Help! my iBook won't boot

A couple nights ago I finally got around to doing the most recent software update for my iBook G4. While it was re-booting it froze in a really wierd way (patches of random colors on the screen) and since then, I haven't been able to get it to boot.
It gets past the screen with the Apple logo (slowly, but it does get past it), but after that it goes to what normally turns into the login screen but it never loads and stays frozen on a gray screen and the little window even opens, but nothing ever shows up in it.
I've already tried booting from installation disc 1. It said that it fixed some problems with my hard drive when I did the "HD first aid" (I think that's what it's called). But when I re-booted, it did the exact same thing as before.
I was worried that the problem may have been that I ran out of disc space when I did the update, but when I booted from the disc, it said I had 3 GB or so left on my hard drive.
I've had no problems with my iBook whatsoever until the night I did the software update, so I am thinking this has something to do with that.
Any help would be greatly appreciated! I am trying to get this fixed before I go back to class next week.

Hi,
Welcome to the Discussions.
It sounds like an incomplete update (or corrupted one). If you have another Mac available you could connect the two via firewire and start the iBook in Firewire target mode then download the Combined Update (either 10.3.9 or 10.4.9) from the downloads page and reinstall it.
If you don't have another Mac available you can try an Archive and Install (click on Options and choose "Preserve Users and Network Settings"). You may not be able to do it with only 3GB of space but it's worth trying. You'll need to reinstall the updates but go to the download page and get the appropriate Combo Update.
John

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Hello,
I'm currently in Yemen for a few months and my ibook seems to have died on me. The country isn't exactly brimming with Apple support technicians so any advice or suggestions people could give me would be really appreciated.
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I ran the Apple Hardware Check CD, but everything came up clean. I also ran Norton Utilities Disk Warrier and it found Major Errors in some of the directories (I have the list at home if that would help) all of which it said it fixed. However, it wasn't able to complete checking the HD, at one point it tried to find some files and never was able to get any further in the check - it would just sit for hours with no progress. When I tried rebooting the computer on its own it got no further than a gray screen.
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Three years ago the laptop had major problems and basically died, but went into Apple and seemed to have been fixed and had the logic board replaced. After this point I got a new laptop (which I'm hiting myself for not bringing with me at this point) and haven't really used this computer frequently - maybe 5 to 10 times in the last 3 years, it really is a "spare" laptop. I used it for about a week before coming and it seemed to be working fine.
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Hi, and welcome to Apple Discussions.
Which utility did you use on the iBook? Was it Norton DiskDoctor or Alsoft's DiskWarrior? They are two entirely different things.
Norton DiskDoctor was developed for OS 9. It doesn't recognize OS X as a legitimate operating system, identifies OS X as "errors" on your drive, and sets about "fixing" those errors, really messing things up in the process. (It does this even if you run it in OS 9 on a drive that has OS X on it.)
Apple calls the sign you are seeing when trying to boot from the CD a "prohibitory sign."
Check out this Apple Knowledge Base article on what to do about a prohibitory sign at startup:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106805
Maybe something there will help.

IBook won't boot, stops at gray screen--HELP

I couldn't find this exact topic at first glance and I am hoping someone can help me. My ibook is about 5 years old and has only really crashed on my once 2 years ago but I was able to reinstall the OS and go on my way. This time, however, nothing works. I tried to boot up yesterday and the gray screen appeared and that was it along with a strange buzzing sound. I tried Disk Warrior, wouldn't even boot off that. Also tried booting off system disk 1 and didn't get past the language screen, just hung up with that buzz again.
Does this sound like a logic board issue? Can it be rescued?
Thanks in advance for any help!

