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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Mac Notebooks > ibook g4 wont go past the apple screen.

ibook g4 wont go past the apple screen.
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Angelbayb85
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Sep 12, 2006, 05:27 PM
 
can anyone tell me why this ibook keeps on doing this. about every month or so i have to spend hours re-install everything. Is something wrong with this ibook? is there a premanent solution to this?
Thanks
     
jmiddel
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Sep 13, 2006, 01:38 AM
 
Hey Angel please be a bit more specific? What exactly happens that you have to re-install everything? Give us your iBook type, OS etc so we know what we are dealing with.
     
Angelbayb85  (op)
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Sep 14, 2006, 01:46 PM
 
its an ibook g4 800mhz. osx 10.3. when i turn the apple on its stays on the apple screen and there appears to be no way around it except for reinstalling all the software which takes forever. this is the third time that the apple has done this. thanks
     
romeosc
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Sep 14, 2006, 02:00 PM
 
Originally Posted by Angelbayb85
its an ibook g4 800mhz. osx 10.3. when i turn the apple on its stays on the apple screen and there appears to be no way around it except for reinstalling all the software which takes forever. this is the third time that the apple has done this. thanks

Try booting holding down shift key "safe mode". If it works check software that boots on startup!
     
Angelbayb85  (op)
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Sep 15, 2006, 12:01 AM
 
tried the above and the apple still wouldnt leave the apple screen nor start in save mode.
help please
     
Phil Sherry
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Sep 17, 2006, 10:31 AM
 
Boot up holding cmd+s, which leaves you at a command line.

Type fsck -fy as it says on the screen, and hit return. It should tell you it's fixed something, then cycle through again until it says it's modified something and suggests a reboot (I think, typing this from memory). If you then type shutdown -r now it'll reboot.

That usually gets my Macs unstuck from that state, but I have no idea what gets them stuck there in the first place. Hope that helps.
     
seanc
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Sep 18, 2006, 03:10 PM
 
Sounds like your hard drive is dying.
     
imitchellg5
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Sep 18, 2006, 03:53 PM
 
Originally Posted by seanc
Sounds like your hard drive is dying.
Exactly. That is what happened to my best friend to months ago. He had the exact same iBook as you do, and the HD died.
     
Angelbayb85  (op)
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Sep 19, 2006, 04:13 PM
 
thanks, i will attempt the command thing later. incase it is the HD dying, where can i find one for a good price? also, can i go bigger than the 30gb hd that it already has?
     
seanc
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Sep 19, 2006, 04:16 PM
 
Yes, you can go as high as you can find a 2.5" ATA drive.

Check NewEgg or something like that.
     
Angelbayb85  (op)
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Sep 19, 2006, 10:56 PM
 
the applewill not boot into verbose nor single-user mode. Is there anything else i can do?

eBay: Fujitsu MHT2060AT 60GB ATA-100 2.5" Notebook Hard Drive (item 130028887119 end time Sep-22-06 06:40:42 PDT)
will this HD work?
( Last edited by Angelbayb85; Sep 19, 2006 at 11:10 PM. )
     
seanc
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Sep 20, 2006, 01:24 AM
 
Yes that hard drive would work. If you're going to use eBay, buy a NEW drive. That should help you to avoid problems that used drive may already have and the poor life it could have previously had which would lead to premature failure.

I'd also look out for a 5400RPM drive as it is a bit faster and will speed up your iBook.
     
chipchen
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Sep 20, 2006, 01:43 AM
 
I would say it's EITHER your hard drive (listen closely, is it making noises?)... or RAM/DATA corruption. If you have DATA corruption, it can cause the directory to continually corrupt (and have issues like you're having). The RAM can also cause enough corruption to that too.
     
imitchellg5
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Sep 20, 2006, 03:26 PM
 
Originally Posted by seanc
Yes that hard drive would work. If you're going to use eBay, buy a NEW drive. That should help you to avoid problems that used drive may already have and the poor life it could have previously had which would lead to premature failure.

I'd also look out for a 5400RPM drive as it is a bit faster and will speed up your iBook.
Doesn't the iBook G4 already have a 5400 RPM drive? A 7200 RPM drive would be faster.
     
