karch Posted October 16, 2003 Share Posted October 16, 2003 Hi all. I'm trying to help a good friend who's in Munich Germany right now. He flew to Germany to pick up a new BMW and drive around Europe for a week or 2. He had all his travel plans on his Powerbook G4... at the airport he force quit the computer by holding down the power key too long and upon getting to Germany, can't get the machine to boot at ALL. Are there any Mac users in Munich, or nearby that may be able to help him out. He's an Airforce B1 Navigator if it helps. He can be reached at phone number 0049-89-360020 room 248. His name is Mike Brazda. He has CM loaded on the machine and would be happy to play a game with anyone there too... I've been too lame to play lately. he can also be reached at mbrazda_1999@yahoo.com Any help about finding an Apple reseller that could help him or someone with an OS X install disk to boot from and try and fix the drive would be greatly appreciated. He's a great friend and he's really stuck. Thanks everyone 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gibsonm Posted October 16, 2003 Share Posted October 16, 2003 Originally posted by karch: can't get the machine to boot at ALL.Does he see the paddle wheel, blue screen or just nothing? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karch Posted October 16, 2003 Author Share Posted October 16, 2003 gets prompt screen like booting into single user mode to run fsck -y but only gets a flashing questionmark or something similar. Can't run any commands. I don't think much has loaded by the time he gets that screen. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted October 16, 2003 Share Posted October 16, 2003 Hmm. Flashing question mark usually means that it can't find a boot up disk. Chances are he doesn't travel with the OS CD, right? So he needs to connect with somebody who can loan him one. If he can boot up off of that, at least he may be able to find out what's ailing his system. Maybe his hard drive got erased going through airport security? If he can't boot off the CD then he's got a really sick computer. Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucky_Strike Posted October 16, 2003 Share Posted October 16, 2003 You say that Mike held down the power button to force shut down the PB - he could have caused some problem with the PMU doing this and a boot CD may not help. I would try a couple of things before going to find a friendly local Mac guru: a) simply remove the battery and put it back in after a few minutes reset the PMU - this varies from PB to PB but for PowerBook G4 (DVI) and PowerBook G4 (1 GHz/867 MHz) 1. If the computer is on, turn it off. 2. Disengage the two keyboard latches located between the Esc and F1 keys, and the F11 and F12 keys. (You may also need to disengage the keyboard locking screw located between the F5 and F6 keys.) 3. Lift the keyboard. Note: To ensure no harmful static electricity is transferred to the computer, properly ground yourself before performing this procedure. 4. Press and release the reset button located on the upper right side of the logic board just lef of the power button. It's a small silver button on the green board accessed through a hole in the case frame. 5. Wait 5 seconds. 6. Press the power button to restart the computer. PowerBook G4 and PowerBook G4 (Gigabit Ethernet) 1. If the computer is on, turn it off. 2. Press and release the reset button located on the rear panel of the computer between the external video and modem ports. 3. Wait 5 seconds. 4. Press the Power button to restart the computer. This may cause the clock etc to reset but has no bad side effects otherwise. The Apple site has more info here If this works he should back up his critical stuff asap. I had a problem recently with my PB not booting and it resulted in a logic board failure which I think had something to do with the PMU. Hope Mike gets some success with this. Cheers LS 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karch Posted October 17, 2003 Author Share Posted October 17, 2003 Here's an update from Mike in Germany - Thanks for all the input from everyone. It's very appreciated. After running down four computer stores, I found one that had apple products about three minutes after closing and talked my way inside. I bought Norton Systemworks 3.0 for 140 Euros, though its in German. Hope it works!!! I'll let you know. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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