I'm not sure if the computer can be checked out at home in such a way
in its present state, to see if there is a logic board failure behind it, now,
or not. There could be a hard disk drive failure, or ATA controller failure;
and a short list of other possibilities, best checked over by a specialist.
Certain keyboard commands and things could be tried (and I usually
assume they'd been tried before asking here, but that's often not so)
just to see if one or more of them could get a rise out of the dead Mac.
Be sure, if you can get the installer disc to boot the Mac, that you
try and use the Disk Utility to repair disc; maybe more than once;
and do not try to just reinstall an Archive and Install. The HDD may
have corruption issues and it may need low-level zero-data and re-
formatting before a new system could go on there, if it worked at all.
{Even trying to reset PRAM/NVRAM and then seeing if you can get
the bootable OSX installer disc to start up the Mac could be OK.
Maybe that PMU reset, as a last resort? It probably won't hurt...}
A system on an external bootable enclosed hard disk drive could be
used by a tech or a prepared home-tech owner, and a clone of the
machine's system then attempted to be used to boot the ailing Mac.
If the optical drive and other components relying on the logic board
are dysfunctional due to a defect on that main board, most external
devices may also have a hard time trying to use these methods of
outside efforts to troubleshoot be nominally successful.
There may be a way a tech can use an second computer to get
data off the drive in your iBook, should it come to that, by using
the FireWire Target Disk mode and see if your iBook can start
and act like an external hard disk drive. A copy of the drive's
content or parts of it may be made by the second healthy Mac.
A clone (perhaps not bootable if data on it is damaged and not
recoverable) could be made if the second healthy computer has
a clone utility and also an external drive it can copy/clone the
iBook's drive content over to. This may be asking too much;
but the home user who has stuff on hand could do it shortly.
Anyway, there are some ideas online, if you can search google
and choose appropriate words; I looked but you may need to
read through several different source links to see if anything
sounds like it may work. re: iBook won't start past grey screen
Some users have tried resetting the PMU, others tried NVRAM
and PRAM; a few tried SafeBoot to see if the system was OK
enough to load in a reduced startup mode; maybe where the
system's own Disk Utility could be ran to at least fix permissions.
And of these, if it is truly a logic board or a failed hard disk drive,
they won't really do much. Probably no harm; and that is part
of what troubleshooting is all about, working with zeros and ones!
Good luck & happy computing!
edited to add a chapter.

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Hi from another idiot iMac user (I last posted when I spilled a glass of water on my desktop's keyboard...)
I dropped my iBook G4 on the stairs this morning Since it sort of slid down the carpeting I thought I'd be OK but it was just like the other used described - Apple logo, spinning startup icon, a few clicks and whirrs then nothing.
I followed your instructions below, and the Installer loaded. I have clicked on Introduction, agreed with the licensing, selected a destination (clicked on HD), but then I got a message "You cannot install Mac OS X on this volume without changing your install settings. Click Options to change settings. A newer version of Mac OS is installed."
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Clamshell iBook Won't Boot from Jaguar CD (v10.2.3)

Branching off from a prior thread (https://discussions.apple.com/message/13222609#13222609) in which booting from an OS X CD was a potential solution to a problem, the problem encountered with the potential solution warrants its own thread.
My machine is a Clamshell iBook (G3), Revision B (with 64MB base RAM and no FireWire). It was purchased new eleven years ago and later ugpraded to 192MB RAM.
The OS on the hard drive was 9.0.2 until yesterday, when I updated it to 9.1 so I could bring the firmware up to date. I did this before attempting to use the Jaguar CD.
The CD in question is an original Jaguar install CD, version 10.2.3. This is a two-disc set (the discs are labeled 1 and 2) and is a retail version; my iBook was manufactured prior to the release of OS X (non-server) and does not have an OEM OS X disc.
When the iBook attempts to boot from the CD, either by pressing "C" at startup or by running the Installer from OS 9.1, it seems to be loading fine until the following appears:
At this point, the iBook won't load any further and a restart is required.
The iBook does boot an OS X Cheetah (10.0) CD as well as its own restore disc (9.0.2) and the 9.1 disc that came with Cheetah. Unfortunately, Cheetah doesn't seem to have any effect on the battery (this is why I'm booting with an OS X CD; see the posts in the other thread for details). I don't have any other retail CD versions of OS X to try (aside from a Snow Leopard DVD).
Aside from this boot problem and the battery issue (the computer won't recognize the battery and displays an "X" through it even after having charged it with an external charger) the iBook is working perfectly fine.

No. I get the "X" through the battery in the menu bar and no bars, just a plug icon, in the control strip under OS 9.
The battery is a year old and has never been recognized by this computer. I don't have another Clamshell to test it in but did verify that it can charge in a VST charger.
The last time the computer recognized a battery was about 6 years ago when the initial batteries were still in use. Both were completely depleted after my charger shorted out; they didn't charge again after I got a new charger. The batteries were healthy at the time and were able to hold 3-4 hours, which was pretty typical mileage for me on this laptop.

IBook won't boot up after a rest..

I hava the most weird problem with my iBook..
As I have it running, it works just fine.
I can boot it up, install software and do all sorts of things with it but when I turn it off and let it stay like that for like couple of hours, it won't boot up no more.
With the OS disk I can revive it, just now it took 5 tries, but it started and now as I shut it down and turn it on again there is no problem. But yet again, if I let it stand there for a hour or two, we are back in with the same problem, it won't finf the boot disk and needs to be revived with the OS intallation disk.
I reinstalled the whole (clean install) system today, had everything set up and installed all my software and such and there was no problem during the whole day, but now I had it turned off for few hours, it's just the same..
What might be the problem??

