I�m not new to macs, but i am to my ibook g4. I just got this for my birthday and it is a secondhand Mac. I cannot for the life of me figure out how to change the question mark, apostrophe, and others on the keyboard, to actually type what they are.
This is the question mark: �
this is the slash: �
it also does the same thing for the apostrophe and the quote.
I bought it refurbished almost two years ago. For several months it has been occasionally showing the flashing question mark on start up. Usually I will restart it in safeboot and then restart and it's fine. This has gone on for a while. I wasn't sure what that was about and have not been successful in finding information about if that was common and what to do about it. (I have two babies so not a lot of time to spend searching for answers when things aren't dire) It usually seemed that if a disc was left in the notebook and/or the top shut without being properly shutdown before hand, this would happen.
Well just a bit ago it was froze on a spinning wheel and I force quit the program it was stuck on and not long after shut it down. Now it won't get past the flashing question mark. I thought it was a startup issue. Now I'm worried it might be a hard-drive issue. My second child's birth video is on there! I know, I should have backed up. I tried Shift on start up and that didn't work. I tried Command+V on start up and that did nothing. I don't have another Mac to hook it up to, just my old trusty PC
My main concern is the files like photos, music, and videos on the hard drive. My husband is not working at the moment so we can't spend a lot of money on it and the nearest Mac Genius bar is over an hour away. Looking for some good advice!
I have an ibook g4 1.2 ghz 14 inch model with the 60 gig HD runnig Os X. One day, it start freezing up, and when I restart it, it would be fine. However, after a couple of day, it would not longer boot and I would get the folder with finder and question mark. I ran the hardware test on the CD, and it said I had a mass storage error. So, I went and bought a new hd and put it in. (another hitachi one, exactly the same). So i boot it up, run the hard ware test and it is fine. Then I go about installing os x and stuff, and everything is fine. However, on my first restart a couple of hours later, my computer no longer boots up again. I run disk utility, and it does not see any Hard drives, and when i reattempt to install my os x, it can not find a destination folder. What is going on? Also, I have the old HD from my ibook that I put in my external Hd case. If this thing is not actully broken, can I use it to boot through the usb 2.0 drive on my mac? I tried to plug it in, but for some reason no power goes to it, but if i plug it to my desktop, it powers up. (the light on the case)
View 7 Replies View RelatedPart of my iBook says there is an initialization error when I open up the DVD program, and the other part of it says I have have no drive at all. But I have tried everything that I was told to do. Basically I have a problem with my white iBook Laptop, a G3-4 800 mhz, which runs on OSX-10.14.11, and has 384 sd-ram
It has a DVD application program, but opening it just gives an initialization error. The date on the App is something from earlier this year, so it's not that old. It has the corporate "DVD" player logo. (but it won't open) If I drop down the Apple menu at the top corner, "About this Mac" I see the list, and if I select Burners, it says No Burner Found. If I look for CD or Audio devices, there is nothing like that on the list but i can find the cd drive under ATA drives (it has the HD listed, and then a CD drive). When I open Disk Utility to find out about 'repairing disk permissions' all I see on the left side of the screen are 2 drives: the hard drive and a CD drive (LG Model 8245B), and I cannot select 'repair permissions' or 'verify' because they are in light grey (un-selectable). If I click on 'First Aid" bacically nothing happens. It's sort of like "nothing's broken, nothing to fix."
So I went on to reset the PRAM, as this was the last suggestion
someone gave me.
Some interesting things: The thing plays CD's. It detects a CD drive, like I said. There is no CD/Audio player Application, anywhere (i was looking to see if it was read/write). There is also, buried somewhere, an older Apple DVD application, for an Apple DVD player. It wants to run on OS-9. So I open OS-9, and after OS9 has opened, it tells me that OS-9 doesn't support it.
