Help! My G5 has crashed & now it won't start up!

Hi,
I was wondering if anyone could give me any tips as I'm at a complete loss!
My G5 has been crashing regularly for the last couple of months. I can use it for hours and it's ok and then it'll crash suddenly and will continue to do so several times. It was crashing in several ways, sometimes the computer would just freeze & the mouse etc wouldn't work. Other times the screen would fade out and a message would appear in the centre of the screen telling me to restart. Other times it would fade out and writing would appear all down the screen (code).
I've been unsure what to do about this anyway, it crashed no matter what I was doing so it wasn't a particular programme (I know firefox can cause this but I stopped using it and the crashing continued!).
*Anyway, it crashed again last night and now it doesn't start back up!* When I press the power button it does start but the screen doesn't come on and the computer doesn't sound like it is starting up properly. It isn't getting to the stage where I can open the disk drive so I can't put the startup CD in.
Does anyone have any ideas what I can do? I'm by no means a computer expert so please keep it simple!
Many thanks,
Helen

If, the next time you try to start the computer, you hold down BOTH the mouse button AND the Option key a couple of things should happen (and this is all from my limited knowledge, trying this myself)--the CD ROM drawer will pop out (release the mouse now), and a screen should come up that gives you the option of booting from either the hard disk, or the CD ROM, but the CD ROM won't yet be displayed.
Put your operating system disk in and manually close the drawer.
Wait a minute and then click on the refresh icon.
The CD ROM should now be displayed.
Click on that icon.
The next screen, or folder, should have a "Hardeware test" button on it, either quick or extended.
Choose which on you'd like to run (I recommend the extended check as it found a problem with mine that the quick test did not!)You can watch the progress right on the folder, and the report may give you an idea of what might be wrong.
To continue, if you like, under one of the items on the task bar is a "Disk Utility" (I forget which button it's under) open this.
Then, in order, run the Disk Verify, then the Disk repair. That may solve all your problems-unless, of course, like me, your hard drive is fried! Mine's sitting on the desk now waiting for replacement!

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Message was edited by: Euain_ *add-on*

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http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1923
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