I killed my powerbook

Late last night my powerbook took about a two-foot fall onto a wooden floor. It turned off, i turned it back on and i got no apple boot chime, after a few seconds i got the apple boot screen, i happily walked off for a glass of water and came back to find a "no entry" sign (what i originally called the 'no smoking' sign without the cigarrette) - i went to the apple store this morning, they plugged in a firewire volume, it booted, my drive was in tact. i went back to the office, plugged the powerbook into a powermac via firewire booted with a "T" option and backed up all my data. I verified the disk in disk utility, it showed two errors, i "repaired" and the errors were gone. I verified again and no errors. Still, a "no entry" sign.
Back to Apple store, he told me to pop in an OSX disk, boot with "C" and format and re-install. I have a tiger disk which i used, the computer came with 10.3. When i boot with "C" i hear the CD-ROM spin (still no start chime) and it eventually stops spinning and after a minute or so proceeds back to my "no entry".
When i boot holding "option" it shows the Macintosh HD and the OSX Disc, i tried going to the OSX disc, same thing, CD spins (while showing apple boot screen), eventually stops spinning, then goes to "no entry" sign.
Please help. Thanks!

One of two.
Likely your Hd got damaged / scratched like a old LP player with LP disk.
Or your Motherboard got some damage around the mounting screw holding it all in place.
It could be that a connector is not making good contact to your Hard drive.
If you can connect it to the firewire connection and partition / erase it from the other Mac and then do a normal install using disks "c" if this fails you can or a Apple technician can replace the hard drive as likely it got some damage.
Also remove all power or reset the Mac with I think shiftaltoption or something like this and then remove all power for 5 minutes and try installing again.

Similar Messages

Can 10.5 Upgrade Kill a Powerbook G4?

Hello,
Powerbook G4 1Ghz, 1GB memory - was running 10.4.10 with no problems. Tried to upgrade to 10.5. I could never get the upgrade to finish (kernel panics, core dumps, etc.). Tried every option, including a complete erase of the hard drive and fresh install. The upgrade would always crash mid-way through. Finally gave up and decided to go back to 10.4.
Now I can't even get the 10.4 install to work. It crashes too (kernel panic). I've erased the disk several times including a complete wipe using disk utility.
I've done the alt-option-P-R reset several times and have also reset the PMU. Nothing works.
Is it possible that the 10.5 upgrade killed my machine or is it just a coincidence? The machine is pretty old.
Any suggestions welcomed.
btw, is this something that the Genius Bar at an Apple Store could fix for a fee?
Thanks,
Mark

Yes. Leopard can damage hardware. See my long-winded post here.
It ***. Out of Applecare, and new logic boards cost as much as your lappy goes for on Craigslist. I hardly think Apple will pony up to fix our hardware - or admit to it.
Before giving up, I'd try an open firmware reset.
option-apple-O-F
reset-nvram
reset-all
That took care of mine. Of course, it didn't live much longer after that. You may have better luck.
I'd run the Apple Hardware Test (hold down option while booting from your original install disks that came with it) a bunch of times, and see what you come up with.

10.4.5 killed my PowerBook. Anyone else?

Installed update, now I have blank screen on startup, no ability to use firewire target disk mode, can't boot off of disk, apple care says 'send it in'.
Powerbook was A-OK until the update, restarted after the update and now it's dead.
Anyone else have this experience?

10.4.5 did not kill it. It appears it merely reinforced an underlying condition in your machine you had not seen before that was tenuous.
A blank screen at startup sometimes though can be something as simple as a power manager issue which can be fixed with this article:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449
10.4.5 will normally not have any bad side effects. Though a good idea prior to any update is to backup your data:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html
Disclaimer: Reference to links I make to my Macmaps.com website are a for your information only type reference. I do not get any profit from this page, and it is open to the public.

10.4.8 killed my powerbook! Help!! :O

I went a long time without installing any updates on my powerbook so today I figured I would update to 10.4.8 from 10.4.6 among other things. After it installed, my powerbook restarted like usual and then restarted again but this time spent about 20 minutes on the screen with the apple logo and the little whirling thing underneath.
I took it to a mac genius who tried some stuff and told me that he could not fix it--that I must do an archive and install otherwise he would charge me for it. I went home and tried to fix permissions first and I got this message:
-Keys out of order.
-Rebuilding Catalog B-tree.
-The volume Macintosh HD could not be repaired.
-Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit.
-1 HFS volume checked
-1 volume could not be repaired
-Repair attempted on 1 volume
-1 volume could not be repaired...
Great! So I just resigned myself to doing an archive and install and when I get to the screen to select the destination volume, nothing appears!
I have not backed up my data either so desperately need to copy the files somehow...
A simple OS update gone wrong!
What can I do?
15" PowerBook G4 1.67Ghz 2GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.6) Logic 7 / Yamaha C5 & MO8

