Tips on reviving a nearly dead iBook?

June 1, 2004 12:36 PM

MacFilter -- I have an iBook that is close to dead. I'm wondering if there are steps I can take to try to bring it back to life on my own or whether it's time to call in the pros... [Need I say that there's more inside?]

After slowing down markedly during use, it now refuses to start up. It powers up, and I get as far as the grey on grey beginning screen with the apple in the center and the spinning "clock" icon which would indicate that something is happening, but nothing ever does.

It is not getting far enough into the boot process, apparently, for keyboard commands to be recognized -- frightening, as that seems to be the first part of the boot cycle -- therefore I cannot open the CD drive to try booting from a disc. I know that a paperclip can be used to get the drive open, but since the keyboard isn't recognized I don't know that I can force a boot from a disc anyway.

I'll be in DC in two weeks, should I just plan on taking this poor machine to the Apple Store, or are there tricks I'm unaware of that I might be able to try?

posted by Dreama to computers & internet (9 comments total)

Hold the Command (apple) and "V" keys at startup (verbose mode). You'll be able to see what's going on. Some times it can take a while for the disk to be checked (fsck), specially if you reset it (repeatedly) while it is checking it.
posted by golo at 12:45 PM on June 1, 2004

MacOutfitters is only 20 minutes away, fully authorized by Apple, and has an extremely knowledgable tech team.
posted by BlueTrain at 1:09 PM on June 1, 2004

You can hold the mouse button down during start up to eject drives. That might help that part.

I once posted for someone a long walkthrough of pram and openfirmware stuff. Might want to try that part of it.

Okay, so that did not work. Now try this. Restart your computer and hold down Command(apple)-Option-P-R. Hold it down continuously, and your Mac will restart. hold it down until you hear the startup tone three times. let it startup, then restart the comp, this time, holding Command-Option-O-F. This will bring you to a special prompt screen which is part of Open Firmware. Here, type "reset-nvram" no quotes, and press enter. Next: "reset-all", no quotes, enter. It should then restart.

You have just zapped your PRAM and reset your Open Firmware. (Technically Open Firmware reset should also zap PRAM, but do both anyway).

See if the problem remains.

posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 1:10 PM on June 1, 2004

Unless, of course, that's what you meant by keyboard commands..... nuts.

Still, worth a try if you haven't, and the mouse button thing may help.
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 1:11 PM on June 1, 2004

What kind of iBook is it? If it's a white one, I had the same problem, and it was a logic board failure, which apple now fixes for free even if you are out of warranty. Definitely take it to an Apple store. Apple iBook Logic Board Repair Extension Program
posted by neustile at 1:50 PM on June 1, 2004

Does it get to the stage when it makes the "Boot Sound"? If it doesn't it's most likely hardware, otherwise try the Command + V thing (I know you said the keyboard isn't working, but try it).
posted by golo at 1:57 PM on June 1, 2004

The only thing not mentioned yet is to try resetting the power manager. Each one has a different method.
posted by machaus at 4:13 PM on June 1, 2004

Thanks muchly, folks. I'll be trying each of these fixes and then it'll be off to the Apple Store. (I'm not in the Burgh this summer, BlueTrain, or I'd give MacOutfitters a try.)
posted by Dreama at 7:49 PM on June 1, 2004

neustile, those symptoms don't sound like the logic board failure problem. Flashing lines across the screen followed by dead screen is how that one usually manifests. This sounds like it could be directory corruption. When similar symptoms happened to me, the Genius at the Apple Store pulled his DiskWarrior CD out of a drawer and we let it do it's thing. Magical cure. Periodically my Macs start slowing down, and restarts become unusually long. DW fixes it every time. Try the other suggestions too, but if they don't fix it do pay a visit to the Apple Store. When the store's not crowded, my experience has been that the Geniuses are pretty generous with their time and expertise.

Are you able to access the disk via Target Disk Mode? You'd at least be able to salvage the data, and possibly do a clean OS re-install to eliminate one more possible culprit.
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 7:59 PM on June 1, 2004