Please help--iMac won't start up

My daughter has an iMac G4 flat panel (OS X 10.4.8), and a serious problem. I've been trying to help her but have run out of ideas. She recently downloaded and installed some updates. After installation, she clicked the restart button, but only got a blue screen with the beach ball appearing (apparently not steadily, but kind of intermittently). She turned it off and tried to restart several times and got the same thing. Then, she tried to start up from the disk. I'm not too clear what happened at this point. But she did manage to repair permissions. But this didn't help. Then, she tried to repair disk, but the computer told her she couldn't do that (I'm not sure why). Finally, she reinstalled OS X. Upon doing that, all she gets is a blue screed with a box containing her name and two buttons--quit and restart. She has tried to restart many times, but just comes back to the box with the the two buttons. I have been trying to help her over the phone (she's in MD and I'm in WI). So, having not witnessed any of this first-hand, I can't be much clearer about the situation. Obviously, one possibility is going to the Apple Store. But she really can't afford that. Does anyone have a suggestion?
Thank you,
Carl Kalwaitis

Hi Supreme D,
first check your internal battery.
With your computer you have to keep a certain order of installations.
1. Backup!
2. Boot up from the 9.2.2 install CD and reformat the hard disk (this is important because you need a bootable OS 9 for the firmware upgrade)
3. Install OS 9.
4. Make sure you can boot into OS 9!
5. Upgrade your firmware: Mac OS X: Chart of Available Firmware Updates
6. Insert the 10.4 install DVD and reboot while holding down the c-key
7. Once the installer has started and you selected your language select "Disk Utility" from the MENU
8. Repair the disk and select "repair OS 9 privilegies" from the MENU
9. Quit disk utility and proceed with the installation of MacOS X
10. After the restart Repair permissions!
11. Download and apply the standalone Mac OS X 10.4.8 Combo Update (PPC)
12. Repair permissions again.
13. Run software update from the Apple menu and apply all available updates.
Good luck!
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Quote
J.C posted "Re: G5 iMac won't start! Help needed." on Feb 4, 2008 4:53:20 PM.
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UNQUOTE
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Message was edited by: ChrisRR

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Manufacturer:          Empty
Part Number:          Empty
Serial Number:          Empty
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<Personal Information Edited by Host>

The Memtest just completed and came back like this? It only test the single 1gb chip because anything more in this computer it won't go past the black screen with solid white power light.
Memtest version 4.22 (64-bit)
Copyright (C) 2004 Charles Cazabon
Copyright (C) 2004-2008 Tony Scaminaci (Macintosh port)
Licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2 only
NOTE: No command-line arguments have been specified
Using defaults: Test all available memory, one test pass, no logfile
Mac OS X 10.7.5 (11G63) running in multiuser mode
Memory Page Size: 4096
System has 2 Intel core(s) with SSE
Requested memory: 250MB (263086080 bytes)
Available memory: 250MB (263086080 bytes)
Allocated memory: 250MB (263086080 bytes) at local address 0x0000000101000000
Attempting memory lock... locked successfully
Partitioning memory into 2 comparison buffers...
Buffer A: 125MB (131543040 bytes) starts at local address 0x0000000101000000
Buffer B: 125MB (131543040 bytes) starts at local address 0x0000000108d73000
Running 1 test sequence... (CTRL-C to quit)
Test sequence 1 of 1:
Running tests on full 250MB region...
Stuck Address       : ok
Linear PRN          : ok
Running comparison tests using 125MB buffers...
Random Value        : ok
Compare XOR         : ok
Compare SUB         : ok
Compare MUL         : ok
Compare DIV         : ok
Compare OR          : ok
Compare AND         : ok
Sequential Increment: ok
Solid Bits          : ok
Block Sequential    : ok
Checkerboard        : ok
Bit Spread          : ok
Bit Flip            : ok
Walking Ones        : ok
Walking Zeroes      : ok
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logout
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Judging by your name I'm guessing I could've anwered this in Dutch.

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