[dosequis09]

I have an iBook G4 1.06 GHZ. It originally came with 256 mb RAM and 30GB HD. I since upgraded ram to 768mb RAM and a 100GB Hiatachi HD. It was running 10.4. The other day it started freezing and word got disk errors causing it to close the program. It then said that I was not running a work file in Word and if I wanted to replace the normal. Long story short with word open i would attempt to click on a document and open it and nothing would happen. I then had a disk error with Photoshop. I attempted to restart and when I did i got a flashing finder folder with a "?" I tried again manually and it would go to the grey screen with the apple and then a blue screen and do nothing.

I took it to IT and they said it was probably a bad HD.

I put the original 30GB HD in it and had the same problems, but this time with a screen that popped up during restart that was grey with the power button logo in the background saying to restart.

I took it in again and they said the HD had a bad block.

I asked if this could be possible with two separate HD and they said it was weird but maybe.

I reformatted the 100GB HD and installed OSX 10.5. I had the same freezing problems and then attempted restart only to get a white screen with typing saying i needed to re boot or shut down. Much like DOS mode on a PC.

My theory is that it is not the HD and something else with the computer. What could it be and Should I replace it all together?
It is over three years old, i got it used and has no warranty.

Thanks for the help, sorry for the long post.

[Big Mac]

Yeah, I agree it has to be something else. I don't know what a gab block is as far as a drive is concerned. It could be the RAM. After all you've gone through it probably makes sense to replace it, unless you really want to diagnose the problem further. I say sell it as a damaged on eBay and you'll get a little something for your trouble.

[dosequis09]

I know it is a long post.... but does anyone else have any ideas or is it dead?

[Chito]

I would start by removing the extra stick of ram and trying again. If the problem persists take out the original stick and put in the extra one. Chances that both sticks of ram are bad are slim...possible but slim. Although it sounds like a classic hard drive problem you seem to have eliminated that by swapping drives. Like Big Mac said....could be the ram.