Just so you know: This Powerbook I am having problems with is NOT the same Powerbook I'm putting up for trade in the Marketplace. That link is
here. I was a member of MacNN from May to August of 2005 under the alias "hmccorkle." I am not a newbie to this forum, so please excuse the low post count.
A few notes before I begin:
*My Powerbook is no longer covered by AppleCare.
*I have never dropped or misused this laptop.
*I have tried the PMU reset, the manual key startup, and the safe mode boot key combinations with
no results.
Where do I start? First of all, I am not a *newbie* Mac user, and I have searched through this forum and others. I found a little bit of help on the Apple web site, but nothing became of it. I have tried the PMU reset (no response), booting in safe mode (no response), and ultimately re-installing OSX from the 2 DVDs that accompanied the laptop.
Here are the specs on my Powerbook:
15" LCD, pre resolution upgrade
8x Single-layer SuperDrive
1.67 ghz
1GB DDR ram
100GB
128 VRAM
and all the extras that came with it (Bluetooth, SMS, etc)
I bought the Powerbook in May 2006.
This is how it all started:
I was using my pbk as usual, with my Mighty Mouse, stereo speakers, and Canon 350D, 200GB & 250GB external USB 2.0 HDDS, and Moto SLVR cable plugged into a 10-port USB hub, plugged into the left USB port.
I believe I had Safari, iTunes, and an AM radio podcast downloader running, when I went to open Photoshop CS2. I left for an hour or so, came back, awoke the pbk from sleep, and tried to put in my username and password. The beach ball came up and didn't budge (didn't go back to normal). After waiting about 10 minutes, I decided to hard-shut down the system (holding down the power button).
A few hours later, I pressed the power button and the normal boot screen came up. The spinning graphic spun for about ten minutes. Then I hard-restarted it again (since I had no other choice) and the same screen appeared this time, only with no spinning graphic. I shut it down, removed everything (the mouse, speakers, and USB hub), and turned it back on. Back to the white Apple screen sans the loading graphic. I left it there for the night in hopes that it would run its course and give me the login screen, everything being fine.
I woke up the next morning and it was still on that screen. I hard-restarted it, and it went to the grey screen, NO Apple logo, NO loading graphic.
This is when I went to Apple.com using the laptop I am now (Dell), and went through all the troubleshooting I could with no prevail.
My next step was inserting the original DVD, and hold down C to try to reinstall OS X. Everything was running smoothely, and I selected my hard drive (with data apparently still existing) and the installation began. I left and check back intermittently and the only progress it made was "Preparing Installation." I assumed it took time to install so I left for an hour and came back with the message "There were errors in the installation. Please try installing again."
So I removed the disc, restarted, and still got the grey screen. Restarted with the install disc in, went back to install, and
now there is no hard drive available to choose.
This is where I am now: stuck. I have tried everything in my knowledge to fix this thing without any expenditures.
If you have ANY ideas, they would be GREATLY appreciated. Thank you
2:17PM EST (after comment reply): Installing BSD Subsystem... (working!)
2:48PM EST: Insert second OS X Install disc...
3:23PM EST: There were errors in the installation. Please try installing again.
There was a notable scratch along disc 2 which I am going to clean momentarily. At the moment I'm trying to verify the hard disk to see if it still "exists."
9:22PM EST: Cleaned the disc with scratch cleaner, formatted the HDD, continued install... and it
worked. I am back online with my beautiful PowerBook. Thank you all for your consideration!
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