[X-Newbies] ibook won't start

[J]

I don't know the extent of your startup problems but I recently  
repaired a 1.5 Ghz powerbook that would not boot simply by trashing  
the fonts in the HD library folder (NOT THE SYSTEM FOLDER OR USER  
FOLDER) and the caches also.

Doing this seemed also to fix an issue with faxing that she had since  
the very first day, when the computer seemed slower than my Tibook.  
It runs perfectly now, whereas before it would not boot. It is  
running 10.3.9.

If you have Applecare, and can get to any of the files, the  
technician can walk you through trashing some things you might not  
think of.

On Mar 21, 2006, at 1:14 PM, john mee wrote:

> Disk Warrior is good to have on hand. You may just have a corrupt  
> system and can still preserve the data if the OS X install will let  
> you run the upgrade option with the preserve preferences box  
> checked. It's telling you to reformat and not just install? Another  
> way to possibly get a peek at the data and even back up just to be  
> safe is to start it in firewire mode, if it will boot that way and  
> you can get to another FW enabled mac and borrow a FW cable you are  
> in business. If a friend has an early generation iPod they may have  
> the white FW cable that was used with the wall charger.
>
> John Mee
> On Mar 20, 2006, at 3:14 PM, Scott wrote:
>
>>
>> On Mar 20, 2006, at 1:45 PM, John Park wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>> I have a g4 powerbook that won't start.
>>>
>>> I've used disk utility to repair the disk and repair permissions.
>>>
>>> When I turn on the machine, the spinning bar circle spins around  
>>> and around but nothing happens.
>>>
>>> I thought I could start the machine from the install disk by  
>>> pressing C at start up but the prompts I receive make me think  
>>> that I'll end up re-installing software on my computer as opposed  
>>> to starting from a system on the CD.
>>>
>>> The machine will start from the install disc when I press C, but  
>>> I've only been able to get it as far as disk utility, other than  
>>> that,and like I said above it looks like the disc wants to  
>>> install software on the machine.
>>>
>>> Any thoughts?  I don't own disk warrior, but I'm willing to buy  
>>> it.  But Disk Utility says that everything has been repaired.
>>>
>>
>> Usually when it's doing the 'spinning bar' thing, it's checking  
>> the disk, as happens when you run disk utility. When you did run  
>> DU, did it find any errors? If so, even if it did claim to fix  
>> them, what happens when you run it again? If there are errors that  
>> it cannot fix, given repeated attempts, you can either try  
>> DiskWarrior (Alsoft), or erase the drive and start over.
>>
>> If there are no disk errors, you have an issue w/ the system  
>> software. Reinstall OS X. Choose the "Archive and Install /  
>> preserver users and network settings" options. The options button  
>> will appear as soon as you select what HD to install to.
>>
>> -- 
>> Scott Buntin