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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Powerbook G4/install New Os
rehmondo - Jun 21, 2005 - 9:23 pm
HELP Please,
First of all I would like to state I am not Mac friendly, sorry guys.
I repair PC's/Laptops etc and recently I was handed an Apple Powerbook G4.
When you turn on the machine A box with a world inside it appears this soon turns into a folder with a flashing "?" on it. Eventually OS X loads and gets to the Login screen.
HERE no matter which user logs in, they click login and the box disappears - So far so good right?
But from this point onwards the OS never appears, the mouse cursor remains black then turns into a spinning disc and so on and so on, never gets to OS.
NOW I didn’t have any Mac Discs etc so I had to buy so called "backups" from eBay. The guy sent me Tiger; it’s supposedly on 4 CD's.
If I hold C, when I power up supposedly that boots from the CD???? But it doesn’t in my case.
After reading many forums, I can conclude that this machine does not have an Open Firmware Password on it, after I did the reset that BOX with the world disappeared. Now when you power it up you are faced with a nice apple screen that soon turns into the Mac OS X.
Could it be the discs are not bootable? I do hear the CD spin but nothing appears.
POINTS TO NOTE:
While I was in single user mode trying to reset passwords, the machine failed to mount???
Dunno what that means, however it also failed a volume check - "Invalid Directory record Length"
Basically like I mentioned I am not Mac friendly, if it were a PC I would have formatted C: and re installed Windows by now, I would like to do the same for this Powerbook, can anyone please tell me how to go about this. Or how to fix this laptop?
Thank you in advance.
First of all I would like to state I am not Mac friendly, sorry guys.
I repair PC's/Laptops etc and recently I was handed an Apple Powerbook G4.
When you turn on the machine A box with a world inside it appears this soon turns into a folder with a flashing "?" on it. Eventually OS X loads and gets to the Login screen.
HERE no matter which user logs in, they click login and the box disappears - So far so good right?
But from this point onwards the OS never appears, the mouse cursor remains black then turns into a spinning disc and so on and so on, never gets to OS.
NOW I didn’t have any Mac Discs etc so I had to buy so called "backups" from eBay. The guy sent me Tiger; it’s supposedly on 4 CD's.
If I hold C, when I power up supposedly that boots from the CD???? But it doesn’t in my case.
After reading many forums, I can conclude that this machine does not have an Open Firmware Password on it, after I did the reset that BOX with the world disappeared. Now when you power it up you are faced with a nice apple screen that soon turns into the Mac OS X.
Could it be the discs are not bootable? I do hear the CD spin but nothing appears.
POINTS TO NOTE:
While I was in single user mode trying to reset passwords, the machine failed to mount???
Dunno what that means, however it also failed a volume check - "Invalid Directory record Length"
Basically like I mentioned I am not Mac friendly, if it were a PC I would have formatted C: and re installed Windows by now, I would like to do the same for this Powerbook, can anyone please tell me how to go about this. Or how to fix this laptop?
Thank you in advance.
DanTekGeek - Jun 21, 2005 - 10:06 pm
Hi Rehman,
Looks like you've got a bit of a puzzler for us. I can't tell you how to fix it, but I can tell you that the globe at startup means that the machine is trying to boot from a network disk. I'm going to leave this question open, so others can put in their 2 cents.
--------
Hope I've been of help,
Dan Lurie, MacOSX.com Tech
If your question has been answered, please do not forget to provide feedback on our service.
Looks like you've got a bit of a puzzler for us. I can't tell you how to fix it, but I can tell you that the globe at startup means that the machine is trying to boot from a network disk. I'm going to leave this question open, so others can put in their 2 cents.
--------
Hope I've been of help,
Dan Lurie, MacOSX.com Tech
If your question has been answered, please do not forget to provide feedback on our service.
skapp - Jun 22, 2005 - 12:47 am
Out of curiosity are you being paid to do this repair/fixit? If so, what's the hourly rate and how much of it are you sharing with us to tell you how to fix the computer?
