Hello,

I am attempting to help my Daughter hi is 900 miles away.

Her IMAC G4 is connected to a cable ISP sbc global net.

Currently her Imac screen is showing the rotatng Ball on a background of
a grey screen with no sad mac symbol.

She has shut down and rebooted

She has unplugged everything and replugged things.

So far to no avail

She is also unable to open the CD drawer from her key board.

I am looking for suggestions from some one who is smarter than I at the
moment.


TIA for any help

Don Whitely

Donald Whitely wrote:


Hi Don,
What is the OS on the iMac G4. Does it say anything on the gray screen?
Finally, what are the technical specifications on this computer?

Provide me with this basic info, and I'll be able to help you.
Greg

macman wrote:


This sounds like a kernel panic from 10.1 which you are describing, If
it is please tell me what the kernel panic screen says so I can better
help you. If you're not sure what OS it is, go to the Apple menu and
click on "About This Mac" it is generally the first line on the screen.
i.e. 10.x.x

If it is 10.1 it'll show a bunch of words that'll probably seem foreign
to you
If it is 10.2 - 10.2.8 it'll show a light gray box on the screen and
say "You need to restart your computer..."
If it is 10.3 or later it'll show a black box on the screen and say
"You need to restart your computer..."

> Currently her Imac screen is showing the rotatng Ball on a background of

If the rotating ball is the rainbow ball, then the best next step is to
boot from the OS X CD and try a repair disk / permissions.

If it is actually a rotating world globe, then it has been mistakenly
set for net boot. Just hold the option key after the chime and select
the drive, and then the right hand arrow (once in the startup manager).

If it is acaually the OSX spinning wheel, then she can also try booting
and repairing from the OS X CD. If that doesn't work, then do an
Archive and Install, which will keep all her personal files / info.

Oh, to eject the cd:
After the chime, hold down the command(apple)/option,o,f keys. This
will boot into open firmware.
type: eject cd
hit: return
This will force an eject of the CD tray.
Put in the CD, push in, and...
type: reset-all
This will reboot the system and reset open firmware,
Then hold down the c key to boot from the cd.
Once at the installer screen, browse the commands in the menu bar for
"Disk Utility"

Gary Dailey
Daystar Technology - Mac CPU Upgrades / USB Video Capture
http://daystartechnology.com http://daystar-store.com
http://daystar-forum.com