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xfesty · Nov 24, 2004, 10:21 AM

Hi,

Trying to work out what's going on with my girlfriend's iBook (G4, 800) - the system is continually freezing, it won't even boot up properly most of the time. It'll sometimes freeze on the grey screen (sometimes with nothing on it, sometimes with just the Apple, sometimes with the loading circle), most of the time it'll freeze on the blue screen right before the "Mac OS X" loading screen comes up, but occasionally it'll get into that and freeze some way into it.

I've tried booting off the Restore CD's that came with the iBook thinking it might be an OS issue, but I appear to get exactly the same issues.

She can't think of anything that would have triggered it, no new applications or updates installed. It started happening last night, although she's been saying it's been "acting wierd" for a while now.

I managed to boot the Apple Hardware Test CD, and run through its tests, and it claims the system has no problems.

I think the thing is out of warranty - bought it a bit over a year ago now and bought no extended Applecare with it (the iBook was pushing the budget as it was).

Any clues? If this was a PC I'd suspect faulty RAM, but the Hardware Test CD claims the memory is fine.

Cheers!

iREZ · Nov 24, 2004, 10:49 AM

I'd try removing the RAM and Airport card and repairing permissions via the Hardware disc. After that I'd reset the PRAM and hopefully things should be running well. Make sure to seat both the AP card and RAM fully, lots of problems happen when one of those things is loose. When you do get it running (with the help of the above or not) make sure to download some software that she could run to keep the iBook in good shape. Onyx is free and will repair permissions, run scripts, and optimize the system not to mention some other cool stuff. Hope some of this helps.

winCEman · Nov 24, 2004, 10:55 AM

I'm sorry tpo inform you youmay have the dreaded lodic board problem, the good news is apple should fix it very quickly. Both time my logic boards went out, I had my ibook back within the same week.

Since then I sold that ibook to a coworker, and got a new ibook, I haven't had any problems since. (neither has he)

xfesty · Nov 24, 2004, 11:00 AM

I didn't think this affected G4's, though? I saw the recall on Apple's webpage, but it seems to be for models before this.

pat++ · Nov 24, 2004, 02:35 PM

Try to remove the memory stick. I might have gone bad...

mi5 · 11:46 PM

I originally purchased an iBook G4 (800mhz, 30gb, 640mb) in Feb 2004 and all went well until July (hard drive replaced), August through October (hard drive replaced + logicboard replaced) and October (again it was going to be a logicboard).

The hardware test CD always gave supposed good results, but the iBook still had problems. The Apple Tech did say that the standard test CD is somewhat limited. I also went through the memory and Airport replacement/checking 'phase', but found these weren't the cause.

The problems my iBook was having were basically system lock-ups, after reboot it couldn't find OS and after reboot with OS CD, it either couldn't find the hard drive to re-install or repair, or it took up to 10 reboots. None of the symptoms as described in the Logicboard Replacement Program that affected earlier iBooks, appeared on mine. It does sound as though my problems were similiar to your girlfriends iBook.

Apple decided to replace the whole iBook with a brand new model...1.2ghz, 768mb (256mb + new 512mb), 30gb. I was extremely impressed (why wouldn't I be) with Apple's decision!

Cheers

xfesty · Nov 30, 2004, 07:17 AM

Tried removing memory/airport card, doesn't make a difference. Reset PRAM/et al, no difference. Tried yanking out the power and battery for a few days, no difference.

From what you describe, it could be the logic board. This was purchased over a year ago though (only by a few months, would have been Sep 03 or something). I assume that Apple no longer cover this?

How much money is she going to be in for? She's only a student.

xfesty · Nov 30, 2004, 07:27 AM

Phew, I might be lucky - the box that the iBook came in has a shipping date of mid Dec 03 on it. I'm sure it was earlier when she got it, but oh well - just need to find the reciept.

She got it from an Apple reseller, but for various reasons I'd probably prefer dealing directly with Apple rather than the reseller (long story). Is this possible (I'm in Australia)? If so, how - do I just call Apple and ship it somewhere? Will they charge me /anything/, including labour or shipping, within this 1 year warranty period (she bought no Applecare or anything outside of the purchase of the iBook, under an educational discount).