# ibook G4 Panic Error



## netbret (Jul 15, 2008)

I'm receiving the following error upon bootup of my ibook G4. "You need to restart your computer. Hold down the Power button for several seconds or press the Restart button." This appears in three different languages. 

So, far I've removed the memory with no change, tried to boot from the OS X install disc 1 and I get an arrow on the screen with nothing else. Oh, and one more thing, I've booted with holding down the Option/Alt key and can see the hard drive and OS X install disc 1 on the screen. No matter which one I choose, I get the results listed above. 

Any help would be appreciated.


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

Does it have Airport? If so, pull that out too. If not, then you have a hardware failure of the motherboard type. If just the hard drive failed, you should still be able to boot from the CD no problem. But I have found that if you get the please shutdown message, your OS is really hosed, or the hardware is bad.


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## netbret (Jul 15, 2008)

I'm new with mac's...I would guess that the airport is the wireless? How can I tell that my mac has this installed? If I do, then how do I remove it. 

Once removed (if I have it installed) would I just repeat the process again with the install disc1 and see if anything comes up?


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

Yes, Airport is the wireless. If it is installed, and the Mac would boot, there'd be an icon in the upper right for it. But without knowing what Mac you have, I can't tell you where it is, or how to get to it.


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## netbret (Jul 15, 2008)

I've tried to boot with the command + S to find any additional information. Would anything in this area be of any value or determine if an airport is installed?

This ibook G4 came with no software so I purchased a set of install software ver 10.3.7 hoping I would be able to reinstall the software, but from your previous post, I might have a hardware issue.


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

Hold down command + v when you start it. This is verbose mode, aka, the unix geek mode. A bunch of text will scroll by. When it freezes, write down what it was so you can let us know.


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## netbret (Jul 15, 2008)

Ok, first of all I found the specs on the ibook (12.1/1.33/512/40/combo/apx/bt-usa). 

Now, I ran the command + v and I've got a full screen of information in front of me. Starting from the bottom and going up it reads:

System model name: PowerBook6,7
Darwin Kernel Version 9,2,2: Tue Mar 4 21:23:43 PST 2008; root:xnu-1228.4.31~1/release_PPC
Kernel Version:

9C7010
Mac OS version:

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: airportd

If you need any more information I'll be happy to provide more, or if you are looking for something specifically in this screen, can you give me some area to look at?

Thanks


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

Your iBook has AirPort (the apx) and blue tooth (bt-usa). Well, I was about to post instructions from my memory on how to get to the Airport card, because I have a 1 Ghz iBook, but then I remembered a site that has how tos, with photos. So I went there, plugged in your iBook stats, and they don't have any how tos for it. And it seems that It has some special Airport/Blue Tooth card thingy in it that Apple has never used before, or since. I'm afraid that you may need to visit an Apple store, or service center for this one.


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## netbret (Jul 15, 2008)

Thanks for all your efforts, once I can get this to either an Apple store or service center I'll let you know what the final diagnosis was.


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## macthorough (Jul 5, 2008)

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58535

The airport card is under the keyboard (which is removable). If you're new to mac and someone sold you an ibook G4 then there could be a problem with it. 

If you can boot to startup manger and see the bootable volumes, especially the install Disk then you should be able to boot to it. I'm assuming that you do not have your apple hardware test cd? Cause you can boot to that to and run a hardware test in looping mode to test the hardware.

If you cannot boot to an ibook install disk you may have the wrong install disk. The ibook will only boot to the type of ibook install disk that it came with. Also it will boot to any


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## macthorough (Jul 5, 2008)

...it will boot to any RETAIL copy of Mac OS X provided that it's the version later that when it was manufactured. So it the ibook came with 10.2.6 than you cannot boot to any RETAIL install disk before that but all after should work (maybe not 10.5 but I think it would). 

So remove you airport card then reboot to see it you get anything. At what point do you receive the kernel panic error? Do you see the spinning gear or anything like that?

So you get a white screen then a blue screen or a black screen and in what order? 

If you can get to the spinning gear you can try to boot to safemode. 

If you can boot to single user mode with is command + S on then you can run this command 

fsck -fy

it is a file system check.

I wold not panic yet it seems like you're headed in the right direction but you're just not hitting the bullseye.


