[iBean]

Hi there,

I have a PowerBook G4 15" and it simply won't boot. I have been having some issues lately - the PowerBook would freeze after sleep (got the spinning beach ball) and then, when I tried to reboot, it would show the flashing question mark icon after a while. After a couple of reboots, it would eventually find the startup disk and boot.

Today, however, it freezed while I was using it. Now all I get is the flashing question mark. I tried to boot from MacOS 10.4 install disc and ran Disk Utility: sometimes it would show no HD at all, other times it would list my internal HD as being 8.1 TB in size....

Is this a hardware issue? And by hardware I also mean: could this be caused by, say, an incorrectly plugged HD? I sent the PowerBook for repair in August and after a month and a half (!) I got it back - the original issue was fixed, but the repair center broke the optical drive... a month later they replaced it and I started having the boot issues. Could this be realated? I *have* told the guys at the repair center about this and he just told I had to choose a Startup Disk in System Preferences -- Apple repair centers here in Portugal are a joke!

Any thoughs? I was ready to reformat my HD but sometimes it even won't appear on Disk Utility.... My other option is to take it back to the repair center, shout at everyone there and wait for at least a week.

Help, please...

[MrN79]

I had the same problem on my PB 15" G4, it was a HD failure. I have AppleCare and they said i would lose all my data if i sent it in (didn't want that to happen). I went online and talked to a few mac peeps and they led me to iFixIt.com, and DiskWarrior.

I ordered a new 100GB 7200 HD, along with the complete disassembly guide, and did the replacement myself (i believe this will invalidate your AppleCare if you do this).

I installed the supposedly bad HD in an external enclosure, ran DiskWarrior and it repaired the bad sectors/blocks, and it's still running today (almost 8 months now).

Not sure how adventurous you are, you can also try PRAM reset.

Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM

[iBean]

I have tried reseting the PRAM, the NVRAM both with the keyboard shortcuts *and* via Open Firmware - it didn't help. I've also ran TechTool Pro and it found no erros on the drive - but the weird thing it that it happens on a random basis! Well I ran TechTool I was lucky that it found the drive - but, like I said, some other times the drive won't even appear on Disk Utility.

Do you thing reformatting the drive would help? I do have a complete backup of my files (well, except for apps, but those I can install from the original disks). If it does solve the issue I would rather reformat it myself than having to take it to the repair center and wait for the repair.

Thanks for the info, anyways!

[romeosc]

Originally Posted by iBean 

I have tried reseting the PRAM, the NVRAM both with the keyboard shortcuts *and* via Open Firmware - it didn't help. I've also ran TechTool Pro and it found no erros on the drive - but the weird thing it that it happens on a random basis! Well I ran TechTool I was lucky that it found the drive - but, like I said, some other times the drive won't even appear on Disk Utility.

Do you thing reformatting the drive would help? I do have a complete backup of my files (well, except for apps, but those I can install from the original disks). If it does solve the issue I would rather reformat it myself than having to take it to the repair center and wait for the repair.

Thanks for the info, anyways!

Try reformatting and installing a clean copy of Tiger and see if that works....