Post by: James Lewis on January 19, 2008, 04:44:15 PM
Thanks.
Jim
Post by: Xairbusdriver on January 19, 2008, 06:44:55 PM
Sounds like the PRAM battery is completely discharged. Leaving plugged in might get it charged enough to boot but I wouldn't trust it, anyway. That little batery has been trying to maintain some memory that holds a few System prefs all this time. If it wasn't plugged in, it sacrificed its little heart for you!
I would think it easy to replace that battery since the desktop Macs were made for access. It shouldn't cost more that $15 and you may solve all the problems.
I think there is even a site that specifies the exact battery number for each and every Mac. I know the owners of <this place> and they'll treat you fairly, they have a contract for their batteries, they deal in refurbished Macs and often need batteries that are no longer easy to find. Give them a call and tell them exactly which model you have and I'll bet they have a battery in stock. Yours should not be a problem and you may find them cheaper elsewhere. As a matter of fact, <OWC> has some and they have a great reputation.
Post by: Paddy on January 19, 2008, 07:58:51 PM
Post by: Gregg on January 19, 2008, 08:20:57 PM
Post by: James Lewis on January 19, 2008, 09:03:19 PM
I'll give you an update once I have a chance to get a new battery and fire the G4 up.
Post by: James Lewis on January 20, 2008, 11:49:24 AM
QUOTE(Xairbusdriver @ Jan 20 2008, 12:44 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Sounds like the PRAM battery is completely discharged. Leaving plugged in might get it charged enough to boot but I wouldn't trust it, anyway. That little batery has been trying to maintain some memory that holds a few System prefs all this time. If it wasn't plugged in, it sacrificed its little heart for you!
I've just replaced the Pram battery in my PowerMac G4 and disappointment, oh well. When I opened the PowerMac panel to replace the battery I was reminded that I actually have two hard-drives inside as I pulled the one I had in my IIci many years ago to keep for sentimental reasons. I found that when I boot to the Maxtor 30G, I receive the picture of the Apple with the spinning donut, and when I boot to the Quantum 3G I receive an icon of a folder with the image of the Finder flashing intermittently with a question mark. I seem to have had a similar problem a few years ago with the flashing Finder and question mark, but do not remember what the resolution was.
Does this sound familiar?
Also, if the PRAM battery was maintaining System preferences in memory could this have been lost and causing the problem with booting up?
Post by: Gregg on January 20, 2008, 02:13:28 PM
It's odd that it wouldn't boot from a CD before. Is there data on the drive that you need to preserve?
Post by: Xairbusdriver on January 20, 2008, 04:58:53 PM
QUOTE
if the PRAM battery was maintaining System preferences in memory could this have been lost and causing the problem with booting up?
No, at least not that I know of. It mainly keeps things like the time/date, how fast you want the mouse to move, how fast a double-click is, mostly stuff that you can set up easily when it gets a new battery.Since the hard drives are usually pretty well enclosed, I'm not sure why they don't boot up. The PRAM may keep that kind of info, but the OS usually just keeps looking for a bootable system on whatever is in the box. But it might be a good idea to check the connections. And also reseat the RAM.
The CD reader does have exposure to the environment, however. There could even be real bugs in there! 
Other than that, it may just not be able to un-park the reading head due to smoke tar condensing on the mechanism. Or even pet hair could be in there. Some of the dust could probably be removed with a can of compressed air.As a last resort, you might be able to connect this Mac to another one via FireWire. You may be able to start it up in Target mode. It may then be able to be seen by the other Mac and you can get all the data off those drives.
Please let us know how things go!
Post by: Mayo on January 20, 2008, 05:24:53 PM
Since you had it stored for a long period of time I assume that there isn't anything important on it data-wise, but if there is something you want to retrieve and Firewire Disk Mode works, then that is the time to transfer the data to the other Mac.
Post by: Texas Mac Man on January 20, 2008, 06:48:45 PM
You might try a PMU reset. See Mac PRAM, NVRAM, CUDA/PMU & Battery Tutorial
Post by: krissel on January 21, 2008, 12:51:19 AM
The spinning gear means it has found BootX but not the kernels. In the case of the flashing question mark, there is no valid system to be found. Usually if you leave it for a minute it will find a system from which to boot if any is available. But I'm thinking either OS X is scrambled or the hard drive may be on its way out (or both). Try again to start up from either a 9 or X CD. By the way, which G4 is this? Which version of X is it running? How much RAM? I ask because a bad chip can cause all kinds of unexpected problems.
If you can start up using Safe mode or Verbose (Command + v) you may get an indication of what is wrong. If you can start up from X CD I'd run Disk Utility and do an Archive and Install. Ditto OS 9. If the Install utility can't see the drive, then there's your answer.
Post by: tacit on January 21, 2008, 02:31:28 PM
The flashing folder and question mark means there is no copy of Mac OS on the other hard drive.
Can you describe the OS 9 CD you tried to use, where it came from, and how you tried to boot from it? Some G4 systems can not boot in OS 9.
Post by: Paddy on January 21, 2008, 10:51:42 PM
BTW - you can also try booting the machine with a DiskWarrior CD or TechTool CD if you have either of those.
If you can't find the system disks and can't remember what version of what OS the G4 came with, you can look it up on http://www.everymac.com
(Which model of G4 is this?)
Post by: James Lewis on January 28, 2008, 06:38:23 AM
I tried zapping the Pram and was at least semi-successful in that I did hear the G4 give 2 chimes (rebooting twice?) during the zap, but this didn't produce any results.
The apple store suggested purchasing an IDE enclosure and try attaching either drives, which I picked up from Microcenter (HD 338D by Coolmax), and have been able to access the 30G drive. I haven't tried the 3G drive yet.
I'm holding on to the G4 case for now should I have free time on my hands some time in the next decade and want to do a little more investigation.
Thank you to everyone for your support and your patience. I really appreciate the service you provide, and until next time -
