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View Full Version : iBook G4: need help from you mac guys.


Corndogman
April 8th, 2010, 05:15 PM
My friend just gave me a broken iBook G4. I don't know whats wrong with it but when I start it up I hear the chime and the screen is all white, although it appears to be running fine other than that. I think the LCD might just be busted, but if any of you guys have heard of a similar problem and would know how to fix it that would be a big help, thanks.
flibitijibibo
April 8th, 2010, 05:16 PM
Have any way to connect it to another monitor? If it's the LCD then that will solve it.
Corndogman
April 8th, 2010, 05:39 PM
Was just thinking that. It used a mini DVI cable so I would need to buy a VGA adapter for it.

fake Edit: I'm trying to do an "open firmware reset" (hold down ctrl+option+o+f at boot) and I actually got it to go off of the white screen. Now there is just a small folder icon in the middle of the screen with a blinking question mark. What should I do now?
ThePlague
April 8th, 2010, 05:57 PM
Might be a messed up OS. Not sure though.

Btw awesome deal, I wanted one of those :\
Corndogman
April 8th, 2010, 06:15 PM
Think you're right plague. google search showed that the flashing folder icon means that system folders are missing. Gonna download a recovery disk and try that. any other suggestions would be great too.
Corndogman
April 9th, 2010, 04:01 PM
Update: burned a OS X 10.4 install dvd and was able to boot from the disc. Went through the installation but apparently a newer version was already installed (and corrupted i'm assuming). Went through the installation anyways and at the end it said it failed and i had to restart. When I did OS X actually ran and a window opened showing the contents of the dvd. then I tried clicking and everything froze so I force shutdown. Not sure why that happened, the install failed.... now I can't get it to load past the white screen anymore.
Warsaw
April 9th, 2010, 08:56 PM
Rip out the hard drive and put a clean one in. Or does that not work on iBooks?
Corndogman
April 10th, 2010, 06:01 PM
Well, I've been able to boot from the install DVD again run the installer (I was gonna format then install) but now the installer doesn't recognize the HDD anymore and neither does the disk utility. Therefore I can't select the drive to install it on. But when I do a normal startup it does the flashing folder icon thing indicating that the HDD does still work. Idk how to get it to recognize the disk.

I think I'm just gonna install Ubuntu, then try OSX again.