Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

ibr80 · Mar 9, 2007, 06:05 PM

OK ! So my friend Sebastian works for an airlines and a couple of months ago they found a Powerbook G4 that nobody has claimed so after several months the let him have it ( He's a manager). Well he knew I had a mac too so I lent him my charger he cranked it up and it turns out he did not have the administrators password. So After I tried booting from my Mac OS X 10.2 CD to erase the drive and install it you not boot at all. So we gave up and said lets just put a new drive in there. Now mind you I believe this computer is from Apple Spain because of the keyboard the the airline he works for. I installed a new drive and obviously the "?" logo keep coming on because there is no OS installed. I tried booting the original Mac OS X, also 10.2 and 10.3 and none of the will boot when I hold the option button, the only one that has booted is my own Powerbook g4 12" software restore CD but when I click on Install OS X the little grey apple turns into a "no" icons like the no smoking type sign. Now the powerbook is a 15" but that is all I know. Does anybody know or think of anything I can do to try and get this badboy working??? Its just doesnt seam to boot the CD's other than my 12" software restore CD but when clicking on it it wont work because I guess Apple made that CD to do that. Everybody's help is very much apreciated.

JKT · Mar 9, 2007, 08:43 PM

It probably needs a version of 10.3.x or 10.4 that is more up-to-date than 10.3 to boot from (IIRC, my PB shipped with 10.3.3 and, therefore, would not boot with a 10.3 installation disk). I suspect you will need to get a 10.4 installation disk.

romeosc · Mar 10, 2007, 11:33 AM

Start up into Open Firmware by pressing and holding the Command-Option-O-F key combination during startup.
At the Open Firmware prompt, type: reset-nvram
Press Return.
When prompted for your password, enter it and press the Return key.
It responds OK.
At the Open Firmware prompt, type: reset-all
Press Return.
The computer restarts and you will now be able to reset the PRAM and startup in Single-user mode, Verbose mode, or from optical disc.

ibr80 · Mar 22, 2007, 03:04 PM

Originally Posted by romeosc

Start up into Open Firmware by pressing and holding the Command-Option-O-F key combination during startup.
At the Open Firmware prompt, type: reset-nvram
Press Return.
When prompted for your password, enter it and press the Return key.
It responds OK.
At the Open Firmware prompt, type: reset-all
Press Return.
The computer restarts and you will now be able to reset the PRAM and startup in Single-user mode, Verbose mode, or from optical disc.

The only problem I have is that I dont have the password.

ibr80 · Mar 22, 2007, 03:08 PM

Ok so he bought Tiger (10.4) and I went to start it up by holding the C key and the little grey apple with the white background comes up and the CD drives starts to spin and then the CD stops spinning and the apple logo remains there with the little circle stick logo underneath as if it were loading but it never does. I left it for a good 20 min. Does anybody have any suggestions ?? Do you guys think that maybe because its PB from Spain it wont take the USA OS 10.4 disk??

mfbernstein · Mar 22, 2007, 05:49 PM

Have you tried installing OS X 10.4 on the hard drive using another machine, and then replacing the hard drive in the unbootable PowerBook?

If the Open FIrmware password protection is working, it shouldn't let you boot from CD at all. What happens if you try to put it in Firewire Target disk mode?

JKT · Mar 22, 2007, 05:54 PM

If it is one of the last model PowerBooks, it shipped with 10.4.2. Ergo, it probably needs at least 10.4.2 to boot - I should have checked that before I recommended getting the installation disks, sorry. The 10.4 installation disks are not going to be a late enough version of OS X to be able to boot the system.

However, perhaps all is not lost - if you hook up the Powerbook to your own 12" via a firewire cable, and boot the Powerbook in target disk mode (hold down the T key as you power it up until you get the dancing yellow Firewire symbol on the screen), you should be able to format the hard drive and install OS X onto it from your 12". That is, insert the installation disk into your 12" and run the installer - it will reboot your 12" as though you are performing an installation of OS X on it, and during one of the earlier stages of the installation, you should get the option to choose the hard drive you want to perform the installation on. Pick the "external" drive in the Powerbook. You will probably have to use Disk Utility to format the drive first.

You will also want to download the 10.4.9 combo updater to your 12" first so that you can update the 10.4 installation on the Powerbook straight after the 10.4.0 install has completed, so that it can boot.

peeb · Mar 22, 2007, 06:32 PM

It should boot from a 10.4 disc.

peeb · Mar 22, 2007, 06:32 PM

How about trying to boot it from a PPC Ubuntu or Yellow Dog disc?

ibr80 · Mar 22, 2007, 07:38 PM

First off thank everybody for the help. I just learned that the firmware of powerbook I guess keep the password stored to help prevent I guess theft and date loss. I think Im going to try and take the hard drive put it in my machine and then install it there and try and then pass it back to my friends computer. I will let you guys know how it turned out.

Big Mac · Mar 22, 2007, 07:41 PM

You should be able to reset the firmware password through hardware, if software fails - you just remove a module of RAM and then reinsert it.

ibr80 · Mar 26, 2007, 03:03 PM

Originally Posted by Big Mac

You should be able to reset the firmware password through hardware, if software fails - you just remove a module of RAM and then reinsert it.

Can you do that to the RAM that came with it cause it has no extra
installed in the little window underneath. And I cant locate it when I open the powerbook.

ibr80 · Mar 26, 2007, 03:05 PM

Ok, so I took the drive out of mine and installed the new drive in my 12" to try and install OS 10.4, well it did not read the drive, when I open the disk utility it only shows the OS DVD. So I tried intalling my drive in his 15" and it would not read it either. So I put my own drive back and guess what? Wont read it now either!

Does anybody have any suggestions ??

mfbernstein · Mar 26, 2007, 03:28 PM

Are you sure you have the drive plugged in correctly? The ATA cables make it possible to plug the drive in 'upside down' and it won't read properly when you do that. Try flipping the drive over and plugging it in.

Frugle · Mar 26, 2007, 03:57 PM

does it?

I don't think so.. ATA makes it impossible to plug it upside down. (correct me If I'm wrong on a 2.5" drive)

On 3.5" drives, not only is the slot only on one side, but it has a specific pin blocked out, that way if you dry to plug it in upside down, 1 pin won't have a hole to go into, so you won't be able to plug it in.

mfbernstein · Mar 26, 2007, 04:50 PM

It does. 2.5" IDE cabling is typically just 44 undifferentiated pins in 2 rows. Quite easy to get the direction mixed up (as I did on a PB G3 a few months back).

ibr80 · Mar 26, 2007, 04:59 PM

Originally Posted by mfbernstein

It does. 2.5" IDE cabling is typically just 44 undifferentiated pins in 2 rows. Quite easy to get the direction mixed up (as I did on a PB G3 a few months back).

I trippled checked and its in perfect. Also Frugle is correct regarding one pin being blocked to prevent a mix up, I know cause I almost did mix it up. Anyone have any idea why this would be happening?