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## macthorough (Jul 5, 2008)

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1392
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1388?viewlocale=en_US

here are some good articles... which link to a zillon other useful articles...


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

@macthorough, the link for Airport you posted is for the 1st iBook, the G3 Clamshell, and is completely wrong for his G4 1.33 iBook, and like I said, it's Airport card seems to not be user servicable. The other links do have helpful information, but his iBook doesn't even boot.


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## macthorough (Jul 5, 2008)

Sorry for providing the wrong article, here are better ones!

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107440
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300406
http://www.apple.com/support/exchange_repair/ibook.html
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1772?viewlocale=en_US


Did you try booting to the install disk holding down the C key? It's probably not user-servicable. It's out of warranty and beyond it's applecare support peroid. Who ever sold this to the user probably knew something was up.

If this goes in for a logicboard replacement it's going to cost about 600-800 bucks and if it goes in for a hard drive replacement it's going to cost 300-500 bucks. It might be best to buy a new mac book, but If he wants to repair the ibook than I would recommend going with a AASP (authorize aple serive provider) who provides the longest hardware warranty on their repair since it's an OOW ibook. Apple will give you 90 days on their repair like most others and apple repairs are good (and if apple fails to repair your ibook corectly 3 times they have the go-ahead to replace it with a new mac of equal or greater value).

I'm not convinced the issue is isolated. The user said he's new to macs. I have never seen and ibook that will boot to Open Firmware, Single user mode, and startup manager that was not fixable. On the other hand if this is happening it could be the signs of a complete failure where ibook may not boot at all and might be dead. 

Nevertheless it's always a good idea to call apple and buy the original gray install disks that were made for the mac if you don't have them. I believe the apple harware test is on that CD, but it may be a seperate cd (i cannot recall). 

I seriously think there is a chance to at the very least to back up data and erase and install if even by firewire connected to another mac. So if the user can connect his ibook to another mac with firewire and see the ibooks hard drive he can back up data and reinstall (archive install or erase install). If not it's dead.


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## macthorough (Jul 5, 2008)

netbret said:


> System model name: PowerBook6,7


@sinclair_tm, what do you know about that?

ODD?


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## macthorough (Jul 5, 2008)

Do you think the ibook was installed with a powerbook install disk which would cause a KP due to the incorrect drivers...


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

No, you can't install OS X without booting from the disk, and you can't boot from the disk if it doesn't not support the Mac. The PowerBook6,7 thing is normal for PPC based Macs. The 6 and 7 both mean something relating to the hardware revision and CPU. Mine says PowerBook6,5. netbret, what happens when you stick the OS X install disk in, and reboot and hold down the c key as soon as you hear the bong?


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## netbret (Jul 15, 2008)

To Sinclair tm, when I insert the install disk and hold down the c key I can see a mouse pointer but the screen is blank and after a long period of time nothing changes. 

To shed some more light on things, this Mac did work before this crash happened, but I didn't have any recovery software at the time. Now that it's down, I figured that if I purchased some recovery software, it would allow me to boot from the install disk and restore my OS with the loss of my data of course.

I purchased OS X ver 10.3.7 thinking it wouldn't matter, but after reading the post from macthorough it appears that it does. Right now I have a local repair shop looking at it to see if they will be able to repair it. I figured I might be in over my head after previous posts that determined that a hardware error might be the case. I'll keep you posted on the progress. Thanks


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

The oldest OS that ibook can have is 10.4.2, so yes, 10.3.7 would not boot it. But again, I still feel that it is a hardware issue, as that is the only time I have ever seen that error message.


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## macthorough (Jul 5, 2008)

Did the ibook have 10.3 on it before you got the kernel panic or 10.4? What did you on the computer right before the issue occurred?

Basically, Kernel Panic errors happen when software and hardware cannot communicate. So wrong software, broken software, wrong hardware, broken hardware are usually the causes. 

It may be a hardware issue but apple would install 10.4.2 on that baby before doing any hardware repairs. Their may be an issue with the harddrive. Reinstalling 10.4.2 may fix the issue and if it does or does not I strongly suggest you call apple and buy all the disks that came with your ibook. And tell the applecare agent to make sure they are sending the correct disks because they will send you the wrong disks sometimes. But if you have all the disks that came with the ibook then you can fully *troubleshoot* on your own. The bottom line is that if you cannot do an erase and install then there is a hardware problem.


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