[G4] Powermac wont Start need help

[Harry Freeman]

Greetings ( + )!( + )

On Jul 30, 2005, at 12:12 PM, David Mullally wrote:

> First of all apologies for the questions if they are stupid My problem 
> is i received a power mac G4 from a friend who couldn't get it to work 
> (he received 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 didn't make any difference tried booting with just the 
> cd with the hard drive disconnected no difference tried booting with 
> an external firewire device didn't 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

Dave I know that you've already heard this, but the smiley face /? 
means that the boot-rom can not find a valid system (OS) from which to 
complete the loading process. That means that boot-rom  has tested 
memory and is now ready to turn the loading process over to an OS. 
Something like a PC there is set of instructions that tells the 
boot-rom to look at disk drives.

My advice would be to first reset nonvolatile ram. You can do that by 
holding down the "Command" "Option" "N" & "R" keys when you turn-on 
power.

If that doesn't help then next reset the "P" ram. You can do that by 
holding down the "Command" "Option" "P" & "R" keys when you turn-on 
power. You should remain holding down these keys until the "Boot-Ram" 
try's to restart the system at least three (3) times. In other words 
don't release these keys until you have heard the "bong" three (3) 
times.

Next if you have a CD from Apple that has a "System Folder" on it, hold 
down the "C" key when you turn-on power. When starting from the CD, 
remain holding down the "C" key until you can observe the loading 
process has started.

Good luck


Best Regards, /\*_*/\

Harry (*^_^*)
I know, when people see a cat's litter box, they always say, "Oh, have 
you got a cat?"  Just once I want to say, "No, it's for company!"


Greetings ( + )!( + )


Best Regards, /\*_*/\

Harry (*^_^*)
I know, when people see a cat's litter box, they always say, "Oh, have 
you got a cat?"  Just once I want to say, "No, it's for company!"