13 replies to this topic

[cashbox1]

hi folks,was doing my usual mooch round the local car boot sale this morning,i picked up an almost pristine 15" macbook g4 for next to nothing.on power up all i get is  what you see in the pic.any ideas? or have i bought a pig in a poke ?

all help appreciated as always

 

bry

Attached Files

•  mac.jpg   25.28KB   2 downloads

[nails]

that the logo is it not?   best guess from me is the HD is corrupt and not booting, im really NOT and expert on macs

[Magz]

Looks like the install is either corrupted or has some other issue.

 

If you have a MacOS CD then boot from that (Hold C on start) and use utilities / disk check as a first option...

[cashbox1]

its flipping between the image you see and a folder with a question mark,none of the usual kep combinations seem to work.

[aaamusements]

Daryl likes his MACs, he might be able to help you out with a CD.

Edited by aaamusements, 12 April 2015 - 08:08 PM.
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[cashbox1]

Daryl likes his MACs, he might be able to help you out with a CD.

 

cheers Alex, i was hoping he might see this post. on another note, anyone any ideas of the spec of this one ? i only paid a tenner for it with the charger

[Geddy]

It's trying to boot the OS and it can't so either the install is corrupt or more than likely the HDD is bolloxed.....

[Guitar]

Or the RAM or chipset is screwed. Less likely, but still possible.

[slasherx2]

I can offer a hammer?

[duplu]

Try holding the Command key and then R and P keys together when it boots.  This will clear the PRAM and sometimes works.

 

If this doesn't work then the HDD or the logic board is knackered.

[stardust]

To me... and I have an old iMac G4 running Mac OS X Leopard (10.5) - it looks like it hasn't got an operating system.

 

The minimum you will need is Mac OS X Cougar - but the best bet is to install Mac OS X Tiger (10.4) - you can get it if you 'Google' it as an ISO image to install

 

Once it is installed - you'll need to download an app called 'Leopard Assist' - and this should trick the PowerBook into believing it can run the latest OS X for the Apple G4/G5 computers.

 

Here are a few links to help you get to know what you've got...

 

 

 

Look for your Apple Computer here amongst this array of G4 MacBooks - you'll find yours among it somewhere

 

http://www.everymac....werbook-g4.html

 

 

 

Here's the link for the 'Leopard Assist' app...

 

http://www.macupdate...2/leopardassist

 

 

Google for the Mac OS X Tiger (10.4) and Mac OS X Leopard (10.5) disks - they're out there somewhere

 

Good luck cashbox mate x

[stardust]

An update to the above...

 

...I have sent cashbox a copy of the Mac OS X Tiger disk I have and hopefully this should restore his partition after he has formatted the HDD and installed the OS X system onto it

[Magz]

Very kind Daryl - hopefully the drive is in decent enough shape...

[cashbox1]

just a little update,knowing absolutely neinte about macs,its no surprise i had a headache with this,not having the luxury of being able to press f2 to get a BIOS screen, i wasnt able to see that there was no HDD in the mac.hence the question mark/folder icons.a replacement HDD is winging its way and should be with me tomorrow,allowing me to complete my first ever mac OS install i know that may make some of you laugh,but to someone who has only ever worked on windows based pc`s,its quite an achievement... many thanks to all especially stardust (FME mac legend) and duplu (also FME mac legend)