm pretty sure it's not an issue with the OS.
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* A vanilla Snow Leopard install on the same (not working disk, but 2nd partition) won't boot either. If the issue was with the system this one would boot.
* Erasing this second partition didn't help.
(I've already done all the above suggestions using Single user mode etc.)
Now a similar issue reported here:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=501768
suggests using fdisk to make the boot disk 'active'.
+A common mantra provided here to newbies for setting up for installation is:+
+Make the partition Primary+
+Make the partition ID=AF (signifies an HFS partition)+
+Make the partition Active+
+There is a built-in Unix utility in MacOSX that can be used to set your partition "Active". It is called Fdisk+
However, when I use Fdisk my disk reports a negative size:
fdisk: 1> p
Disk: /dev/rdisk3 geometry: -5415437/4/63 [-1364690128 sectors]
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Hello Mac Users;
I'm looking for some help! I was just sitting here at my desk playing a game on my pc, when I look over at my powerbook, an update has come up. Itunes and Mac OSX update. I reach over to do the update, type in my password, close Itunes, update goes through the process. Finishes the update, and then says I need to restart. I restart the Powerbook, and says something about entourage fails, and the ball just continues to turn for about 15-20min. I panic, press and hold the power button to turn it off. I restart the Powerbook, and hear the ding like it is going to start up, but the display is blank, upon further investigation, I can see the apple in the back ground and the gear turning. The backlight isn't coming on, and the fans will turn on when I power it off, and power it on.. I think I have reset the pvram or whatever, by taking battery out, and holding down powerbutton for 5 secs, I power it back up and still doing the same thing. What happened, and is there anyway for me to get this fixed? I do have apple care, but last time they had to replace the logic board it took 2 weeks. I would try to put in the tiger cd, except I watch the movie Blow this afternoon on it, and it is still in there. I tried to eject the dvd and it won't do anything.
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Cliffs;
1. update
2. won't boot
3. lcd backlight not on;
4. can see apple and gear
5. tried pvram reset
6. dvd in drive
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17" Powerbook G4 1.67ghz

Hello Brandy,
If you cant see the screen at all, or if its very dark...like theres no backlight, i would suggest this to remove the disc.
immediatley after boot chime, press and hold the mouse button on the trackpad. this will automatically eject the disc in the drive, and make life easier for you.
also, try(seperately to removing the disc), after you hear the boot chime, press and hold apple-option-P-R, all together, untill you hear a second and 3rd boot chime then let them go. this may help revive your screen. otherwise, take it on in to the apple service provider. hopefully its something simple, but you never can tell.
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I'm posting a problem I'm having with my powerbook in the hope someone can give me advice as to what the problem could be. Or how i can fix it.
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The laptop just won't boot, but I know power is being transmitted as the CapsLock light works, as does the NumLock (which is oddly activated by pressing F5).
Any suggestions/ideas on what the issue can be? Is it a dead mainboard/logic board? Or DCtoDC board?
Any suggestions/help would be greatly appreciated.

I found many others with the same issues.
Maybe we can read through their stories and find a solution???
http://www.pinoymac.org/forum/showthread.php?t=18510
http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=65275
http://www.maclife.com/forums/topic/74915
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=64020
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=110684
http://www.applefritter.com/node/18912
http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/powerbookg4/topic2813.html#d06nov2006
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7589764
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=733150&tstart=626
http://macosx.com/tech-support/mac/powerbook-g4-boot-problem/334350.html
http://lists.debian.org/debian-powerpc/2002/01/msg00288.html
http://www.pinoymac.org/forum/showthread.php?t=15844

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Hello all,
Thanks for all of your great suggestions and info-- here are a few responses.
1) The disk I just borrowed from my friend appears to be the full retail version-- it looks just like the links that Ali B sent, and is in a large box saying "Mac OSX Tiger, version 10.4"... will this be the proper disk to do an Erase and Install? The only other disks I have came with my Powerbook when it was originally purchased, when it came Panther (I think, 10.3?). Would I use both sets of these disks to do erase and install? Or only the Tiger OSX disks?
2) I get the sense that Disk Warrior or Tech Tool might be necessary, but does it make sense to TRY to do erase-install before buying them? Also, are there any downloadable (for pay) versions of this, or would I need to track down the actual physical disks in Hong Kong or wait for them to be shipped?
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4) Cornelius said: "An alternative would be to completely reformat and erase the entire HDD, then re-install and restore your data from backup. If your backup is in the form of a bootable clone of the entire HDD, you can just clone it back." I use Super-Duper to back-up and the most recent one copied the whole thing-- what would be the later procedure of "cloning it back"?
5) As I'm able to use my computer pretty normally right now, but does it still mean that it might crash/die at any moment? Is there any way to tell?
Thanks so much!

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Hi Neodoc,
Welcome to the Apple Support Communities! I understand that your MacBook Pro will not boot past the Apple logo. There may be a few troubleshooting steps I would recommend for this situation. The following article outlines the steps to perform to get this resolved for you.
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