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My Mac G4 is phrozen solid, nothing but a smiley face and flashing questions mark. I tossed out my SCSI card that I wasn't using. Tried various arrangements of RAM, tried booting from CD-ROM with HDD unplugged and vise-versa. Tried booting without keyboard (to verify it was not a keyboard error problem). And I did the usual:
zapped PRam - nothing
CMD+OPT+O+F - Nothing
tried the "nvram... reset" thingy
held down c to boot from CD - nothing
held down s - nothing
held down shift - nothing
held down CMD+OPT+SHFT+DEL - nothing
I got no sound from boot up, but since I zapped the Pram, I now get the turn on "sound/music".
How did you do the nvram reset without being able to boot into Open Firmware?
Did nothing happen when you zapped the PRAM, or did the PRAM not even zap?
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I was able to boot to Open Firmware
(CMD+OPT+O+F) where I did the nvram reset, but to no avail.
To zap the PRAM, I held down the keys until I heard the start up chime 4 times. Rebooted, held down the C button to boot from CD drive, but no go. I'm not a real MAC expert though, I've just been going over all these forums and haven't found very many similar problems.
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From the OP, it sounded like maybe your keyboard was shot, but since you successfully got into Open Firmware, I'd say that's not the case.
If the C key isn't working to boot from CD, open up the machine and make sure all the connections are nice and tight. If that doesn't help, I suspect you may have a bum CD-ROM drive. Did this problem occur suddenly, or was there an event associated with it?
BTW, don't make useless posts like the above. Patience is a virtue.
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I swapped out the CD-Rom drive. Nothing changed. Here's where it gets weird:
I hooked up the CD-Rom drive, hit power, held down "C" and I got the grey screen with the flashing smiley face and question mark. After about 4 minutes of hearing the CD-Rom drive spin up over and over I now get the grey screen with the smiley face (with no flashing question mark). I don't know what that means, but I just thought I'd let you know.
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Try removing all other IDE devices, make sure the CD-ROM is set to master, and try it on each IDE channel, powering off before swapping channels.
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The CD-Rom was set to master, did no good. NOW, the Mac won't turn on!!
Hit the power button, the light turns on until you let go of the button. I took a volt meter to the HDD and the CD-ROM, everything is getting power, I'm suspecting that the motherboard has problems. How ironic, the unavailability for MAC or MAC compatable motherboards is what I've always hated about Apple. Anybody need parts?
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Just because you bought it used doesn't mean the Apple dealer doesn't have parts for it...if you buy a used car, where do you go to get parts...?
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Never was able to find an Apple parts dealer in So. California. Online I found one, but they wanted $180 for a refurbished board. Mind you, this is just a 100Mhz bus speed board running a 400Mhz processor. What's Apples problem? I wouldn't pay more than $100 for a new board. I can't even be sure that it's the motherboard. If it was a PC, I would swap the processor or HDD with any PC.
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"Never was able to find an Apple parts dealer in So. California."
Dude, do you own a copy of the yellow pages?
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I have the same exact problem with my G4. I've been watching & waiting for some suggestions. I tried everything you guys did and got nowhere. Is there some kind of problem with Apples motherboards going out. I tried everywhere, I even dug up the yellow pages. Too much money to spend on a motherboard. Anybody have any ideas. Here's what's wrong: After boot up, I get a folder with a flashing question mark.I get the start up sound.
Here's what I've tried:
I zapped the Pram
I did the OF mode and reset the open firmware
I checked all connections
Fan works
Hard drive spins
moved ram around
can't boot from CD-ROM
checked the battery on the boardWHATS NEXT?
ANYONE?
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I tried another CD-ROM drive. I even swapped out the IDE cable, no go.
There IS power, both CD-ROMs are able to eject.
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Might be a bad IDE controller, in that case. You could just buy a third-party IDE controller if that's the problem...
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