iBook G4 14"- OSX 10.4.3 - 1.2 gig RAM
I've been having a problem with my iBook recently. For the last month, the machine has been working for a limited amount of time before I get the endless spinning beachball. I'm not working with anything intensive. Usually I'm surfing the net on Safari, or using Appleworks (or Word) to update lesson plans and such.
The problem has become so bad that the machine works for an hour and then hangs in beachball mode. One time I let it run while I was at work, and when I returned 8 hours later, the problem was still there. Force quitting doesn't take me out of that cycle either. I have to do a manual shutdown of the machine in order to get it to stop.
The real problem is that the machine will display the flashing question mark when I try to restart. Waiting an hour or two doesn't do it either. In the last few days I've gone to bed not being able to start up, only to have the machine boot up perfectly five hours later when I get up. By that time the machine will work for an hour and then I'm back in beachball mode again.
I've run Disk Warrior, but it doesn't give any indication that there is a problem of any kind. I've tried to re-install the operating system, but it only works for disk one of the install disk.... when it restarts for disk 2, I get the flashing question mark again.
I'm at a loss as to what is happening here. Is this a case of the hard drive not functioning properly? I'd appreciate any input as to steps I can take before I take the machine in to have it looked at.
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