The DVD application I mentioned earlier (it's about 28 MB) is newer, and runs on OS-X 10.14. (So.. yes, this was an OS-9 computer which got upgraded to OS 10.4.11)
Lastly, it came from a brother in law who is a filmmaker, and I know that he used it for DVD's. I was told i could also burn with it.(it doesn't burn cd's right now) He re-set some names and passwords when he gave it to me; from what I can see, all the 'permissions' are ok, and set to my name. I have his passwords in case I need them.
If the computer has forgotten that it has a DVD drive, then I can't run OS 10 (which is a dvd), if it were to crash. This worries me, since I had to do this with my old Pismo only 2 months after buying it (at least it had a dvd drive!) I lifted the keyboard to see if there was a label on the cd-dvd player.
Nothing. I can't pull it out (like I could in my old Pismo) to examine the underside. How does it come out? (it's a tray-loader)
Before I start trying to remove the drive, just to see what it says...
Is there any program on the iBook which will actually detect, and tell me what hardware I have? I think that the computer still thinks it has the old cd drive in it, even though it was obviously upgraded to a dvd drive. If I could find out the brand I could maybe download some software driver
for it..?
(i am sort of afraid to go poking around the system files if I know that I cannot use the OS- 10 startup disk when it crashes (since it is a dvd)...
So is it beginning to sound like there WAS a dvd drive in there first, which burned out, and was replaced by a cheaper LG (that's Dell) CD-R drive
My iBook could be on it's last leg. I have an iBook G4 1.2 Ghz with 512 mb of RAM running 10.3.9. It started about 2 to 5 months ago. When I restart my computer, instead of the white screen with the grey Apple logo that appears during a normal start-up, I get the grey screen with a flashing box with a picture of the world inside the flashing box, then the small flashing folder that flashes the OSX logo, then a question mark (?), then it would go into the normal start-up screen (white w/Apple logo). I thought this was the Safe mode boot.
Well, recently, it would just stay on the flashing OSX logo and "?" and nothing would happen. So I would do a forced shut down (holding the power down) and power it back up. Same thing. I'd repeat this for 30 minutes to an hour, restarting anywhere from 15 to 30 times and it would eventually work.
So, the flashing OSX logo and "?" happened again last night, and I could not get it to boot after countless restarts. This morning, I grab my iBook Install disc to do a full restore. I restart and hold the C key to boot from the install disc. I go through the normal steps and when I get to Choose the Drive or Destination tab, my hard drive isn't listed. Nothing is listed. I reboot holding the option key to run the Apple hard ware test. Airport passes, Logic Board passes, then I get an error when the Mass Storage test runs. Reboot and run Test again, same results. I reboot to the install disc again and it still says no drive. I open Disc Utility and the only drive it reads is the iBook Install Disc. I restart normally, and it loads fine, and I instantly come here to seek a diagnostic as to what my problem is.
I don't understand is the strange frequency or my problem. Sometimes it works, sometimes I have to restart it a dozen or so times. How can it not recognize my hard drive [I]some[I] of the time and not all of the time? I don't want to do a full restore just yet. I'd like to know what my problem is before I do anything drastic. I do have my hard drive backed up.
I had to replace the hard drive on my daughter's iBook G4. I replaced the original Toshiba with a seagate 160gb ATA drive. When using the original install disk, the installer cannot find the hard drive to install the OS on. I was told the problem could only be the cable or a DOA drive; so I got another new hard drive and replaced the replacement, being sure that the cable was connected properly. In the past, I've replaced hard drives several times in various machines I've owned.
I seem to remember that on one occasion I had the same problem, and found the unmounted drive with Tech Tool Deluxe that I had gotten with an old AppleCare purchase. On this iBook G4, however, the Tech Tools disk won't boot the machine. Perhaps I am mis-remembering that incident, but I'm pretty sure that I was able to mount a hard disk in the past using some sort of software. Problem is that this iBookG4 won't boot off of ANY of my older system disks I own.
