Q: I have a PowerBook G4 and recently it would not boot up past the MAC OS X loading screen and will stop at 'printing services'. Also I have the OS X CD and I seem to be unable to boot from the cd? I tried entering 'C' multiple times and also holding it down through the booting up process, and also did the same with 'CMD OPT SHIFT DELETE' with the same freezing result?! I need help, am I trying to boot from the CD wrong? OR is my laptop just fried? HELP!
A: First, try clearing the PRAM. Startup the computer, then immediately after the startup chime hold down the Option-Apple-P-R keys all together until you hear the startup chime again, then release. Sometimes clearing the PRAM will help the computer startup. After that, you can try the Startup Manager. Reboot your computer with the OS X CD in the computer. Right after the startup chime, hold down the Option key and keep it down until you see the Startup Manager come on the screen. It will be a blue screen with icons of the available OS X startup discs. Let it finish it's search, then click on the OS X on the CD. That should boot the computer from the CD. If you get the computer started up off the CD, it's probably a good idea to install a clean system. Use the Archive and Install option and all your user settings will be retained but a clean installation will be put in place. After that, if you continue to have problems it would be a good idea to do a check of your hard drive- laptop hard drives take a beating and sometimes boot problems can be early signs of hard drive failure. Use Disk Utility to run a check and also check the S.M.A.R.T. Status at the bottom of the Disk Utility screen to see if the drive itself is reporting any errors. Good luck and enjoy your Mac!