Tangerine iBook won't boot

My cousin has a Tangerine iBook, and she noticed today that it won't boot. She says the power indicator light ring around the power port isn't lighting up anymore, so I am guessing fried motherboard or the power adapter has gone bad. Does this make sense or are there other things I should be looking for? Thanks!

Try a different power adapter. Maybe one of your friends has a clamshell or a black G3 PowerBook.
It is a known issue that the cable connection between the yoyo power adapter near the plug breaks easily after some years of use - so don't give up too soon.
Next thing would be the DC-in board.
http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac/iBook-G3-Clamshell/DC-In-Board/49/12/Page-1
When the plug goes in and out a thousand times it looses its contact and needs to be resoldered.
Sometimes the DC-in board is fried and the logicboard is still working.

Similar Messages

IBook won't boot from CD

I bought this iBook, used, with Tiger on it. A while back, it had Debian Lenny installed onto it. Now I can't reinstall Tiger...
I have tried holding "C" before the gray screen when it boots, and I've tried holding "option". It only shows the disk with the Linux penguin, but not my Tiger install CD. Holding C, it only loops trying to read the CD; it does NOT reboot, it just unsuccessfully continues attempting to read the disk.
I know it not be a problem with my CD, because I can't reinstall Debian or Kubuntu or Ubuntu, even from the disk used in the past. I have tried resetting the PRAM and PMU..
Is there any hope?? I'm done with using Linux.

Yes, the iMac will still boot from the CD. The iBook won't boot from any disk anymore, not even retail Panther. I know that the CD drive still works, because I'm using it right now to listen to music in Debian.. I think something's up with the open firmware, and I should update it but that can only be done through Classic right? There's not even an update for my iBook, I think.
I've tried burning several different linix distros, and they all work with my iMac but not iBook.
And, yes, it is a set of four CDs for Tiger.

Clamshell iBook Won't Boot from Jaguar CD (v10.2.3)

Branching off from a prior thread (https://discussions.apple.com/message/13222609#13222609) in which booting from an OS X CD was a potential solution to a problem, the problem encountered with the potential solution warrants its own thread.
My machine is a Clamshell iBook (G3), Revision B (with 64MB base RAM and no FireWire). It was purchased new eleven years ago and later ugpraded to 192MB RAM.
The OS on the hard drive was 9.0.2 until yesterday, when I updated it to 9.1 so I could bring the firmware up to date. I did this before attempting to use the Jaguar CD.
The CD in question is an original Jaguar install CD, version 10.2.3. This is a two-disc set (the discs are labeled 1 and 2) and is a retail version; my iBook was manufactured prior to the release of OS X (non-server) and does not have an OEM OS X disc.
When the iBook attempts to boot from the CD, either by pressing "C" at startup or by running the Installer from OS 9.1, it seems to be loading fine until the following appears:
At this point, the iBook won't load any further and a restart is required.
The iBook does boot an OS X Cheetah (10.0) CD as well as its own restore disc (9.0.2) and the 9.1 disc that came with Cheetah. Unfortunately, Cheetah doesn't seem to have any effect on the battery (this is why I'm booting with an OS X CD; see the posts in the other thread for details). I don't have any other retail CD versions of OS X to try (aside from a Snow Leopard DVD).
Aside from this boot problem and the battery issue (the computer won't recognize the battery and displays an "X" through it even after having charged it with an external charger) the iBook is working perfectly fine.

No. I get the "X" through the battery in the menu bar and no bars, just a plug icon, in the control strip under OS 9.
The battery is a year old and has never been recognized by this computer. I don't have another Clamshell to test it in but did verify that it can charge in a VST charger.
The last time the computer recognized a battery was about 6 years ago when the initial batteries were still in use. Both were completely depleted after my charger shorted out; they didn't charge again after I got a new charger. The batteries were healthy at the time and were able to hold 3-4 hours, which was pretty typical mileage for me on this laptop.