So i bought a 1gig RAM stick for my iBook for Kahlon. Kahlon said that this RAM was supported for my iBook. The specs for my iBook are 12in, 1.2 Ghz, 120gb hard drive and 1.25 gigs of RAM. Ok so I put in my RAM in about March and it worked fine for about 3 months. Then in late July my Mac started showing the "Grey Screen of Death." So i thought that it might of been the hard drive so i did some repairs and nothing changed. So then after that I reformatted my hard drive and reinstall Tiger and nothing changed either. So i finally took out my RAM and tested to see if that was the problem and low and behold my computer ran fine (a little slow because it was was running on 256mb of RAM but it ran fine for about a week). Then I put the RAM back on in it but the Computer only read that the 1gig stick was actually a 512mb RAM stick but it still worked fine for a week until I installed a update and so I had to restart my computer (restart being the Key Word). So when I restarted my computer my computer recognized that it had a total of 1.25gigs of RAM. But when i went to start up itunes or any other application it would immediately show the "Grey Screen of Death." Does anyone know what could have happened I think that it is the Logic Board but I don't know.
View 3 Replies View RelatedIve searched all over, and cant find a solution. I put in a new HD for the 1.2ghz iBook 12", and it wont be recognized by the computer. I tried resetting the Vram/Pram, with no success. I also made sure the hd connector is connected. When I hold down "C" to the install disc, it reads the disc, but does not detect the HD. When I do not hold down c, it takes me to a question mark/folder icon.
I do not think its the new hard disk or connector or logic board, because I have read others having the problem...some say it is the firmware, and that its the OS/Installer disc that has the error...but I have no clue how to fix it.
My Mac stopped recognizing it's internal HD, (HD1), a few day's ago. There is a blinking question mark when starting up.
I have replaced it with an older HD, HD(2) and this boots OK and works fine in my MacBookPro.
I have connected the HD(1) via USB, in a caddy, and it is recognized as an external disk.
I have removed, the older, HD(2) and used HD(1) as "start-up" disk, via Caddy with no internal HD fitted, , and it worked OK on all tasks.
I have reinstalled the offending HD(1) in the MacBookPro but it is, again, not recognized ??? and I am getting the Blinking Question Mark, as before.
Fortunately I had just backed up HD(1)
I have a G3 iBook and just the other day the display stopped working. There were no signs of the display going bad, it's just went. Am I able to boot the iBook via Target Disk Mode on my PowerBook and run the iBook Hardware Test CD on it? Also, can I reboot my PowerBook and choose the iBook as the startup volume?
I know how to do Target Disk Mode but the latter I'm not sure about.
Our iBook G4 won't recognize DVDs. It reads CDs fine, and I just upgraded the OS to Tiger and it read that DVD as well. However, when inserting a regular DVD (movie, etc., original copy, not burned) it says "this disc contains no volumes recognized by OS". I reinstalled the original OS and software, upgraded to Tiger and have reset the computer and checked the system preferences to make sure it wasn't set to ignore DVDs. The player worked in the past, not sure what is going on.
View 2 Replies View RelatedMy brother's iBook G4 (800Mhz, First Rev) has completely splattered itself and we're getting a new Macbook for him under insurance. My iBook G3 (White, 900Mhz G3..the last G3 Rev of the iBook) has a failing hard drive.
Now, could I swap out those two drives, at least to recover stuff? And is there a specific method of opening up the iBook G4 so that I don't break stuff (I've already messed with my G3..and ended up with a dozen extra screws ^_^
Mainly the aim is to salvage the hard drive and swap them out; replacing my faulty iBook G3 one with the iBook G4 one which is perfectly fine.
