Question Mark and No External Boot

I have a G4 12-inch Powerbook that I bought refurbished from the online Apple Store almost exactly a year ago. I am running the most current operating system and have installed all update. This evening I used it on battery for three hours with no problem. I went to dinner for 20 minutes. I plugged it in and woke it up from sleep. It began to make a humming noise, and vibrating under my left wrist. I restarted it except it would not turn back on.
Since then, I have tried to boot from my system software on CD, my back-up on my FireWire drive, and my HardDrive. Booting on the option key recognizes none of these. I also tried Cmdopt+pr.
I never know how far it will boot- sometimes it doesn't past the grey screen, sometimes I get the apple without the spinning circle, sometimes I get it with it, and once it got to the blue background with the apple and the progress bar (the progress bar did not fill). Sometimes it will take me to the flashing question-mark-file-folder. But as long as it’s on it is always making the unhealthy vibrating noise on the left size of the mouse.
What should I try next?

Welcome to Apple Discussions, theprincessofmars.
The noise you are hearing seems to be coming from the hard drive. If that is the case, then the problem you are encountering is usually because of a failed hard drive. The flashing question mark/folder icon also indicates that a bootable OS cannot be found. These two symptoms are the biggest clues to a failed/failing hard drive.
However, I find it unusual that you cannot restart from the original installer CD. Did you restart with the 'C' key pressed down all the time? It is also strange that you cannot restart from your FireWire backup. Does the FW drive contain a fully bootable backup? Have you been able to restart from the backup previously? Normally, even if the internal hard drive has failed, it is still possible to restart from CD or a FW drive (containing a bootable system).
That said, a failed internal hard drive would be the first thing I would look into as the prime culprit. Therefore, a replacement hard drive may be next option. If the PowerBook is still under warranty then I would contact Apple.
15 1.25G/12 1G PBs, Mac minis, iBooks G3/G4, Mac OS X (10.4.3) Cube, TAMs, iPods 2G/4G, iPs, AEBS, AX

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