Please help, I cannot start-up my PowerBook G4 (grey screen, no options)

Sir/Madam,
My PowerBook (PB) started misbehaving two weeks ago. It seemed difficult for i to access its drive (repetitive whirring sounds). I made a clone while I could and tried to fix any problems using Disk Utility.
At first, minor problems were detected so I booted using the clone (on firewire) and tried to repair. Disk Utility reported the drive was fine. I tried Drive Genius, Disk Warrior and Techtool. I rebuilt the directories, and yet when using the drive, the access problems and delays continued. During this whole process, I kept finding that in System Preferences - Startup Disk list, my firewire clone was not detected. I had to boot with the OPT key pressed to use it (this was unusual).
Anyway after hours of trying to find the fault, I decided to boot from the firewire clone again and completely erase the built in PB drive. After this, I thought, I will do a clean reinstall.
When the time came to do a reinstall, I found that my PB got stuck on the grey screen. Even if I pressed OPT-C on startup (to reinstall the system from optical) nothing would happen. In fact the only thing that does anything different is when I just press OPT on startup. I then get asked my firmware password and there follows what should be a menu of startup options but is actually blank. My firewire clone is absent from the menu, as is any optical disc that I may have placed (eg Leopard installation or the original system discs that came with my PB). The screen with the curly arrow on the left and the straight arrow on the right remains while a little clock mouse pointer shows time passing. After about 45 seconds, the clock hands stop rotationg and the pointer will not longer move. This remains as long as I have waited (hours)
I am now at an impasse where I do not know what to do. I am frustrated. I cannot run any hardware tests, I cannot install any system, I cannot get my PB to see my clone and startup. I would appreciate any help.
Thank you
Message was edited by: Touch

Maybe this will be if interest. Hi everyone. First post...
Anyway, I was updating my 1.5 G4 Powerbook to 10.5.7 and scored the interminable grey screen. No joy from Option, C, Safe Boot, Verbose Mode etc, etc. Ran fsck in Single User Mode and got the all clear from the hard drive. So...
Off to the Genius Bar in Sydney's new Apple store. Again, all clear on the hard drive, so must be an operating system error.
Back home, transferred everything I could think of via Target Disk mode and Firewire to the other Mac and re-installed Panther - yep, it's an oldie but a goodie. Then updated. Then upgraded to Tiger. Then updated. Then tried to load Leopard again. No joy. Grey screen, blue screen, spinning beachball, and clicks and whirrs from the DVD drive.
After about a day of wracking my brains - I may be slow - I checked the About This Mac feature and it hit me. The RAM was 256MB, not the standard 512. Which is a prerequisite for Leopard. And the Diagnostics line said Memory Failure...
Then I found the faulty RAM slot thread/lawsuit/recall notices... None of which applied to my serial number.
To cut a long story shorter, either the RAM module or the slot is stuffed. I need to do a bit more diagnosis, but I can see an expensive swap to a MacBook Pro coming up...
If you're having trouble booting your G4 Powerbook, check it for memory failure. Apparently it's not uncommon. And apologies if this has all be covered before. Hope it helps.

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