3 yr old Mac G4 lap top doesn't boot up.

[burythehatchet]

Takes an incresingly larger number of tries. The apple logo does not appear, only a blank screen, which eventually flashes a little icon that alternates between a "?" and the apple face. The processor(?) never starts clicking.

I'm running 10.2

Before the problem started about 2 weeks ago, I heard a loud clicking sound from the front of the machine.

Is it dead?

[Zorro]

1. Possible bad hard drive

Can you boot from CD? If so, then run disk utility and repair.

[rocktivity]

2. Procedure to reset the PRAM for Macs.

To reset the PRAM you'll need five hands. :)

Simultaneously press the Command, Option, P, and R keys at startup.
(Keep your hands on the keys until the third reboot has started.)
The machine will reboot the first time and chime.
The machine will reboot the second time and chime.
The machine will start to reboot the third time and chime.
Let go of the keys and allow it to finish booting.
PRAM (Parameter RAM) contains settings for the ports, mouse scaling, AppleTalk status, speaker volume, amongst others.

:headbang:
rocknation

[alfredo]

3. Your drive could be dying. Get it to a shop soon or risk losing

your data.

[burythehatchet]

4. too late

all data for the last three years lost. there's a chance that some may be recoverable but I can't pay the several thousand to do it. what a terrible loss.

[Zorro]

6. Did you try booting from a CD?

Could be bad disk sectors where the OS lives; if you can boot from CD, you might be able to repair the disk enough to get it backed up.

[burythehatchet]

7. I think the guy at the Apple store did that with an external HD

Though I'm not convinced that any of the guys who worked on my machine knew what they were doing.

[elfin]

5. Same thing happened to my year old G4

about a month ago. Coudn't afford big bucks for data retrieval - at least didn't have to pay for new drive via Applecare.

Have named my new drive "Backup!"

Over 20 years of Apple and this is the first time I lost all on my drive. Got complacent.

I feel your pain.

[burythehatchet]

8. So sorry

It feels horrible.

I could care less about the computer because I've lost everything I was working on for 3 years...all my music, my digital photos, in addition to the work.

[elfin]

11. EXACTLY the same story here

Still recovering and also named my new hard drive BACKUP! - Doing on CD's - getting an external hard drive soon.

[Redstone]

9. Do this. Everyone else do it too.

go to MacMall (macmall.com, of course) and buy a Fantom 120 GB Fire Wire external hard drive for the astonishing price of 79 bucks.

There are several free backup utilities you can use for System X. (If you're using it; I still use 9 so all I have to do is copy stuff from one drive to another.)

Given how cheap external drives are these days, there's no reason why anyone shouldn't be backing up their computer--I've always backed up to two external drives, twice a day. I use the computers for my business so that's probably overkill for home users, but anyone can afford an an external drive nowadays and back up at least once a week.

Go buy the external drive NOW if you don't have one.

Redstone

[OSX]

10. Important lessen to All...

Back your shit up. Period.

-osx

:grouphug: