Chosen Solution
This is a follow on from Won’t boot - question mark appears.. To recap… When I turn the powerbook on it chimes and eventually just shows the flashing question mark. The HD has been changed but same result. It won’t boot from the optical drive (holding C down, or not), it just ejects discs after about a minute. BUT I did get it to boot from an external firewire drive, after getting advice from this forum. But when I ran disc utility (from firewire drive) it couldn’t “see” either the internal HD or the optical. Someone suggested I unplug the optical drive in case it was faulty and somehow it was dragging down the disc buss? Anyway, did this, but no change. So, in my ignorance I thought it must be a faulty logic board, and I’ve just managed to replace that (thanks to this site!). But, I STILL get the same question mark - I’m gutted! Before I kick this into a recycling bin, has anyone any ideas what I could try next? Thanks in advance.
Hi Mayer, Thanks for the reply. I didn’t know you could boot from an external drive! I’m off to find an firewire drive to try it. Getting my hands on an ext. firewire DVD might take a bit longer. I’ll report back any results. Thanks again for the response, much appreciated.
You’ve done the right test procedures. I would next try booting from an external firewire drive. Then an external DVD drive.
I didn’t see anywhere a suggestion for replacing the logic board. If it boots from the G5 installed system external firewire drive, use that drive and install it. If it’s a 3.5" drive clone it. First boot from the external and go to “about this mac” and see if the internal hard drive or optical drives are seen. If not, replace the internal drive, boot from the external and use SuperDuper to clone it after you have formatted it. http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/S… I do not see a guide to replace the hard drive specifically but this guide will get you there: PowerBook G4 Aluminum 12" 867 MHz Logic Board Replacement
They all get ejected after about a minute.Toshiba satellite m40 batteries I got a known good int HD and replaced the Toshiba satellite m45 batteries harddrive