Ibook won't boot up on own or from OS installation CD (need help in Yemen)

Hello,
I'm currently in Yemen for a few months and my ibook seems to have died on me. The country isn't exactly brimming with Apple support technicians so any advice or suggestions people could give me would be really appreciated.
I have an older ibook (dual USB G3 which I bought in June 2001). It has the occasional application or OS freezes, but typically restarting solves these. Yesterday, however, when I tried restarting the computer wouldn't boot up - it would get to the gray start up screen with the apple and spinning wheel and would just sit there with no progress even after an hour. I removed the airport card and extra RAM, but no luck.
I ran the Apple Hardware Check CD, but everything came up clean. I also ran Norton Utilities Disk Warrier and it found Major Errors in some of the directories (I have the list at home if that would help) all of which it said it fixed. However, it wasn't able to complete checking the HD, at one point it tried to find some files and never was able to get any further in the check - it would just sit for hours with no progress. When I tried rebooting the computer on its own it got no further than a gray screen.
At this point I decided it might be easiest just to reinstall the opperating system. I put in the installation disks (OS 10.2.4) and tried booting up from the CD - the boot up was very slow and ultimately (maybe after 10 minutes) instead of a gray screen with an Apple logo it came up with the "forbidden symbol" (i.e. the circle with the slash through it that you see on no smoking signs).
At this point I'm not quite sure what to since it isn't booting up from the installation CD - are there any other tricks I could try or reason why it won't boot up from the CD? I also have a copy of 10.4 installation CD but I'm hesitant to install it just because the ibook is such an old computer and it would require the extra RAM to run it (currently I have 300 something of RAM in the computer). I also have a 20 GB external harddrive with me if there's anyway I could boot up with it.
Three years ago the laptop had major problems and basically died, but went into Apple and seemed to have been fixed and had the logic board replaced. After this point I got a new laptop (which I'm hiting myself for not bringing with me at this point) and haven't really used this computer frequently - maybe 5 to 10 times in the last 3 years, it really is a "spare" laptop. I used it for about a week before coming and it seemed to be working fine.
At this point I'm really open to any suggestions on how to fix and jury rig it to work for the next 3 months (really I just need to be able to use Word and iPhoto) or so as I won't be using it once I get back to the States. Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciate. Thank you very much!!

Hi, and welcome to Apple Discussions.
Which utility did you use on the iBook? Was it Norton DiskDoctor or Alsoft's DiskWarrior? They are two entirely different things.
Norton DiskDoctor was developed for OS 9. It doesn't recognize OS X as a legitimate operating system, identifies OS X as "errors" on your drive, and sets about "fixing" those errors, really messing things up in the process. (It does this even if you run it in OS 9 on a drive that has OS X on it.)
Apple calls the sign you are seeing when trying to boot from the CD a "prohibitory sign."
Check out this Apple Knowledge Base article on what to do about a prohibitory sign at startup:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106805
Maybe something there will help.

IBook won't boot up after a rest..

I hava the most weird problem with my iBook..
As I have it running, it works just fine.
I can boot it up, install software and do all sorts of things with it but when I turn it off and let it stay like that for like couple of hours, it won't boot up no more.
With the OS disk I can revive it, just now it took 5 tries, but it started and now as I shut it down and turn it on again there is no problem. But yet again, if I let it stand there for a hour or two, we are back in with the same problem, it won't finf the boot disk and needs to be revived with the OS intallation disk.
I reinstalled the whole (clean install) system today, had everything set up and installed all my software and such and there was no problem during the whole day, but now I had it turned off for few hours, it's just the same..
What might be the problem??

Now there is a new HD and it works better than this iBook has ever done.
That's great! Glad that resolved your issue.
So, problem solved, not in a conventional way but solved.
Well, actually, pretty conventional. The average life of an internal HDD in a laptop is approximately 3 to 5 years, and even if they survive beyond that they can fail suddenly or else continue with progressively degraded performance until they expire. The new HDDs have larger capacities and faster rotational speeds, both of which significantly boost performance.
Good luck.
cornelius
Thanks for leaving feedback in Apple Discussions by marking the "solved" post.

IBook won't boot, stops at gray screen--HELP

I couldn't find this exact topic at first glance and I am hoping someone can help me. My ibook is about 5 years old and has only really crashed on my once 2 years ago but I was able to reinstall the OS and go on my way. This time, however, nothing works. I tried to boot up yesterday and the gray screen appeared and that was it along with a strange buzzing sound. I tried Disk Warrior, wouldn't even boot off that. Also tried booting off system disk 1 and didn't get past the language screen, just hung up with that buzz again.
Does this sound like a logic board issue? Can it be rescued?
Thanks in advance for any help!

