Ibook G4 problems...

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Karl Rhodes - 13 Nov 2007 14:22 GMT

Hi all,

I feel like a stranger in a strange land here, but a friend has asked
me to have a look at his G4 ibook as he is having problems booting it
up. When it is switched on, there is a chime followed by a grey screen
with an apple logo in the middle, then after a few seconds the
"loading" animation (small circle with 12 'sunburst' lines coming from
it that highlight on their way round) shows. after a couple of
minutes, there login screen is shown. When the username and password
are typed in, the system seems to load networing drivers etc and then
the desktop wallpaper is loaded with a couple of small icons in the
top right hand corner (Small quarter circle curve, a speaker, an
english flag, the battery and clock) but other than that... NOTHING!

Now as I said earlier, I feel like a stranger in a strange land as I
work with pc's all the time, so I'm not sure if this is "normal", but
I thought Macs had a row of icons along the bottom? these dont appear
to be loading. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to fix this?
My friend told me he had tried to install some printer drivers, but
was very vague.

As you can tell I dont know a great deal about macs so ANY help would
be appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Karl

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Shane Badham - 13 Nov 2007 16:27 GMT

> Hi all,
>
[quoted text clipped - 19 lines]
> As you can tell I dont know a great deal about macs so ANY help would
> be appreciated.

Sounds like it could be normal!

The Dock (icons at the bottom) may be hidden. Try moving the mouse
cursor to the bottom and the dock should pop up.

You don't say if the Finder menu appears at the top - it should do.

If this is a second-hand iBook, the previous owner may have re-installed
the system, in which case the system may be indexing everything. Just
give it more time to finish the indexing.

Is there anything you can tell us about the iBook's history?

Signature

Thanks and regards, Shane.
"A closed mouth gathers no feet!"
Email: Beware the invalid word! shane at wonk dot demon dot co dot uk
Website: http://www.wonk.demon.co.uk/

Reply to this Message

Karl Rhodes - 13 Nov 2007 17:06 GMT

> > Hi all,
>
[quoted text clipped - 38 lines]
> Email: Beware the invalid word! shane at wonk dot demon dot co dot uk
> Website:http://www.wonk.demon.co.uk/

Hi Shane,

Thanks for your help.

I've moved the cursor all over the screen and nothing pops up at all.
There is no finder (I think this is the "file" menu that appears
across the top of the screen?) and I've tried pressing the Apple/
Command - F key to try to get something to happen, but nothing.

Isn't there some kind of safe mode that bypasses all drivers etc? I
tried booting in safe mode (pressing shift straight after the chime
and pressing shift-enter when logging in) but it made no difference.

Any other ideas?

Reply to this Message

Karl Rhodes - 13 Nov 2007 17:07 GMT

> > Hi all,
>
[quoted text clipped - 38 lines]
> Email: Beware the invalid word! shane at wonk dot demon dot co dot uk
> Website:http://www.wonk.demon.co.uk/

Just spotted the History comment...
As far as I know it was all working perfectly until he tried to
install some printer drivers. I'll double check with him tonight...

Reply to this Message

Clark Martin - 13 Nov 2007 19:15 GMT

> Hi all,
>
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
> top right hand corner (Small quarter circle curve, a speaker, an
> english flag, the battery and clock) but other than that... NOTHING!

The quarter circle curve is the Airport indicator, it shows connectivity
and signal strength. The flag is the keyboard menu.

> Now as I said earlier, I feel like a stranger in a strange land as I
> work with pc's all the time, so I'm not sure if this is "normal", but
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> As you can tell I dont know a great deal about macs so ANY help would
> be appreciated.

Try the menus (all of them), are they active?

Is there another account on the computer, if so try logging in on that.
It will narrow down whether the problem is with the account or
generalized.

Sometimes the system will get screwy and stall for some time at this
stage. It will usually come out of it on it's own, eventually. If it
does, then use System Preferences / Accounts and create a new,
administrative account. Then log into that account and see if it has
the same problem.

Signature

Clark Martin
Redwood City, CA, USA Macintosh / Internet Consulting

"I'm a designated driver on the Information Super Highway"

Reply to this Message

Karl Rhodes - 14 Nov 2007 19:03 GMT

> In article <1194963733.236030.301...@o38g2000hse.googlegroups.com>,
>
[quoted text clipped - 42 lines]
>
> "I'm a designated driver on the Information Super Highway"

I'm going to have a word with the guy who owns it to see if there are
any other accounts. But if he tells me no, what then?

Also when I hover over the icons at the top, the icon changes to a
rainbow coloured wheel which I guess means it's (the OS) is busy.
However sometimes it doesnt do anything if I click the mouse over them
they highlight blue but nothing happens.

You mentioned menus... there's nothing. even when I click on the
icons, there are no menu's anywhere at all...

Thanks again
Karl

Reply to this Message

Clark Martin - 17 Nov 2007 04:25 GMT

> > In article <1194963733.236030.301...@o38g2000hse.googlegroups.com>,
> >
[quoted text clipped - 36 lines]
> > administrative account. Then log into that account and see if it has
> > the same problem.

> I'm going to have a word with the guy who owns it to see if there are
> any other accounts. But if he tells me no, what then?

If you have the Tiger install disk you can boot from that, go into
Terminal and rename the user folder (/Users/username). Then restart off
the Hd. This will cause a new user folder to be created with default
files. If it still hangs you have a system level problem. If it works
then you can first create another, administrative account then start
moving files back until it hickups again. At which point you can use
the other account to fix things.

If you don't have Tiger (the Panther installer doesn't have Terminal
available) you can use FireWire Target disk mode to mount the HD on
another Mac and rename the user folder.

> Also when I hover over the icons at the top, the icon changes to a
> rainbow coloured wheel which I guess means it's (the OS) is busy.
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> You mentioned menus... there's nothing. even when I click on the
> icons, there are no menu's anywhere at all...

That means Finder isn't launching (completely).

Signature

Clark Martin
Redwood City, CA, USA Macintosh / Internet Consulting

"I'm a designated driver on the Information Super Highway"

Reply to this Message

Karl Rhodes - 19 Nov 2007 18:01 GMT

> In article <1195067027.179044.7...@57g2000hsv.googlegroups.com>,
>
[quoted text clipped - 69 lines]
>
> "I'm a designated driver on the Information Super Highway"

I've spoken to the owner of the ibook. He says he aquired it from a
friend and has neither any disks or any other login details. If I buy
a set of install disks for this machine, I assume I'll be able to
reinstall the OS? Will I be able to do this and retain any files that
are there, or will everything be lost? It doesn't matter to me which,
but it'd be nice if I could save some of his work from the last few
years.

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Clark Martin - 22 Nov 2007 19:33 GMT

In article
<fbad6081-efdc-4539-b944-47332d2b1c40@c30g2000hsa.googlegroups.com>,

> I've spoken to the owner of the ibook. He says he aquired it from a
> friend and has neither any disks or any other login details. If I buy
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> but it'd be nice if I could save some of his work from the last few
> years.

Yes, you can do an Archive and Install, this option is available from, I
think, the "Options" button. When the install is done it will leave a
folder called "Previous Systems" or something such. It will have all or
most of the files from the previous system inside it. This is useful
for going through and identifying customizations such as added drivers,
desktop pictures, sounds and so on. It's best to re-install these from
original sources rather than using them from the "Previous Systems"
folder.

Signature

Clark Martin
Redwood City, CA, USA Macintosh / Internet Consulting

"I'm a designated driver on the Information Super Highway"

Reply to this Message

Mac Forum / General / Portable Macs / November 2007

Ibook G4 problems...