Reset PRAM, now monitor shows just a circle with a slash through it

Big problem. My iBook clamshell has a battery that just started sometimes charging and sometimes uncharging while computer was plugged into power adapter. Then the computer just "blacked out" a few times while plugged into power adapter.
I bought a new power adapter, but still had the problem with the uncharging battery. One time the percentage amount of a charge would go down when it was being used while plugged into power adapter, the next time I used it the percentage amount might go back up to 100%. Money's really tight (I'm working part time & paying for emergency medical expenses) so instead of buying a new battery I dug out some instructions that helped my other clamshell that started "blacking out" a couple of years ago. At that time I was given a link to an article on resetting PRAM, and I'd printed out and kept the article.
While the iBook was starting up I held down the keys: Command, Option, P and R. You're supposed to hold down the keys until you heard the start up sound a 2nd time. Well, I messed up and held them down until I heard the start up sound 3 times. Maybe that was a fatal error - something screwed things up.
The monitor went from black to pale blue, but instead of getting the Apple icon as start up began I got a circle with a slash line through it. Nothing else happened. I had that circle mark for about 15 minutes - the computer never went into sleep mood and finally I improperly turned it off by using the power button.
I turned the computer on again, hoping the problem had gone away. I got the pale blue screen showing the circle with a slash mark. I waited awhile, thinking something might start happening after a delay. And once again I improperly turned the computer off using the power key. I won't turn it on again unless I'm given a possible solution.
I bought this 2nd iBook because it had an Airport card, and I take it to the library to use free WiFi. I've been entering an important manuscript that I don't want to use.
Is this fixable? This has me big-time frightened.

Hi Karen,
If your computer is back from the dead, then possibly your kernel panic issue has been resolved. Maybe there were software or directory issues that are now fixed.
It wouldn't hurt to go ahead and open Disk Utility and repair permissions. Disk Utility should be in the Utilities folder in your applications folder.
Repairing permissions is something you should do after every software download because permissions are changed for the download process. You repair permissions on the First Aid tab, and you want to repair them several times until there is nothing left to repair. While in Disk utility, you can also verify your hard drive and check the SMART status and make sure it doesn't have any problems. I would recommend you leave Disk Utility in the Dock so it will be handy next time you need it.
As long as your hard drive is in good shape, it won't have hurt anything to have skipped the step of verifying the drive. However, it is prudent to check on the hard drive before downloading software, because if the hard drive is failing or something, your priority will be to save the data off of it. A failing drive is unpredictable, and puts you at risk of losing everything. If you elect to keep Disk Utility in your Dock, you can check your drive anytime you like.
You can also do a Safe Boot as a maintenance item every so often:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1564?viewlocale=en_US
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1455?viewlocale=en_US
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1884?viewlocale=en_US
It sounds like maybe you reinstalled the OS by doing an Archive and Install, which would have installed a fresh copy of the OS while preserving all your settings and data.
Not sure why you can't connect to the internet. First check to be sure your airport card is plugged in and recognized. If it is, you should be able to go to System Preferences>Network and use the assistant to help you to reconnect. It may be you'd have to set up a new location or something like that.
One thing you should do is to put in place a backup strategy. If an external hard drive is beyond your means right now, at least try to find a USB flash drive. Office depot has 4 GB drives on sale for around $10 every so often, and you can find even better deals on line. You can store a lot of documents in 4 GB flash drive, and you would not have the worry of potentially losing everything if your computer dies. I am really glad you got your document back after all the hundreds of hours it took to create it, but there was a real danger that you could have lost it and all your other data.
Once you get your flash drive, use Disk Utility to format it (they usually come pre-formatted for Windows). You want to do this on the Partition tab--select Mac OS X Extended (Journaled) for the format and "Apple Partition Map" for the partition map scheme. You can also give your flash drive a name. Once you have it set up, you can mount it on your desktop and copy your documents etc. by dragging and dropping.
Good luck, and happy computing!

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AdiosVista wrote:
I was having a weird graphics issue and one step I took in troubleshooting, as told to do by Apple over the phone, was reset the PRAM. Now every time I boot the Mac Pro, the white and grey apple screen is stretched and looks to be around 800x600 while my monitor resolution is 1920x1200. Once it reaches the login screen, everything looks fine again, it's just the main boot screen with the apple log and little spinner icon. I know it was resetting the PRAM that caused this but how I can get my resolution back to normal? The resolution looked fine before resetting PRAM. Thanks.
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Reset PRAM, now monitor shows just a circle with a slash through it

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