Glad to help. If you are lucky you'll recover your files. Once that is completed be sure to do the following before reinstalling OS X:
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disk. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. Then select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger.)
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the number of partitions from the dropdown menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled, if supported.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the volume(s) mount on the Desktop.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled, if supported.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process will take 30 minutes to an hour or more depending upon the drive size.
After the formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Now proceed with the installation. After you get a successful installation going you can restore your files from the backup.
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Ipod nanos killed by powerbook g4

I have a powerbook g4 (1.5 GHz running 10.4.11 with itunes 7.5) and I recently purchased an 8GB ipod nano. I synched the ipod with itunes and shortly thereafter the ipod stopped functioning. I exchanged the ipod thinking it was defective but a similar thing happened again. At Best Buy I tried 2 more ipods and In each case, after successfully synching with itunes once, the ipod was more or less incapacitated and could not be synched again. Resetting the ipods did not help and neither the Best Buy geek squad nor the apple help line had any solutions. The only theory put forward is that there is something wrong with my computer's usb ports although I use them regularly without any problem to connect to keyboards, memory sticks, a scanner and a camera. Any suggestions?

First one is that you post in either the 3rd Generation Nano or Powerbook forums, unless you also have an iPod Touch that is somehow related to this.
You might try an archive and install on your PB in order to replace the iPoDDriver.kext file.

PANICPANICPANIC! I killed my PowerBook ...

... now how am I supposed to hand in my thesis next week?!? I'M DESPERATE!
I'm using a G4 Powerbook, OSX, Panther.
I was working on my thesis, therefore, Word was open (2 documents). As I needed a little break, I started this little cardgame I downloaded a couple of months ago (has been working without any problems since). Suddenly: screen froze, pointer wasn't working anymore. Apple+Q not working. I switched off the computer by holding down the power button. Since then, it won't boot/start. It just gives me Toot-toot-toot, the little power light blinks a few times, but the screen stays black. So far, I have
- turned off the computer, waited a couple of minutes, then tried turning it on again
- removed the battery, disconnected the power cable, then pressen the power button for 5 seconds
- pressed the ctrlapplepower buttons (then it gives one long toooot, but ends up doing the same toot-toot-toot-thing)
- tried to boot from cd-rom (great, now I can't get it out anymore)
- removed the memory-thingy, waited a couple of minutes, then put it back in
Nothing's worked.
I need HELP! Is there anything else I could try? I am a newbie, have only had this precious thing for a few months.
Thanks so much in advance,
desperate
Sibylle from Germany

Hi Sibylle - The Toot-toot-toot and the LED blinking indicates that you have a RAM problem.
A couple of questions: Would you mind posting your machine's specs? It would be helpful to know exactly which model PB you have, as well as how much RAM you have. For the RAM, was it all factory-installed, or is some of it after-market? If the latter, did you order it and install it yourself?
Also, when you say that you "removed the memory-thingy, waited a couple of minutes, then put it back in," do you mean that you removed some added RAM? If so, have you tried removing that same module and starting up without it?
Last, the "cd-rom" that you tried to boot from: is that the one that came with your computer? If so, were you able to boot from it? If you are able to boot from this disc, try pressing the power button, and immediately after the startup chime, press the Option key. This will take you to the Startup Manager screen from which you should be able to boot into the Apple Hardware Test. Choose the Test from among the choices and click on the right-facing arrow. Run the extended test and post back with any error messages you receive. We'll worry about removing the disc a little later.
Good luck.
Tuttle

I just killed my powerbook with my iSight magnetic base mount!

While unpacking my iSight kit to set up a chat, the little magnetic base attachment slipped from my hand and landed on my open powerbook 12” just slightly to the left of the mouse pad. The magnet stuck firmly to the case and the most unbearable noise emeged. The computer then froze. I removed the magent, rebooted and discovered I lost the drive.
Although I was serious stuck as this was during a business trip, I took everything back to my base, where I could reboot with an external drive and ran some utilites.
Unfortunately the HD is gone.
It won’t appear, it won’t mount, and it looks like I’ve lost all my data.
Terrible, but fortunately I had a backup of all my documents that was only 6 days old. Unfortunately I’m still “on the road” (for another 8 weeks) and I’m limping along booting from a portable drive and using some basic software to continue my work.
So from my lesson- if you have a powerbook and an iSight camera, heave the magnet base out the window and hope it doesn’t land on anyone’s HD.