my home-country local MAC forum cannot resolve. The thing is,that I did a bit of overclocking on my G3 DUAL USB 500MHZ IBOOK.I overclocked FSB bus to 100MHZ and CPU speed to 600MHZ.But after
that,my IBOOK wouldn't recognize internal HDD.Laptop itself works just fine, it boots from OSX Panther CD and so on,but OSX install JUST WON'T SHOW ME ANY HARD DRIVE WHERE TO INSTALL ITSELF ON TO.As you know... CD and HDD are connected via the same cable to the motherboard and CD works fine.I thought that maybe the part of the cable which was connected to the hdd was broken,so I changed the hole cable.Nothing happened,everything was still the same.I have tested HDD in other computer and it works fine.Also I have tried 2 different HDD-s in Ibook- still the same.I have also tried to reset everything I can> power managment reset (through that button) and reset via functsion+option+p+r (on keyboard...or smth. like that) My smartness has run out.What shall I do?
I should mention that if I don't but any OS cd into the CD-DRIVE,then I get flashing folder with question-mark on my screen.
Anyway,I think that the problem might be related to hdd partitions.I deleted my original OSX partition right after I got overclocked laptop back (because OSX install didn't recognized it) and then changed HDD-s partition to FAT32.(I thought that maybe OSX partition had been damaged during the overclocking process) But maybe the problem was still the cable (right in the beginning) and now OSX install wouldn't recognize my hdd, because it's in FAT32 format? Other thing what makes me think about that: as I told,if there is no CD in CD-DRIVE IBook shows blinking question mark with a folder on its screen.But yesterday I managed to delete hdd's FAT32 partition and replace it with HSF+. (in other laptop and in Windows XP) And when I but that hdd with HSF+ back to my IBOOK one change occured.Now, if it is turned on without OSX CD in it's CD-DRIVE, it shows on screen at first big globe and after a while blinking question mark with a folder.Therefore I assume,that the problem cannot be in hardware,because if I changed HDD partion type, then something else also changed?? Anyway OSX install still didn't show any HDD. What I have to do?? Could FSB upgrade be the key to that problem? (I don't want to believe it,because I read,that if overclocked,IBOOK would work fine, or it would crash- nothing related to the hdd.)
iBook is 800mhz, 512m with a 20g hd. The iBook boots to the login screen but won't accept the password. I have even tried older passwords just in case. I tried holding down the c while booting from the cd; sounds like the cdrom spins but again it boots to the login screen. I tried holding the Apple & S key to get to single user but it goes to the login screen. I tried holding the option key which brings up the start-up drives, but can't change to the fire wire drive because the password is unaccepted.
View 2 Replies View Relatedi just upgraded my ibook g3 hd to 20gb. i put in my tiger install disc 1 and i let it go while i was out of the room. i heard the startup chime from another room, later i went to see it with a blue screen and mouse cursor. it wouldn't do anything. then i restarted it with the install disc again, holding C down, and it booted to a grey screen which after about a minute went to the flashing folder with the ? mark.
View 4 Replies View RelatedMy iBook G4 power supply failed and I'm awaiting a replacement. In the mean time, can I use the power supply from my iBook G3 with the iBook G4?
View 1 Replies View RelatedRight now I have a G3 iBook (900 MHz, 640 MB RAM, Combodrive, 40 GB HDD). I'm looking at a G4 iBook (1.2 GHz, 768 MB RAM, Superdrive, 60 GB HDD).
How much faster would the G4 be over my G3. I figure that after selling my G3, the G4 would only be another $200ish on top of it. Would this be worth it?
I just bought a parts ibook from ebay, but I managed to fix it, except there was no hard drive. I currently have a 6 GB HD in it with OS X.3.9 on it, but I want tiger. I have the tiger family pack, so I have a license for it. It only has a CD-ROM drive, so I am wondering if I can buy a 40 GB HD, and clone the one from my G4 onto it.
SPECS
ibook G3- 500 MHZ
192 MB RAM
CD-ROM
currently has 6 GB HD
ibook G4- 1064 MHZ
1.25 GB RAM
Combo drive
40 GB HD
I had a IBook G4 and an external hard drive as its back up.IBook running something like Snow Lepord, anyway I have a Intel Macbook now with Lion, Ive been told here there is a possible confliction between the AMP external harddrive and lion.I will say a few times I have for limited time been able to access the drive on the newer MacBook, but then Lion (I think) drops it.
