IBook G4 won't start up after installing promted itunes & security update

Question

HELP.
My iBook G4 was prompted to update iTunes & some security update. I always do this when prompted, and restart as requested.
I installed the updates and restarted, but this time my iBook won't boot up. It makes the regular chime noise, goes to the gray screen, gets past the apple logo, then goes to a blue screen with the cursor in the upper left corner. The cursor moves just fine, the caps & num lock lights work, but it just never gets past the blue. If I leave it alone for a while, the cursor disappears, and I get the turning circle in the lower middle of the screen (the one that comes up during the gray screen). It just sits and sits on the blue. Hard drive isn't making any unusual sounds.
I tried starting it up from the Install Disc, which worked fine. I ran the disk utility and it said it didn't need any repairs.
Still won't start up.
I did the cmd + opt + p + r to get the 3 chimes... no change.
I tried the fsck thing, it didn't do anything.
HELP.
Am I a goner?
I saw that some other people had problems, but it seems like everybody's is just slightly different. My display looks totally normal, just won't get past the blue screen. My disk utility said that it didn't need any repairs? Looks like most other people at least saw some errors in there...

Answer 1

I think Carolyn misunderstood the "3 chimes" comment. I think what you meant was that you held down the key combo until you heard the normal startup chime for the third time, not that the iBook gave you the 3 long beeps of a failed POST (power-on self test) which could indeed indicate a RAM problem.
It's more than likely not a RAM issue. These bad updates occasionally happen and the way to handle it is to do what you're doing now; backup what you can and then do an Archive and Install of the OS (although usually a couple of reboots, start in safe boot mode and reinstall the update is usually all that's needed).