OUCH!
I have seen some reports that this can occur. Sorry to hear about your misfortune.
Hope it does not happen to anyone else!
Regards
Ian

.mac killed my powerbook

heres the deal, i got .mac recently, worst money i have ever spent. i tired to put a file on my idisk today, as usual, a 40mb file hung, for hours and did not transfer. came back computer needed a restart from apple updates. idisk wouldnt cancel the upload. i relaunched finder, tried to restart that was hung too, did a manual shut down, that powered off my powerbook and external hd.
no everytime i turn the computer back on the stupid thing wants me to run the os x set up assistant. i just experianced a big data loss with the crash of an external hd. if i have to deal with a computer crash now im throw this computer in the garbage (5 years old) and ordering a new box and switching to linux.
i need some help or suggestions. i run a few business of that computer, i need a solution fast..

Question is resolved!

7.0 Killed My Powerbook G4

Since "receiving" the automatic download for iTunes 7.0 the experience on my Mac has gone from being a joy, to a living ****.
Since installing 7.0 I can no longer.
- Play audio on the web, except for .mov files
- The only files that play on my computer or .mov files and mp3 (which will only play on iTunes.
I just tryed to play an mp3 in windows media player and I got a "Cannot play back the file. The file format was invalid" message.
- My headphone jack is glowing red AND I can no longer hear audio from my internal speakers.
ALL THIS. After getting the iTunes 7.0 update.
Can someone help me out here, whats going on people.

I don't have any 3rd Pary Plugin's installed, and i'm using the lastest version of Quicktime.
I have never had an update (from the OS maker) that has caused so much havoc.
This is the kinda thing i'd expect from Microsoft, not Apple.

Help! I think I killed my PowerBook...

Yesterday I posted about my computer going on the fritz, but when I got home everything was fine. Well, things went from bad to worse today. Now my computer won't even start up. When I press the power button, I heard the hard drive spinning, actually it's more like a light "grinding" sound - almost as if the fan inside is hitting something - and I get the blue screen. No icon, no startup, nothing.
I had originally thought it was a bad 1GB RAM card that I had installed a few weeks ago because I had taken it out and replaced it with my original 256 card. Things were working fine for a few hours, then it started to slow down again. I was going to reinstall my OS (I had backed up all my info to my iPod) but when I was trying to shut my computer down, it froze up. I pressed the power button for a few seconds to force it to shut down, then the blue screen thing happened. I'm not sure what to do now, I'm posting this on my wife's VAIO so thankfully I have access to help.
I'm currently running OS 10.3.3.
It's imperative that I get my PB up and running by tomorrow 8am or I am sunk! Any help you can offer is greatly appreciated.

Alec,
Well I'm not sure if you have a hardware issue. Try re-installing the 1gig of RAM and reboot to see if you can get back into the system. Usually 3 beeps during startup will alert you to defective RAM. Since you didn't report hearing them maybe the RAM is ok. The missing user login window happened to me twice. I didn't run the Apple hardware test or any other diagnostics as I orginally thought it was an issue with the USB drive I had hanging up during ejection. The second time it occured I found a file in the startup folder for a Lexmark printer (which I deleted then rebooted the system) I was using. At the time I first connected the printer I got an error message stating it's security level wasn't correct. There was a prompt for me to fix, ignore or decide later. I believe at the time I selected decide later which a subsequent message alerted me that by doing so I could encounter problems. All of this is annecdotal at best because I never definitively determined the cause of the issue. It has not reoccured again so far. If you have the opportunity try running the hardware test and post back the results.
Jrsy

Transfer old Titaniam PowerBook G4 SuperDrive into my iBook?

I effectively killed my PowerBook G4 Titaniam 15" a few month ago. It's hinges broke (2nd time....), it was 2.5 years old, and then since it couldn't close, water was spilled on it and it hasn't woken since....
But I now have an iBook G4, with a combo drive. I successfully recovered the old hard drive, but could I do that with the superdrive?? If I could, where are the instructions? I'm definitely out of warranty, and now have a secure external hard drive as backup, so I'm very willing to get my hands dirty.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

Instructions to take out the optical drive on an IBook G4? Sure heres a link http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/51.13.0.html
That'll get you right at the optical drive. (ComboDrive)

Did my hard drive disappear?

so my powerbook decided to freeze, i restarted it and it showed a grey screen with a little folder with the mac icon/face thing and a question mark blinking over it, it also shows a blinking globe before that. i tried starting it up with my osx disk and tiger. i opened the disk utility on the osx one and nothing was listed on the left hand side except for the powerbook software disk. i tried reinstalling but i had nothing to select to install it to. is there a way i can fix this or is this it for my powerbook? i no longer have a protection plan on it, so im mortified haha

