12' i-Book wont start

[sjvnealewired]

I'm trying to get an old i-Book started - it's the first version of the white 12” i-Books that came out about three years ago.

At start-up, the computer gets the 'happy-mac' icon, on a grey screen, with the spinning multi coloured disk in the top left corner, but that's as far as it goes. I have left it running like that for ninety minutes and the coloured disk just kept on spinning.

It had previously been started in OS 9, but when I changed the start-up disk to OS X in the control panel, it simply did as described above. Now I can't get it to start off OS 9 either.

Attempted start, whilst holding down the option key, but the only start-up disk that the computer could identify was OS X, even when there were start-up CD’s in the drive (I tried the system disks for OS 8, 9 & 10.1, as well as the Apple Care first aid disk). Also tried start-C and start command-option-shift-delete, to boot from CD’s with no result.

Zapped the P-RAM - no change.

Ran FSCK twice - no problems were found

Tried the reset button above the video output on the side of the computer - no change.

I have scanned the knowledge base and checked out kernel panics, etc - no result

Started through fire-wire, on target mode onto my i-Book and managed to retrieve data, but could not seem to be able to change any settings on the 12" i-Book’s hard drive.

Can anyone shed any light on this?

Even some trick to get it to boot into OS 9, or altering settings through fire-wire in target mode would be appreciated.

 

[nrb501]

With the iBook running from a firewire disk, can you select OS9 on the internal disk for startup using 'Startup Disk' in System Preferences? If you can, and then reboot it should start into OS9.

You could try to start the mac in "Safe Boot' mode which disables all extensions (like OS9) - hold the shift key down at power on until you see the words "Safe Boot" on the startup progress window - assuming it get tht far.

Also have you tried starting in 'Verbose Mode' or 'Single User Mode' ('Command'+'V' or 'Command' + 'S' IIRC) and seeing if any error messages are present?

Have you got the original OS disk that came with the machine? Later Macs can be very choosy as to what CDs they will boot off.

 

[sjvnealewired]

Hi there and thanks to all who responded...

No - no additional memory...

With a combination of contributers ideas (from this and other similar sites) I've got the thing limping along now, running OS X 10.1.

The problem now is that every time I re-start it the hard disk comes up titled '/', even when I've changed the name.

This seems to mean that I cannot install software - the following message pops up:

"The selected disk named "/" is a network server. The installer cannot install on network server volumes. Please select another disk"

Can anyone shed light on this?

Thanks.

SN

 

[jimoblak]

The problems you are experiencing seem to be with fiddling with OSX system files while running OS9 (knowingly or accidentally deleting and renaming folders and files). OSX requires that these files are not tinkered with unless you are running OSX. I recently helped someone who did not like the names 'user' and 'home' and 'library' (...etc.) so she changed them to names that she liked in OS9. - - - not good.

This is why Apple wants to discontinue the ability to boot into 9 in newer Macs.

When you said Also tried start-C.... to boot from CD’s with no result., did you mean that you pressed Start and the C key together? To boot from the CD, simply hold down the 'C' key shortly after pressing the start key and until you are sure that the computer is booting off of the CD.

The best way to recover from this is to reinstall the OS from the CDs. You will set yourself up for a bigger fall if you try to continue with a buggy OSX installation that got screwed up while you were working in OS9.






- - picklefish - -

 

[atldj]

you can always do what i did, and that is reset the mac from the cuda switch then reset the mac from the open firmware area. ask apple about the open firmware. i don't wanna be responsible for screwing elses computer

don't let your schooling interfere with your education--mt