I'm not sure if the computer can be checked out at home in such a way
in its present state, to see if there is a logic board failure behind it, now,
or not. There could be a hard disk drive failure, or ATA controller failure;
and a short list of other possibilities, best checked over by a specialist.
Certain keyboard commands and things could be tried (and I usually
assume they'd been tried before asking here, but that's often not so)
just to see if one or more of them could get a rise out of the dead Mac.
Be sure, if you can get the installer disc to boot the Mac, that you
try and use the Disk Utility to repair disc; maybe more than once;
and do not try to just reinstall an Archive and Install. The HDD may
have corruption issues and it may need low-level zero-data and re-
formatting before a new system could go on there, if it worked at all.
{Even trying to reset PRAM/NVRAM and then seeing if you can get
the bootable OSX installer disc to start up the Mac could be OK.
Maybe that PMU reset, as a last resort? It probably won't hurt...}
A system on an external bootable enclosed hard disk drive could be
used by a tech or a prepared home-tech owner, and a clone of the
machine's system then attempted to be used to boot the ailing Mac.
If the optical drive and other components relying on the logic board
are dysfunctional due to a defect on that main board, most external
devices may also have a hard time trying to use these methods of
outside efforts to troubleshoot be nominally successful.
There may be a way a tech can use an second computer to get
data off the drive in your iBook, should it come to that, by using
the FireWire Target Disk mode and see if your iBook can start
and act like an external hard disk drive. A copy of the drive's
content or parts of it may be made by the second healthy Mac.
A clone (perhaps not bootable if data on it is damaged and not
recoverable) could be made if the second healthy computer has
a clone utility and also an external drive it can copy/clone the
iBook's drive content over to. This may be asking too much;
but the home user who has stuff on hand could do it shortly.
Anyway, there are some ideas online, if you can search google
and choose appropriate words; I looked but you may need to
read through several different source links to see if anything
sounds like it may work. re: iBook won't start past grey screen
Some users have tried resetting the PMU, others tried NVRAM
and PRAM; a few tried SafeBoot to see if the system was OK
enough to load in a reduced startup mode; maybe where the
system's own Disk Utility could be ran to at least fix permissions.
And of these, if it is truly a logic board or a failed hard disk drive,
they won't really do much. Probably no harm; and that is part
of what troubleshooting is all about, working with zeros and ones!
Good luck & happy computing!
edited to add a chapter.

Dropped iBook - won't boot up, help!

Because I'm an idiot, I dropped my beloved G4 iBook on the ground and now it won't boot up. I can get it to turn on, I get the startup chime, it gets to the blue screen with the grey Apple and spinning progress indicator...and that's it. The spinning disc just keeps on spinning indefinitely. No error messages, no kernel panic, nothing like that. Tried booting in Safe Mode...get the blue screen with grey apple, no spinning disc, and that's as far as I can get.
I bought it secondhand from a friend so no warranty or Applecare or anything like that. Is the hard drive okay? Could something have come loose and just needs to be snapped back into place? Did the motherboard get cracked? What could cause this type of problem, especially since I can't even get it to boot in Safe Mode, and what can I do to fix it? Is it even fixable? Have I lost all my files? Can I just take it to a repair shop and everything will be okay?!?!
helllllllp!!!! :'(

Hi from another idiot iMac user (I last posted when I spilled a glass of water on my desktop's keyboard...)
I dropped my iBook G4 on the stairs this morning Since it sort of slid down the carpeting I thought I'd be OK but it was just like the other used described - Apple logo, spinning startup icon, a few clicks and whirrs then nothing.
I followed your instructions below, and the Installer loaded. I have clicked on Introduction, agreed with the licensing, selected a destination (clicked on HD), but then I got a message "You cannot install Mac OS X on this volume without changing your install settings. Click Options to change settings. A newer version of Mac OS is installed."
I never got a Repair Disk button. I never installed newer software, unless it was an update that downloaded from Apple. What should I do?
Thanks!!!!
Mary

14" iBook won't boot past Blue Screen?

Hi,
I have in my possession my Sisters 14" iBook G4. It boots with the grey Apple logo but then freezes at the blue screen. I'm guessing it's either the hard drive or logic board, does anyone have a procedure to follow to diagnose the fault? I don't have the original discs but do have a 10.5 retail box.
Thanks in advance.

