Mac conundrum - slow Powerbook - trying all sorts!

[Gucci]

Just recently, my Powerbook G4 is booting very slowly (6 mins - it used to be about 30 seconds). No reason, no changes - just started happening.

Anyway, did the usuals - reset PMU, zapped PRAM, ran Onyx, Disk utility, repaired permissions. No luck.

So, I decided to boot from the OSX install DVD - nope - the drive spins it and spits it out. It mounted once, but then after restart, it failed to mount.

So, all the advice I've found so far about making bootable USBs have meant using the install DVD (which of course is useless).

Any ideas?

Powerbook G4, 1.67 GHz PowerPC G4 processor, 1GB RAM, 20Gb spare on HD

 

[spinaltap]

You don't mention which version of OSX you have installed.

On my old Mac Mini G4 it became increasingly slower with each successive release of OSX. My solution was to replace it with an Intel Mac Mini.

You probably won't appreciate my advice, but given how old your Mac is I would seriously consider buying a replacement.

 

[bolide]

Is the DVD the original install one for that specific model of PowerBook? If it's not I'd expect it not to work. If you don't have the original DVD then a later, retail-packaged OS install DVD is your best bet

If it won't boot off an external drive or DVD then I'd expect a hardware fault. Not uncommon. HDs fail relatively easily on PowerBooks and it is an old one

Nick Froome

 

[Spinal]

Which version of OsX is on the DVD? Reason I ask is that if it's 10.6, it will not install on a PPC based mac, it's intel only.

You'll need to get the original disk that came with the machine...

That said, the slowdown could very well be caused by a fauly disk drive, the delay in booting could be caused by multiple attempts at reading the the disk which isn't working... just a guess...

M.

 

[Gucci]

Thanks for the advice. I ran a diagnostic and it found an HD failure. Tis doomed

 

[crockers]

Time for a new iMac...

 

[Spinal]

Not necessarily... a HD is cheap & easy to replace (a little less so in apple laptops, but still doable)...

Just copy all your data off before it totally dies (Hold "T" while turning the machine on, connect via firewire to another mac and copy everything off) and then you have some time to decide what to do while the HD dies totally

M.