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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Powerbook G4 not booting at start

lojack21 - Jul 25, 2006 - 11:51 am

Last night I shut down my laptop like I always do, nothing out of the ordinary. This morning when I turned it on, it came on, but gave me three beeps (kind of like te beeps that you hear when there's an emergency bulletin on tv). The standby light on the open button came on and flashed 3 times and then would stay on for a few seconds and then flash again (this keeps repeating). All the while, the screen is black. I don't get the Apple I don't get the spinning circle...nothing...just black. I did everything in the troubleshooting section of my manual. (oh by the way, I've had this G4 for a little over a year). I even inserted the disc like it said and now it won't eject. (so even if you can't help with my main problem, could you help me to get the disc out?) So getting desperate, I called the tech support. Held for 15 minutes all so she could tell me I would have to send it in. She was of no help at all. Couldn't even tell me what may be the problem. Said it could be the memory and I told her how long I've had it and she said "Oh, well have you installed any memeory?" and I said no. She then she was all out of ideas. I'm sorry if I am duplicating questions, but I searched and couldn't find anything with the same problem. Your help is greatly appreciated. And if you need any more info on my laptop, let me know. Thanks.

lojack21 - Jul 25, 2006 - 4:25 pm

I found out that it was just the ram and it needed to be popped back in. So if anyone else needs this.....just check the ram.

ishan - Jul 25, 2006 - 4:28 pm

Three beeps on startup means your RAM is not passing the computer's startup tests. If you have more than one chip installed, take out one at a time and see what happens. If you have only one RAM chip, replace it (it may be under a lifetime warranty if it's from a third party vendor).

You can also reset your firmware. To do so, follow Apple's instructions for your specific PB model on Apple's support pages. However, it's almost certain that your RAM is the problem.

HTH and please let us know what happens. Thanks.