I don't mean to sound unfriendly, and if this comes across wrong I apologize in advance, but it seems somewhat obtuse to be paid for fixing a computer that you don't know how to fix, and then going out to ask for free help.
Like I said, if I'm out of line I apologize in advance.
I don't mean to sound unfriendly, and if this comes across wrong I apologize in advance, but it seems somewhat obtuse to be paid for fixing a computer that you don't know how to fix, and then going out to ask for free help.
Like I said, if I'm out of line I apologize in advance.
rehmondo - Jun 22, 2005 - 9:07 am
Response to Dan;
After trying what I believed were solutions, i.e. resetting the vram???? I managed to get rid of the box image, now when you power up it’s like a silver/grey background with a shiny blue apple in the middle, then the OS begins to load and gets to the login screen.
Response to Steven;
No offence taken but I'll explain exactly what I do...
When I said I repair PC's, I actually do that for a hobby, its close family and friends that I deal with not just some random guys off the street. Normally its just re installing OS/Software’s/Drivers as they are often the root of the problem, if there is a faulty component then I check that out and rule it faulty before getting the person to send it back.
I have had this Powerbook for 8 weeks now; I've been busy at work etc so only got a chance to look at it this week.
The guy bought it second hand this time last year and he's had problems ever since. After paying the original £400 for the laptop he's had to go out and but a power supply and a second battery.
This guy happens to work in one of my fathers business as a chef, so he asked me to fix it, and basically said just take as long as you want because he knew I wasn’t going to charge him. I am not getting paid for this however the guy will pay for the costs incurred, i.e. the OS disks etc
My full time occupation is developing games and in my spare time as well as fixing PC's I develop online solutions for businesses.
As I wrote before I thought I would just have to re install Mac OS X, but it seems that that isn’t as straight forward as re installing windows.
NEW INFO:
The logging in box doesn’t actually disappear it will stay there forever until I press the power button once, then it appears as if the desktop etc will load but obviously that never happens.
Last night I did the "Verbose" mode start up and it eventually got to the login screen, now as I mentioned before when you login it never actually gets there, well in Verbose mode every time it turns from the black curser to the spinning multi coloured ball, I am faced with a black screen, only lasts half a second and it then goes back to the Mac "desktop" as it were, but the desktop never loads.
There is a problem message on the black screen which says... loginWindow connection closed; closing server
After trying what I believed were solutions, i.e. resetting the vram???? I managed to get rid of the box image, now when you power up it’s like a silver/grey background with a shiny blue apple in the middle, then the OS begins to load and gets to the login screen.
Response to Steven;
No offence taken but I'll explain exactly what I do...
When I said I repair PC's, I actually do that for a hobby, its close family and friends that I deal with not just some random guys off the street. Normally its just re installing OS/Software’s/Drivers as they are often the root of the problem, if there is a faulty component then I check that out and rule it faulty before getting the person to send it back.
I have had this Powerbook for 8 weeks now; I've been busy at work etc so only got a chance to look at it this week.
The guy bought it second hand this time last year and he's had problems ever since. After paying the original £400 for the laptop he's had to go out and but a power supply and a second battery.
This guy happens to work in one of my fathers business as a chef, so he asked me to fix it, and basically said just take as long as you want because he knew I wasn’t going to charge him. I am not getting paid for this however the guy will pay for the costs incurred, i.e. the OS disks etc
My full time occupation is developing games and in my spare time as well as fixing PC's I develop online solutions for businesses.
As I wrote before I thought I would just have to re install Mac OS X, but it seems that that isn’t as straight forward as re installing windows.
NEW INFO:
The logging in box doesn’t actually disappear it will stay there forever until I press the power button once, then it appears as if the desktop etc will load but obviously that never happens.
Last night I did the "Verbose" mode start up and it eventually got to the login screen, now as I mentioned before when you login it never actually gets there, well in Verbose mode every time it turns from the black curser to the spinning multi coloured ball, I am faced with a black screen, only lasts half a second and it then goes back to the Mac "desktop" as it were, but the desktop never loads.
There is a problem message on the black screen which says... loginWindow connection closed; closing server
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