[jgift]

I have a PB 17" 1.5 that I'm thinking of buying used. Only problem is when I install OSX 10.3.3 from it's DVD Everything goes fine for 90% then it just stops.

I then tried installing it from a second PB. I put the PB17 in FireWire mode and installed OSX fine on the PB17 as aFireWire disk, only when I tried rebooting the PB 17" I got the spinning wheel, which was progress at least, but no login. Was it because it needed the DVD for last minute configs and couldn't find it now that it was no longer in FireWire mode?

Any feedback appreciated? Does it look liek something I can solve? Or does it look like CD/DVD drive problem, or something more serious?

Or can I just buy it and send it off to Apple since this model has only been out since April 2004 and it should be covered?

Thanks.

[Detrius]

Did you format and install, or did you archive preserving users and network settings?

It's also possible that the disk itself is bad. If you are installing on the machine using FireWire target disk mode, then you can install 10.3.0 followed by the 10.3.5 update--if you have another 10.3 install disk.

[jgift]

Did you format and install, or did you archive preserving users and network settings?

Erase and clean. Then every time it started Disk Verify it woukd stop at 23 percent (or some other number).

I spent 3 hours on it tonight. Zapped the PRAM, reset the PMU, reset Open Firmware, nothing would allow me to boot off the Install DVD. I then tried Disk Utility Restore to put my PowerBook OSX on the new PowerBook and that worked, but the PowerBook booted to a spinning wheel and stopped. At that point I figured that was it.

Then I had the idea to use another app and tried Carbon Copy Cloner. It cloned fine and then to my surprise it booted on my account on the supposedly broken PowerBook 17. I then got confident and put in the original DVD Install disk and did a fresh Archive and Install and this time it worked without a problem. I then connected to the net using Airport and dowloaded the latest 10.3.5 Update, Quicktime, etc, and it downloaded and installed no problem. I checked out Disk Utility, everything works. Lit keyboard, automatic lighting, airport, etc. I put in a DVD and that played a film fine as well.

I'd love to take credit for being a Mac genius, but Carbon Copy Cloner actually put something on the drive which made installing possible and I don't actually know what.

One last thing. I decided after I had it all updated to try the DVD install disk again, this tile again with an Erase and Install. This time it started Disk Verify and got to 8 percent before freezing. I quickly exited and booted back up normally.

I now have a working system, which is great. But what's with that Disk Verify and what did Carbon Copy Cloner do to get me a good install?

Do I still have something serious to worry about, or is this a bad disk, etc? It seems to be working fine now...

Thanks!