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Help with Pismo PowerBook start-up issue please

post #1 of 3
9/22/09 at 12:18am
Thread Starter 
Hi All,
Got a powerbook G3 pismo,
just upgraded the ram to 512, all running great no problem, then i switched off
Returned the next day and all i am getting is the apple logo and a spinning wheel it just won't go any further, had it on and it's been spinning for 20 min's no progress.
Was told they are slow and will need time to initiate the start up but 20 min's is not right i know....
Any ideas as to what is the proble as i'm well stumped with this......

Thanks Rex.........
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post #2 of 3
9/22/09 at 5:31am
Quote:
Originally Posted by 12750 View Post

Hi All,
Got a powerbook G3 pismo,
just upgraded the ram to 512, all running great no problem, then i switched off
Returned the next day and all i am getting is the apple logo and a spinning wheel it just won't go any further, had it on and it's been spinning for 20 min's no progress.
Was told they are slow and will need time to initiate the start up but 20 min's is not right i know....
Any ideas as to what is the proble as i'm well stumped with this......

Thanks Rex.........

If you're running OSX on that antique Pismo it sounds like your harddisk crashed, Rex. Try to start up from an install disk (hold 'C'). If it does, go into Utilities and do some maintenance work. If it doesn't I'm betting your HD has crashed and you will have to take it to Apple TD to get it replaced.
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post #3 of 3
10/2/09 at 12:53pm
Yes, what OS are you running? If it is OS X then another thing you can try is to power it up and then immediately hold down the Apple key and the 'S' key at the same time, and keep holding it until the screen changes to some black and white text. This is called Single User Mode and is a command line interface to the core part of the OS.

If you get this far, try running the fsck utility to at least scan the disk and make sure that the file system is intact. Type:

Code:

/sbin/fsck -f



You may have to run it more than once if it finds something. You can read a little more about it here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1417

The suggestion about booting from installation disc and running Disk Utility is a good one, but this may work if you don't have an installation disc or a working optical disc drive.
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