Spudnuty - I think you might want to hear this...
I just bought an ibook G4 1.2Ghz "Late 2004" model off of ebay, had the blue screen problem. I bought it because I thought it might have been the OS (freeze at login) and the previous owner didn't know, but it was an actual freeze... actually froze a few times while at the spinning wheel at startup, and would randomly display a dark blue screen sometimes at startup.
I am an ACMT, I decided to disassemble the machine as per the service manual and get it down to basically the logic board, even pulled off the top display entirely. Ran an external monitor via mini-VGA, external HD via Firewire... still froze at blue screen. So I decided something similar to your suggestion - I pulled off the heat sink, only to discover that the conventional way of cooling a cpu/gpu (heating compound directly under heat sink) had been abandoned on this model for some crappy adhesive pads. The pads had a bit of thickness to them, so I decided to cut of a small section of the top shield, fold it into a nice square and flatten it. I then put some heat sink compound on both the cpu and gpu, put the metal "shim" on the gpu and tightened down the heat sink. Guess what? Started up in a jiffy. I put a fresh install of Tiger on it, have been playing multiple Quicktime vids looped for a while now... machine is going strong.
All that to say, shimming works on these later ibook G4 models that get the blue screen, I've confirmed it. Just remove the adhesive pads, shim with something heat conductive (maybe even aluminum foil!), add heat compound and run it for a while.

G4 iBook won't boot up all the way

I have a dp G4 and an iBook G4. My iBook is not booting up. It is stuck at the white screen with grey apple and turning clock-like thingy. I can't find my 10.4 disc to try and boot up from it. I need files off the iBook and thought I'd done this before, but can't remember how. But I thought I'd remembered hooking up both computers via firewire and made the iBook drive mount on my G4. Can someone help me with procedure to hook it up so I can get the file I need off the iBook, and also be able to run Disk Utility or something to try and repair the iBook drive? I have airport on the iBook if there is an option there. Thanks in advance for your help.
LMW

Hi.
To use the FireWire Target Disk Mode, proceed as follows:
Turn off your iBook.
Disconnect any FireWire peripheral from both systems.
Hook both machines with a 6pin FireWire cable.
Plug your iBook AC power adapter.
Turn the iBook while holding the T key, until you see a FireWire icon on the display.
The iBook should mount on the other Mac Desktop.
On the desktop computer, open Disk Utility, and try to repair the iBook boot volume. In order to make a successful disk repair, the desktop system has to run the same OS X version as the iBook. You should never attempt to repair a disk with a version of Disk Utility from other OS X iteration.
Good Luck.

Help! blue screen of death and ibook won't boot at all

I ran the software update on my ibook (800 mhz, G3 running 10.4.3) today. I repaired permissions and rebooted before hand. I don't have any hacks on it. I have plently of room on the drive for the update (more than 6gigs on the 30 gig drive). I know my ibook is feeling its age, but now she won't start at all!
When I ran the update (which I already did on my imac with no problems), the ipod updater, quicktime and something else installed without problem. I came into the room to find that the Mac OS 10.4.4 updater had a red exclimation point next to it, and I had an error message that there was a problem with the update and that I needed to reboot. Restarting was my only option so I did. ibook would not start. It hung on the "starting OS X" screen forever (45 minutes). I force-restarted and booted in single-user mode. I have an app called AppleJack installed so I ran that (repairs permissions and such in single-user mode). I rebooted. Nothing. Blue screen of death.
Any ideas? Should I reinstall OS 10.4 from the CD?

How is mail different than that?
Mail keeps mailboxes in their own separate Finder files.
Home -> Library -> Mail
Home -> Library -> Mail Downloads
Notice also that Mailboxes themselves have their own folders in
Home -> Library -> Mail -> Mailboxes
Addressbook keeps addresses for Mail in its own set of Finder Files.
Home -> Library -> Application Support -> Addressbook
iCal keeps it in
Home -> Library -> Calendars
Whereas Microsoft Office is simply everything in one user belongs to:
Home -> Documents -> Microsoft User Data -> Identities -> Main Identity -> Database
So in reality you have 4 different places, and simple data corruption inside the database file itself is not going to take out all of the data when you use Mail, Addressbook, and iCal. I find it is much more robust to use Mail, Addressbook, and iCal purely for the reason that data corruption is not as prevalent a problem when your database gets large.
Single user mode is not a good idea, until the data is actually backed up in some fashion. Once you are getting input/output errors, trying to get it out of a place where there is data corruption by using a data recovery program is the first step with Prosoft Data Rescue.
You may try to rebuild the database file too, which might work, but since your machine is suffering a lot of input/output errors, I'm suspicious of the health of your hard drive, and you are booting to a blue screen, single user mode may not be enough, even Disk Warrior may not be enough. Now's the time to get all the data off the hard drive into another in a safe place. Data Rescue may be able to recover it. If not, you may have to deal with a data recovery firm.

