Ibook G4 no boot from install cd

wet

wet

wet

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9 Mar 2007
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Hi guys I was asked by my neighbour to try to repair his Ibook G4.
A first for me to deal with Apple. I'm a windows and ubuntu user.
I found problems with the OS build would not boot at all, decided it needed a fresh install.

I could not boot from the cd's he gave me which look like the original restore disks with Ibook written on them OSX version 10.1.? (cant remember exactly as they are at home) 4 x cd's. I also had 2 burnt cd's given to me with OSX 10.3.
I have gone into the boot selection screen by holding alt and it does not see the install disk as a boot device but it does see the tech tools disk which it will boot from and all tests pass.

Also I decided to remove the hardrive and format it using gparted to hsf+. To see if I could get a clean install on it.

Any suggestions would be appreciated I read somewhere that it will only boot from a 10.3 disk?

Thanks
 
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have you tried holding down the ALT key whilst booting, it should drop down a list of every bootable device on the computer
 
have you got another mac? you could try accessing the machine via target disk mode via firewire but i'm not sure about anything else, i'll do some hunting and see what can be found
 
no dont have another mac have just read that somewhere else that I could do an install from another mac. May have to speak to someone nicely that has a mac.
But still doesn't make any sense why it doesnt see the install cd as boot. What could cause that?
 
i'm not sure either, i had a iBook G3 and G4 last year and both let me use the CD for installing and booting, thinking about it, hmm
not sure if this would work but you could install from your PC, take the HD out and connect it up with your machine, make sure you've got macdrive, that lets windows pick up the drive and use it, and install from the cd's to the HD, again, not sure it'd work but it wouldnt do any harm to try
 
thanks maybe i'll give that a try.
Wish it was built a bit more like a hp laptop these ibook hardrives are not the easiest to remove.
 
Well removed harddrive and formatted it in macdrive then whilst I was searching around to find a way of installing onto the drive in windows I discovered that this Ibook is on of the latest ppc ones and will only boot from a 10.4 upwards dvd.
So all the disks my neighbour gave me were the wrong ones.
Burnt an image of 10.4 and rebuilt machine its now booted of the dvd
BUT i now have a video problem the screen is barely readable grey and blocky images
ARGHH!!!

Any ideas?
 
can ya post a picture?, if the displays on it's way, it might be a gfx card problem which would mean 1 useless iBook
 
Just done some more searching and found that it may be I need to find a 10.4.2 atleast install disk. as an earlier install disk doesnt have the correct gfx drivers.

Does that sound right to you.
The display looks fine before the boot disk runs you know the screen with the little folder and flashing question mark.
Also the mousepad doesnt work im using a usb mouse.
does seem driver related???
 
yeah the touchpad wont work until it boots osx, not sure about 10.4.2 issue though, i know you cant install an older version of osx on the machine than it shipped with but, hmm, think that might be ya best bet
 
its installed and running fine display is fine and its downloading update 10.4.11
touchpad still not working though hopefully update will sort it.

Thanks for your help
 
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