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bass925 · Sep 17, 2006, 08:43 AM

I bought my ibook G4 about a year ago as my first mac. I'm a big PC guy but wanted to learn OSX. About 6 months ago my ibook started acting funny (beach ball of death and so on). Eventually it just stopped booting. It would sit at the apple screen. I tried clearing the pram and all that but nothing. Eventually I had to just reinstall OSX. This same thing happens about every three weeks now. Lots of beach ball of death then no boot. I'm thinking its a fried hdd or possibly the logic board but the hardware test tells me everything is ok. I didn't buy applecare because I dont feel as though I should have to spend $250 for product protection on a product that is brand new. In that respect I think I'd rather have a dell. In fact, I do have a dell laptop and its works perfectly. Please help, I really really like the ibook but I'm a very spiteful person and will hold a grudge against apple for the rest of my life if I can't figure this out.

Thank you

seanc · Sep 17, 2006, 08:54 AM

I'd blame the hard drive.

MacinTommy · Sep 17, 2006, 09:18 AM

why hold a grudge? just learn that there will be no hardware/software out there that is perfect. (apple is pretty close though

but do you have apple care or are you still under that one year warranty? if you live near an apple store i would take it to them to see what is up.

f1000 · Sep 17, 2006, 11:46 AM

Originally Posted by bass925

Please help, I really really like the ibook but I'm a very spiteful person and will hold a grudge against apple for the rest of my life if I can't figure this out.

Thank you

Assuming you haven't heard any odd sounds emanating from your computer, see if Diskwarrior can resurrect your hard drive.

Briareus · Sep 17, 2006, 03:38 PM

Similar symptoms started happening to me last week with my 12" iBook 1.2Ghz G4: beachballs & subtle grinding that never happened before. A quick run of Disk Utility told me the HD's SMART Status was "Failing".

If that's the case, you should probably back up whatever you can and get the drive replaced. It's not a very user-friendly procedure from what I've read...

You say you bought it a year ago and symptoms started 6 months ago. Is your 1-year original warranty up?

bass925 · Sep 17, 2006, 06:33 PM

Well, I call apple customer support when this first started and they didn't appear to be interested in helping me unless i bought apple care. My instincts are pointing at the hdd. I've been working on PCs for 8 or 9 years now so I think I'll crack the laptop open and see what I can do. Thanks.

Cucucachoo · Sep 17, 2006, 07:02 PM

Download a service manual for it! I have opened both my iBooks and its not an easy job. The G4 was much easier, but unless you know where the stress points are you run the risk of cracking the plastic.

You may find the service manuals here. -> Service Manual free download,schematics,datasheets,eeprom bins,pcb,repair info for test equipment and electronics I found the my G3 manual there and i just used it to help with the G4.

bass925 · Sep 17, 2006, 09:58 PM

Its probably worth mentioning that 1) I can't download and install certain updates and 2) whenever I reinstall OSX everything works fine. If I download the combined update for OSX from the autoupdate, the computer instantly becomes unusable. I reinstalled OSX a few hours ago and I'm just going to leave it be for now. My main computer is running fine which is all that really matters I guess.

Thanks for the help though.

seanc · Sep 18, 2006, 04:08 AM

Use, the guides from ifixit.com . They have screw guides so you won't lose any, they're very goos guides.