Ibook won't boot completely ! (stops at a blue screen)

Hi...first time poster here, please be kind. Also, I'm not brilliant by any measure when it to computers.
Yesterday I was installing updates (now, my ibook was out of use for at least 8 months, so I was bit back logged on updates) and after the second round (a safari update, a java update, and a security update) it said it needed to restart. Ok, easy enough, though apparently not it never booted up again. I get past the grey apple loading screen and to the blue screen that says "loading os x"...the progress bar finishes and then it disappears and all I get is a blue screen with a rotating "busy/working" symbol. A few times I got a black screen with white text asking for my login and password, but it always says it's wrong or it won't even let me type in a password before it freezes and goes on to the blue blank screen again. I did a PRAM cleaning and that ran correctly but did not help. It will not load in safe or verbose mode. Any one have any idea why my ibook is doing this or if there is anyway to fix it ? (also, I'm not sure eaxactly which os X I am running other than it os x 10.4) Help...
Message was edited by: kurokaze83

If you can't find the system discs that came with your computer, use fsck (a command-line utility that may be able to verify and repair a disk)
To use fsck:
1. Start up your computer in single-user mode to reach the command line.
2. At the command-line prompt, type /sbin/fsck -fy
3. Press Return. fsck will go through five "phases" and then return information about your disk's use and fragmentation. Once it finishes, it'll display this message if no issue is found:
** The volume (nameofvolume) appears to be OK
If fsck found issues and has altered, repaired, or fixed anything, it will display this message:
*** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED ***
Important: If this message appears, repeat the fsck command you typed in step 2 until fsck tells you that your volume appears to be OK (first-pass repairs may uncover additional issues, so this is a normal thing to do).
4. When fsck reports that your volume is OK, type reboot at the prompt and then press Return.

Ibook won't boot, won't recognise hard drive, PRAM reset etc. Help?

Hi, I'm trying to repair my brother's iBook with limited knowledge. I'm not sure whether it's a G3 or G4 but it was made in 2001, has 2 usb's and a firewire, is white (slightly translucent) and has a 12" screen.
It started having problems starting up so he copied all his important files, just in time as now it won't work at all.
It starts up but just comes up with the ?/folder icon flashing. The hard drive starts "ticking" like an old clock as soon as the power button is pressed, as if it's stuck.
I've tried starting from the 10.3 install CD, this works at first but can't see a hard drive for installation, the same goes for disk utility from the install disk, there's no disk shown to repair.
I've reset the PRAM, PMU and pressed command, ctrl, alt(or shift?) and the power button.
I've started in "safe" mode but it won't get past the grey screen with apple icon.
I've started with alt pressed, this showed an OSX hard drive startup disk ok but would not boot it, it showed the grey screen again with the Apple logo, on one occasion this changed to a "No Entry" sign, a circle with a line through, weird. It has OS9 on here too but that didn't show at all.
After I drove it from his house (100 miles of vibrations) it started up straight away but froze (again with the ticking sound) after about 10 mins when accessing a file. When it started I had to reset the year and time which had changed to 1976, this is why I reset the PRAM. Is there a PRAM battery on these machines that can be changed? Could that be the problem?
On one occasion I held the eject key down at startup after having problems getting it out, the screen showed lots of numbers and something saying "panic: we are hanging here" very weird!
I've pressed down on the case on the left below the keyboard.
The battery seems to hold plenty of charge.
Sorry this is so long but I wanted to give as much detail as possible. I've tried everything I can think of & have read about without spending cash or taking it apart. I think the HD may have had it. Any ideas?
Thanks,
James

