If the problem's not the Hard Drive, what is it?

My Powerbook G4 got knocked off a table and started acting up right away (crashing, freezing). I did a disk doctor check and it said my HDD was fine. I formatted the disk just in case and reinstalled the OS. It still didn't work. I brought the laptop to the Genius Bar, who told me that it's still probably the hard drive, even though Disk Doctor gave it a clean bill of health. So I bought a new hard drive and carefully and tediously installed it. I then formatted it and installed a new OS. Seemed fine. I ran the intro and all that, then shut it down, thinking all was well. The next day I booted it up, got the chime and apple logo, and the progress bar went about 20% and then froze. It now does that every time I try to reboot and the only option is to hold down the power button to shut it down.
So, to summarize, the thing won't boot into the OS and I've replaced the hard drive. What else could the problem be?
Message was edited by: Rob Lichter

OK, I have a G4 powerbook with a new 80gb hard drive.
You have either a 2004 PB G4 12" 1.33 GHz or a 2005 PB G4 12" 1.5 GHz computer. In either case, if you have the orginal HDD in the computer it is at an age where it will be functionally and physically degraded. Replacing the HDD was likely the right move.
I installed a 518 RAM card before this issue arose, but the problem seems to exist independant of that RAM.
You likely installed a 512 MB module.
Apparently the fall did something else to your computer, but it is not possbile to tell at this point. I suggest that you proceed as BGreg suggested. Boot from the Apple Hardware Test disk that came with your computer and run the extended tests in a loop (hold down Control + L during tests) and let it run for several hours, if necessary, as it may take a while for intermittent issues to surface.
cornelius

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