Can't find any info on this issue!?

PhillyKing · #1 May 20th, 2008, 01:45 PM

I recently bought an iBook G4 14" 1Ghz w/ 512MB of Ram. The system seemed to have an issue I thought I could "fix" myself. Well at this point nothing has gone the way I had hoped.

Here is my issue: I can boot into OS X Tiger with little to no problems now that I replaced the hard drive cable which was bad, but now when I try to install anything it freezes. I have the restore disk for the iBook which I ran the Hardware Test for. 8 secs into the test I get an error code of: 2ROM/1/2: 0x6 w/ the other 256MB of Ram and 2ROM/1/2: 0x5 w/o the ram.

For the life of me I can not find any info on the error codes or anything!? What's even crazier is I ran the TechTool test which reported no problems and ran without issue. I did this using the select boot option, so I booted from the TechTool disk.

I'm really running out of options. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

VirtualTracy · #2 May 20th, 2008, 07:20 PM

Can I ask how you determined the hard drive cable was faulty? I'm wondering if the HD may be faulty too .... do you have access to another HD, or access to another Mac so you could try Firewire Target Disc Mode?

Another thing is the discs you have ... are they the original discs that shipped with the iBook G4? Installations discs are model specific and you need the exact discs for your model or a set of universal install discs.

DeltaMac · #3 May 20th, 2008, 10:07 PM

Here's some info about the hardware test error for 2ROM failing: this is a problem with the ROM (the firmware) on your logic board. Apple's fix for this is to reload the firmware, if possible (there is no firmware updater for these iBooks, so no help there), or replace the logic board.

PhillyKing · #4 May 20th, 2008, 10:23 PM

The cable was faulty because it would go blue screen more often then not till I noticed the adapter wasn't connecting to the ribbon properly. The funny thing was once I held the cable tight to the hard drive I was able to boot into OS X but it would freeze after a few minutes. I know the hard drive/s work without issue though now.

Once I bought a new cable I could boot into OS X no problem and I thought that was why I was getting the 2ROM/x/x: xxx error, but I still get that error and freezing.

That's crazy that it's a rom (firmware) with no user way of fixing it! A new logic board would be nearly as much as I paid for the whole system. Guess I need to re-sell the machine.

Thanks for the help guys!

BTW the disk were the original disk that shipped with the system.

PhillyKing · #5 May 20th, 2008, 11:21 PM

I'm finding something odd with the error codes.
I get the following strange code.
2ROM/1/2:
0x5 w/o ram in top slot & airport card
0x6 w/ ram in top slot
0x7 w/ airport express card
0x6 w/o ram in top slot + airport card in

VirtualTracy · #6 May 21st, 2008, 01:22 AM

PhillyKing, did you see post #3? I've only been on these forums for a short while, but I can tell you that there are some really clued up members here and DeltaMac is one of them.

Do you have any important stuff on the iBook that you need to salvage or is the iBook still a recent purchase. I don't think a replacement Logic Board will be cheap or easy to install and it all depends on how much you paid for this iBook in the first place.

That model also had a problem with the gaphics card failing with the Logic Board requiring replacement.

This must be extremely frustrating to you!

.

DeltaMac · #7 May 21st, 2008, 06:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PhillyKing

0x5 w/o ram in top slot & airport card
0x6 w/ ram in top slot
0x7 w/ airport express card
0x6 w/o ram in top slot + airport card in

I think those differences are simply indicating that the logic board is recognizing the changes in configuration. However, that doesn't help your major problem.

PhillyKing · #8 May 21st, 2008, 10:48 AM

VirgilTracy,

I did read what DeltaMac stated which only makes me upset...lol I spend $300 on the iBook which I now need to recover at the very least. It's unfortunate that something that seems like an easy fix is one that requires you to do so much. I wish I could just replace the firmware without the need to replace the whole logic board.

Luckily there is nothing on the system that I need, so I'm going to slap a 20GB HDD in it and sell it as is.

Thanks for all the help DeltaMac and you too VirgilTracy!