James,
No need to apologize for the length. That helps a lot. You can tell the model, speed and size by lifting the keyboard (two tabs outboard of the F1 and F11 keys, make sure it's unlocked - that tiny sloted head between F5 and F6)
There'll be a bar coded sticker there.
However I think it's a 500-900 G3.
It starts up but just comes up with the ?/folder icon flashing. The hard drive starts "ticking" like an old clock ..
That's classic for a bad hard drive.
When it started I had to reset the year and time which had changed to 1976, this is why I reset the PRAM.
That happens when the battery is out with no power plug for longer than a few minutes.
Is there a PRAM battery on these machines that can be changed? Could that be the problem?
No there is no PRAM battery in an iBook. There is a super cap that allows a short time so you can change the battery.
the screen showed lots of numbers and something saying "panic: we are hanging here" very weird!
Yes that's a kernel panic.
So it boots from the CD but needs a new hard drive.
Richard

IBook won't boot into OS X

Hi
I was using my iBook the other day when the screen unexpectedly went gray, it then went into standby shortly afterwards and would not power up. A three-fingered and power-switch salute later, and I was back at the login screen, but it would not boot into my admin account on OS X after that -- just a blue screen (sometimes with the background image preserved).
A visitor account on the same machine boots fine.
I have been over the disk with DiskWarrior, repaired permissions and the drive with Disk Utility, reset the login plists (under single user command line startup) and done the other relevant tasks for 10.4.4 as detailed in
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106464
Na da.
The suggestions at
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.4/en/mh2235.html
are no use because even when booting into safe mode, the OS won't start.
There are no accessories plugged in, no external drives, USB devices (inc keys) or networks wired or wireless. No software has been added in recent days other than a recent minor upgrade of the Apple Backup software that was released the other day. No new firmware is required.
The machine was working just fine and went on the fritz with no warning. It was sitting quietly for a few minutes having received no recent input from me or any outside source that could have precipitated the meltdown.
AFAIK I have exhausted the Apple knowledgebase on this and similar issues. I can find no other resources or clues on the net to fix the problem.
Anyone have any clues as to what the cause and, most importantly, solution is?

Sounds like the OS is starting just fine. Your login account, however, has some problems. I'm assuming you aren't using an encrypted home directory, so it is probably something simple like a corrupted preferences file for Finder or Dock or something.
When you are logged in as an ordinary user, navigate into the Admin user's home directory if you can. Go into the Library folder, then drag the Preferences folder out of the Library folder into the home directory. It should ask you to authenticate because you don't have permission to do that. Enter your Admin username and password.
Once the directory is moved, log out of the guest user and log back in as the admin user. You should be able to log in successfully. At that point, if you'd like, you can move individual preferences files from the old preferences folder into the newly-created Preferences folder (in Library).

Help! iBook won't boot up after latest security upgrade....................

I have an iBook G4 12 inch screen mac. I have recently updated with the latest Apple security update (15/9/08)Since installing the update my iBook has failed to boot up successfully. There is no start-up chime and the boot stops at the grey screen with the Apple logo and goes no further. I have tried safe mode, won't go there, have tried various other tips, holding down various keys on start-up, all with no joy! Does anyone have the same problem and does anyone have any answers?! Thanks in advance!
Jim

Thanks, Cornelius. I am just afraid now, is it safe or should I forget about reinstalling the most recent update? It is moot right now though anyway, because I still can't get my computer to fully boot up. At least attempting to book with the OS 10.5 disc in the drive it does not power down, but it is getting stuck for a long time (over 30 minutes) on the gray startup screen with the apple and the DVD drive repeatedly spins and stops, then finally just seems to stop spinning and gives up.

IBook won't boot after broken wireless connection trying to update OS

Trying to help my kid with his iBook via telephone calls. He was updating the OS over a wireless connection, lost the signal which apparently froze the machine. When he rebooted it wouldn't go past the blue start-up screen with a spinning gear. He's used the install disk and disk repair, which said it repaired one volume but not a second one (not sure what that means). But no luck with rebooting back into his machine. He then tried to boot up in "safe mode" but that doesn't work; gets the blue screen and spinning gear again. He's got a lot of stuff on his hard drive and is understandably concerned about the best way to get the machine back to normal and still have the contents of the hard drive. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance for any help.

Really needs to fix that HD, if DU can't do it, try, If DiskWarrior can't fix it, you might try Data Rescue II...
http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/
http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php
(Has a Free Demo to see if it could or not, but you'll need another drive to recover to).
Or FileSalvage...
http://www.subrosasoft.com/OSXSoftware/index.php?%20mainpage=product_info&productsid=1
to recover what you can.
If the good partition is the boot partition, then Archive & Install
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107120

Tangerine iBook won't boot

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