Now there is a new HD and it works better than this iBook has ever done.
That's great! Glad that resolved your issue.
So, problem solved, not in a conventional way but solved.
Well, actually, pretty conventional. The average life of an internal HDD in a laptop is approximately 3 to 5 years, and even if they survive beyond that they can fail suddenly or else continue with progressively degraded performance until they expire. The new HDDs have larger capacities and faster rotational speeds, both of which significantly boost performance.
Good luck.
cornelius
Thanks for leaving feedback in Apple Discussions by marking the "solved" post.

HELP! Comp Won't Boot!

HI. I have a computer that i just finished putting together a couple oif days ago and for some strange reason it wont boot. The D Bracket shows led 1,2, and 4 red, while 3 is green. This is "Initializing Keyboard Controller." I have tried removing the battery and setting the jumper to clear to clear CMOS but still it won't boot. My screen dosen't come on and the only thing that really happens is the fans spin. I haven't reset any settings on my Mobo. I have my Win XP disk in the CD drive because I don't have an OS installed yet but it won't start. Can anyone Help Me PLEASE!!!

First of all - have you tried another keyboard ( ordinarie ps/2 ).
Other things that could give strange problems;
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Hi.
To use the FireWire Target Disk Mode, proceed as follows:
Turn off your iBook.
Disconnect any FireWire peripheral from both systems.
Hook both machines with a 6pin FireWire cable.
Plug your iBook AC power adapter.
Turn the iBook while holding the T key, until you see a FireWire icon on the display.
The iBook should mount on the other Mac Desktop.
On the desktop computer, open Disk Utility, and try to repair the iBook boot volume. In order to make a successful disk repair, the desktop system has to run the same OS X version as the iBook. You should never attempt to repair a disk with a version of Disk Utility from other OS X iteration.
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Try a different power adapter. Maybe one of your friends has a clamshell or a black G3 PowerBook.
It is a known issue that the cable connection between the yoyo power adapter near the plug breaks easily after some years of use - so don't give up too soon.
Next thing would be the DC-in board.
http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac/iBook-G3-Clamshell/DC-In-Board/49/12/Page-1
When the plug goes in and out a thousand times it looses its contact and needs to be resoldered.
Sometimes the DC-in board is fried and the logicboard is still working.

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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
7. Help?
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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Please help.
My MSI GT60 laptop won't boot past the MSI logo.
I also can't access the BIOS.

Quote from: rob.kernaghan on 10-January-15, 03:07:55
Please help.
My MSI GT60 laptop won't boot past the MSI logo.
I also can't access the BIOS.
so your laptop freezes at MSI logo and if you spam or press DELETE button few times on boot do you then only get "-" line? if so then either it's bios has hanged itself so if your able to access cmos battery from back area where you can access hard drive, ram and such then disconnect cmos battery leave it disconnected for 15 mins also make sure ac and battery is disconnected to once done put cmos battery back and then actuall battery and try with starting the laptop and see if it passes by MSI logo if it hangs again at MSI logo then spam Delete and see if you can enter bios but if bios throws an black screen with "-" again then you would have to RMA your laptop since it sems something is wrong with your motherboard causing bios not wanting to work propertly.

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All all...
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Was your system working and it stopped ? If so what did you last change ?
Or are you setting it up for the first time and it won't boot ?
What brand of memory and which CPU ?
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Answers to these questions should let us give you some suggestions of other things to try.
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Hi,
I have in my possession my Sisters 14" iBook G4. It boots with the grey Apple logo but then freezes at the blue screen. I'm guessing it's either the hard drive or logic board, does anyone have a procedure to follow to diagnose the fault? I don't have the original discs but do have a 10.5 retail box.
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Spudnuty - I think you might want to hear this...
I just bought an ibook G4 1.2Ghz "Late 2004" model off of ebay, had the blue screen problem. I bought it because I thought it might have been the OS (freeze at login) and the previous owner didn't know, but it was an actual freeze... actually froze a few times while at the spinning wheel at startup, and would randomly display a dark blue screen sometimes at startup.
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pbb

Thankfully the machine has come back.
I tried a couple of cmos/battery clears, with no success.
Then I took out one stick of memory, cleared the cmos and it all worked on rebooting!
I put back the memory slug, cleared cmos again and it continues to work!!
What a relief - thanks xmad.

Help! my iBook won't boot

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