PowerBook G4 cannot boot up and doesn’t install any versions

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My school IT guy tried helping me with an issue with my old PowerBook G4. I just got it from my friend because he had no use for it and he didn't know the password. I tried resetting the password and it wouldn't boot up and I have no idea why. The IT guy tried reinstalling every version of OS X. Every time he tried installing a new version. Starting from 10.5 to 10.2 everything failed and wouldn't work at all. There was some luck with 10.4 and it started installing but then crashed in the middle of installation about 4 times.

It could be a hardware issue, but is there anything that I could do without changing the hard drive? I tried clearing PRAM and going to Safe Mode/Verbose mode, and nothing worked.

Best Answer

Actually we need a little more info.

When you turn it on do you get the Mac startup "bong?"

Does the screen light up? What color is it (black, gray, etc?)

Does anything appear on the screen? EG an Apple logo, flashing question mark, drive icon with a slash through it, etc...

If it is asking for a password there is a utility on the install DVD that can reset the password. You can also reset the password by (if memory serves me...) by just removing one of the DIMMs, turning it on. Turn it back off and put the DIMM back in.

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MacOS – Does not boot (endless spinning)

Newly purchased Macs come with 90 days of complimentary AppleCare phone and web support (as well as walk in service at all Apple retail stores).

You will want to follow the internet recovery steps to erase the drive and reinstall the operating system once you have ascertained that no data (pictures, documents, etc...) exist only on that Mac.

Here is the script you will be following in a nut shell:

power off the mac
boot with Command and R held down
select Disk Utility to repair or erase and re-format the drive (GUID partition scheme and Mac OS Extended (journaled) format for the volume.
download and install Lion from the internet recovery
attempt again to set up the mac

Do consider that a hardware failure could cause things to not work as intended - a call to Apple is the fastest way to get that sorted for someone that isn't used to isolating issues on hardware.

IMac is stuck in a login loop

Boot to single user mode (hold cmdS while booting), delete the setup file and try making a new clean admin account.

/sbin/mount -uw /  
rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone  
exit

At that point, assuming the OS is minimally functional, you can make a new admin account (call it test12345 or something to avoid hitting an existing user account) Optionally, you can delete the old user accounts and user home folders before you type exit above.

rm -rf /Users/whatever
rm /var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/users/whatever.plist

Perform the two commands above for each user you want to remove from the system. You can also delete things more cleanly by logging in to your new admin account and deleting the old users from the graphical tool in system preferenes.

Best Answer

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MacOS – Does not boot (endless spinning)

IMac is stuck in a login loop

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