[G4] Powermac wont Start need help

[David Mullally]

First of all apoligies for the questions if they are
stupid
My problem is i recieved a power mac G4 from a friend
who couldnt get it to work (he recieved it from work 
Specs are as follows 733mhz /dvd-rw 640mb ram 
When i attempt to boot i receive a smiley face /? on
the screen 
I have done some research on the net 
http://www.lowendmac.com/woods/02/0322.html and i
found this link which seems to describe a similar
problem on an Imac 
I have tried the following 
holding down c and trying to boot from cdrom (nothing
different it spits back out the cd)
i have also tried the option-p-r to zap the PRAM didnt
make any difference
tried booting with just the cd with the hard drive
disconnected no difference
tried booting with an external firewire device didnt
make any difference
the only mac cd i have is the one that came with it os
8.5 
Any help would be appreciated 
I am a complete mac virgin i know nothing apart from
what ive read in the last 24 hours
but i administrate and windows/solaris/linux network
and know these operating systems reasonably well
Thanks
Dave

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