Lockups, and Grey Screens, and Kernel Panics, Oh My!

Question

Everything I am about to describe happened on my 15" 1.67Ghz Powerbook (1 gig of ram, 128MB VRAM).
While I was (Secure) emptying my trash earlier today, my computer locked up, spinning beach ball of death and everything. Just prior to that while it was still emptying the trash, I attempted to open a folder that I know had files in it, but the finder window claimed that there were 0 files there. Anywho since the entire system seized up I was forced to do a hard restart. When the computer came back to life, just after hearing "The Chord" I was treated to a black grey screen (Darker than the grey of Apple's "pinwheel Loading screen"). I left the computer for a while hoping it would fix itself with time. Sadly, it did not, and I was forced to do a hard restart again. This time after waiting on the grey screen for about 5-10 minutes it displayed a folder icon in the center with a logo on it that switched between the "Finder Face" and a question mark. I tried to boot from my install disc only to have it cause a Kernel Panic just as it would give me hope by loading the "Apple Pinwheel loading screen" sans the pinwheel. Since then I have cleared my PRAM, NVRAM, PMU, Tried to boot into safe mode, held X to try to force it to load OS X, and various other things, all to no avail, and now, to add insult to injury, the Install disc refuses to eject, choosing to make a knocking sound instead. So every time I restart it attempts to start up, then it attempts to load the DVD and I get another beautiful Kernel Panic. It's a vicious cycle.
So, what do you say, can you help me? This laptop has my life on it. And although I backup, not everything was saved before the crash (The first of the month is my backup/cleanup day), and there is a lot to lose if I lose my computer, so I need help here.
Please help me, you're my only hope...until AppleCare comes back from vacation.
Thank you for your time.
-Nick

Answer 1

foxymcfox:
Welcome to Apple Discussions.
Sometimes having too many items, or just too much in the Trash as you try to empty Trash can lead to the spinning beachball as the computer tries to figure out what to do.
The flashing ? alternating folder indicates that the computer cannot find a bootable volume.
I suggest that you begin with Repair Disk
Insert Installer disk and Restart, holding down the "C" key until grey Apple appears.
Go to Installer menu (Panther and earlier) or Utilities menu (Tiger) and launch Disk Utility.
Select your HDD (manufacturer ID) in the left panel.
Select First Aid in the Main panel.
(Check S.M.A.R.T Status of HDD at the bottom of right panel, and report if it says anything but Verified)
Click Repair Disk on the bottom right.
If DU reports disk does not need repairs quit DU and restart.
If DU reports errors Repair again and again until DU reports disk is repaired.
If DU reports errors it cannot repair you will need to use a utility like Tech Tool Pro or Disk Warrior
Please do post back with an update and/or with further questions or comments.
Cheers
cornelius