Angelbayb85  (op)
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Sep 21, 2006, 01:09 AM
 
thanks you guys have been awesome. three questions
first, is there a way to tell if it either the ram or the hd?
secondly, how do i get the apple to start up in safe mode, verbose mode or any mode so that i can get past the apple screen?
Last, if i upgrade the ram, will that fix the ram/data corruption?
     
seanc
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Sep 21, 2006, 01:52 AM
 
1.You're Welcome.
2.Check to see if the HD is making any strange noises and try some different RAM,
3.Command + V is Verbose mode and holding Shift after the startup noise would attempt to boot into Safe Mode.
4.No it wouldn't since the damage is already done. Re-install everything and it should be fine though.
     
Angelbayb85  (op)
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Sep 21, 2006, 02:15 AM
 
what would i need to do to fix the ram/data thing?
     
seanc
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Sep 21, 2006, 02:20 AM
 
If it IS your Ram, then you'd need to replace the Ram and re-install the OS.
     
frdmfghtr
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Sep 21, 2006, 09:56 PM
 
My late 2005 iBook G4 had a 4200 RPM drive and I just upgraded to a 5400 RPM drive.
     
Angelbayb85  (op)
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Sep 22, 2006, 07:45 PM
 
what ata interface does the i book use?
i am so confused because i know how funny apples are. i would prefer to get something from comp usa or BB locally.
     
p0stman
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Sep 22, 2006, 07:54 PM
 
My Powerbook G4 had the same problem... ran a hardware diagnostic test which indicated error with video card... took it in and there was a fault with the logic board, which needed to be replaced.
2.0 GHz White Macbook 2.0 GB RAM 60 GB HD
iPod Nano Black 2 GB
1.5 GHz Powerbook G4 12" 768 MB RAM 60 GB HD (KIA)
     
seanc
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Sep 23, 2006, 06:01 AM
 
Just a standard notebook ata interface.
     
HowEver
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Sep 23, 2006, 06:54 PM
 
If you can boot up from an external FireWire drive, and it works fine, then you probably have a dying (internal) hard drive.

Then again, if you have such a drive, and never need to be portable, just use that external drive.

Replacing the iBook's hard drive is for professionals, at least not for the faint of heart. You can break hidden plastic tabs, and hidden ribbon cables. And you'll need a spludger, and hours of your time.

It's worth paying an Authorized Apple person to do this, unfortunately it doubles the cost of the fix.
     
romeosc
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Sep 23, 2006, 08:22 PM
 
     
amazing
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Sep 24, 2006, 12:34 AM
 
you can find disassembly guides at ifixit.com--just be aware that an iBook is very complicated you'd better have great patience and great tech skills if you attempt it. You need the ATA/IDE laptop drives, rather than the SATA drives for the intel Mac laptops.

the best sources for bargains on laptop HDs are buy.com and/or zipzoomfly.com

Buy.com - 2.5 Notebook Upgrades
ZipZoomfly

sometimes you can find great bargains locally, if you watch the sales. I got a 120 GB Seagate for only $125 at Circuit City...
     
tomacwhite
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Sep 24, 2006, 05:53 PM
 
Sounds like the hard drive to me too. I have a 800mhz G4 iBook 12" and it had exactly the same problem; it wouldn't load past the apple logo. I tried reinstalling but it would always fall over during one part of the reinstall process.

I nearly fall off my chair when I found out how much apple wanted to repair my iBook with a new HDD ( £450.00 UK), so I found a local-ish Apple repair centre and I got it done with a new 60GB HDD for £150.00 UK.


Its a complete pain to switch out yourself, other wise I would of done it. You basically need to completle take the machine apart, its a nightmare job.

Hope you get it sorted soon.
     
amazing
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Sep 25, 2006, 07:11 PM
 
The suggestion to boot off an external firewire drive is a good one: if it works then you know it's not the logic board.

CompUSA has a ridiculously low HD installation price, if you buy the HD from them. Something like $30??
     
Angelbayb85  (op)
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Sep 26, 2006, 05:29 PM
 
how and what program do i use to boot an apple off of an external firmware? I know how to do it for a reg. cpu but not for an apple. about the hd i figured that the ata numbers was for different compatibilities.
typically how much does it cost to get the hd installed outside of compusa?
     
romeosc
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Sep 27, 2006, 09:36 AM
 
Originally Posted by Angelbayb85
how and what program do i use to boot an apple off of an external firmware? I know how to do it for a reg. cpu but not for an apple. about the hd i figured that the ata numbers was for different compatibilities.
typically how much does it cost to get the hd installed outside of compusa?

Hold down "C" key while booting for DVD Drive

or

Hold down option key while booting and select drive

or

If you are running off internal drive:
Select System Preferences under Apple Menu
Select Startup disk and select your external drive
Fro then on everytime you will boot off external until you change preference again
     
   
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