Info:
MacBook, iOS 5.1
So, I'll spare you guys the details, haha, but I am stuck trying to decide between getting an iMac Intel or a MacBook Pro for my home use computer. What would be the advantages of one over the other? I just really love the fact that a MacBook Pro would be portable yet powerful. And yes, I have this iBook for portability to school and such, but if I want to do extensive work on the couch, I could bring a MBP vs. an iMac. What do you all think? Are too laptops redundant?
View 3 Replies View Relatedare these two LCDs swappable? Can I stick a G3 iBook Screen into a G4? I have no idea and I'd like to have some idea.
does the hinge and everything line up, too?
Will an iBook G3 keyboard ([URL]) work on an iBook G4?
View 3 Replies View RelatedCan it work? I found the part I need in my closet from an iBG3 and if it worked that'd just be great.
View 2 Replies View Relatedboot my iBook from the OS X install CD. I put the CD in and then rebooted while holding C but nothing happens. The computer just shows a folder with a question mark.
View 13 Replies View RelatedPower Book 15 inch G4
Flashing Question Mark.
I looked in my book that came with it.
Tried-
-holding option key while pressing power button, the hardrive icon does not come up so I can click on it.
- it also told me to take power cord out, take battery out and then hold power button for 5 seconds...
Now, this morning my computer worked, but was acting weird. I put the OS Disc it came with to start from it to run disk repair/ check..
then the question mark came, so not only do I have that, my disc is now stuck in it.
ANy suggestions?
Bare with me, my boyfriend was in a motorcycle accident Saturday, had his foot amputated and is in serious condition. What a week...
about a week ago my hard drive died. i took it in to be diagnosed... I purchased a new 250GB hard drive and decided to install on my own. I followed the detailed instructions on [URL], it was a breeze... but, now the problem is installing OS X onto my laptop. I can't find the original start up disk for the iBook G4, so I tried using Mac OS X Tiger, V10.4. The installation DVD loads up fine, but when it arrives at the "Select a Destination" step no Icons appear on the screen... my new hard drive seems to be hidden.
View 3 Replies View RelatedI am having problems with a G4 mirror door that keeps coming up with a question mark. I have tried replacing the battery, and doing multiple pram resets. It will still start up to external drives, if I hold down the option key. I have tried booting from an external and setting the startup disk. This seems to work after it restarts, but if the computer is off for more than two minutes, it won't start up again (even if it stays plugged in). It will just go back to the question mark folder at boot?
View 1 Replies View RelatedI just installed a new hard drive in my mac ibook g4 - but when I turn it on I still get the blinking folder with a question mark.
View 6 Replies View RelatedSo my 17in, 1.67 GHz PowerBook has fallen prey to the Flashing Question Mark.
Here are a few things I've tried and their outcomes:
-Held option during startup to select startup disk: no startup disks appeared.
-Held shift during startup to safe boot: flashing question mark
-Reset PRAM: flashing question mark
-Reset PMU: flashing question mark
-Tried to boot from original startup disk: dim grey screen, "you need to restart your computer", a bunch of text and something about "kernal version"
-Tried to boot from Leopard disk: dim grey screen, "you need to restart your computer"
I turned it on today and it gave me a box around a little world, then it gave me the folder with a question mark and gave me the apple logo after that and booted into mac os x. It's really bothering me, is my machine dieing? Or is this just a software issue. A software issue, I can definitely handle if its just a reinstall of mac os x but if its the hard drive connection or logic board then my powerbook is a nice paperweight . Can anyone tell me why it did this and what I should do to fix it? I mean, it works but those symbols at the beginning I know aren't good to see. I recently installed onyx for OS X tiger and ran a few of the operations but I have restarted the computer flawlessly since then.
View 2 Replies View Related