Welcome to the discussions, alcsos.
If it was just corrupt System software, the drive should show up in Disk Utility when you booted from the OS X CD. Sounds to me like the hard disk is either dead or disconnected. And I think it's unlikely that it would spontaneously disconnect. If you can, I'd get it checked out by an Apple certified technician before you do anything drastic (on the off chance that it's just a loose or dodgy cable).
However, it's possible that you'll have to replace the HD. If you do, you'll need a 2.5" ATA 100 drive. You'll probably be able to get one in a higher capacity than you had (possibly faster too), so that's a bright side to consider.
Here's a how-to guide on replacing the HD:
http://www.pbfixit.com/Guide/53.11.0.html
About 30 different screws to contend with, so careful planning and meticulous execution are essential. This will void your warranty (if you had one), and a wrong move could kill the PowerBook. Note the tools required to perform the task. If you don't feel comfortable messing around inside a valuable piece of electronic equipment, bring it to some place reputable and get it done professionally.

Clean install is ... frozen?

tried doing an erase and install (yes, this is what i want to do, everything is backed up) of 10.4 on my powerbook (it was running 10.4.6)... definitely have the right cds and all that. on the first disk, it took about 5 hours to get through the install, but then paused at the very end. now it says "processing mac os x", "running installer script", and "time remaining: about 3 minutes". it's said that for about 12 hours now! the cursor is still moving, so it's not fully frozen, but i can't seem to do anything. it's not progressing. what should i do???

ok so i don't know much about computers, obviously, but i can tell that something is very wrong...
i restarted the computer but it wouldn't start up from anything BUT the install disk. i restarted it holding down the option key and the only option it gave me was the os x cd. when i force-ejected the disk, it would start up and give me a screen with a blinking question mark in a folder. bad sign.
i couldn't get into DU, clearly, so i figured i might as well try the install again... so i start the install process again after re-inserting the cd, and then i stepped away, because it seemed to be taking its time. when i came back, all that was there was a blue screen... nothing else.
please tell me i didn't kill the powerbook. i'm trying it again, and this time it says that i have 37 gigs of 40 free, which means that most of it was already erased... so i did an archive and install on what's left, and it seems to be installing ok. hopefully this will work this time...
-v.

I think I made a major error and need some help.

Well, I sort of knew this was a bad idea but you know how it goes sometimes. I put the Tiger OS disk from my intel imac to try and get garageband to use on the portable. Those of you who are smarter than me know what happened next the computer boots into a horrible looking kernal situation and says: holding here. I have tried booting in safe mode to no avail and the disk will not come out. Did I kill my powerbook? is there any fix for this? I would greatly appreciate any help on this matter.
imac intel 17, 15" powerbook Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Okay have you tried to zap the P-Ram using optioncommand/apple+pr when booting up until you hear the chimes/dingdong type sound ?
Alternatively shiftctrl+commandpower button = immediate shutdown and will reset the bios + clock/time.
You can also try to hold down the option key just after pressing the power on button and holding it till a blue/purple screen appears to show start up disks and then after all rotating thingy's stopped click the eject button or press the eject button.
Also there is something like pressing the right mouse button using an external mouse while booting or something like this ??
It has been some time since I tried it.
PS: If you need garage band once the OSX is up and running you should be able to insert the disk and install optional programs IE: Garage band etc.
I usually right click / ctrl click on the install disk where the Install Tiger icon is and select "SHOW PACKAGE CONTENT" and then browse for files looking for garageband.pkg or similar.
Usually in the system/library/packages folder that is hidden on the install disk or similar , you have to search for it and copy it off for future use.
There is a app that can enable hidden files or make it back to what it is now but I have forgotten the name , just search macupdate.com for "hidden files" and you will find many options.
Hope this helps.

Powerbook kills Airport Cards

A simple Question: Can a Powerbook kill Airport Cards?
After I experienced some kernel panics, I checked the logs and realised the problem had something to do with the Airport Card. When I switched cards with my eMac it worked again for 10 minutes, before another kernel panic shut off the PB.
When I put the card back in the eMac again, it wasn't recognised by the System Profiler anymore.
Now both cards won't work in both machines.
****.

Tesserax,
Thanks for the clarification and the specifications resource page.
(I have a house full of PBs--all post-2005. My next venture is going to be a wireless home network, and I wanted to make sure whether I had mixed Airport standards to deal with or, as it turns out, not.)
Laird
PowerBook G4 15" 1.5GHz/80GB/1.25GB RAM; PB 12" 1.5GHz/100GB/1.25GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.8) video iPod 80GB; Wireless Mighty Mouse/Wireless Mouse

I killed my powerbook

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