iBook emergency - please help

[Nacho]

When I booted up my iBook (running 10.2.8) this morning, all I got (and continue to get) is the greyish screen with the Apple logo and the ticking 'working' symbol. it never gets any further. All of my lesson plans are on my HD and I have to have them by tonight.

Please advise a workaround - I'd really, really rather not reinstall the OS if I don't have to. And no, I have not backed up any of portion of the HD.

Thanks!

 

[HornZealot]

Have you taken off the battery and then put it back on and restarted it?

 

[Nacho]

i haven't done that. what I have done with no success:

attempted to start up in single user mode (holding down the S key upon startup)

attempted safe mode (holding down the shift key)

also attempted holding down the C key upon startup (can't remember what this one was supposed to do)

i've run the hardware diagnostic CD and everything there came up roses. All passed.

I haven' installed any new software in between the most recent restarts (either by shutting down completely or doing the warm restart)

perhaps the apple store in Barton Creek?

 

[zork]

Is there an applecare tech support number anymore?

 

[Benson32]

take it to the apple store, they should be able to figure it out.

 

[MizzouSnives]

not to be a debbie downer, but you might be screwed. this happened to my ibook and i had to wipe the hard drive to get it up and running again. total re-install was the only way. sorry. take it to an apple store and hope for the best. good luck!

 

[wherzwaldo]

Buy a PC. Nah, scratch that, Macs are SOOO much more reliable.

 

[gsoda3]

i would bet you have a G3. what happens to you is quite a common event on the g3's. usually that means you have a problem with your logic board and you need to take it into the mac store and they'll need to send it away for a few times. =/ sorry man.

if it happens 4 or more times you get a new g4 though, so there's a silver lining on this, eventually.

 

[Nacho]

it is a dual USB G3 - but i fixed it. just did a reinstall, but archived the old user data. managed to save all my music and files. for what it's worth, i've owned this since July of 2001 and it has never ONCE even locked up on me.

question, though. where can i find the file that contains my bookmarks? for whatever reason, those weren't 'imported'.

also - how do i:

remove the requirement to have to 'log in' every time i boot up. also - how do i revert back to my old user data? i had to create a new profile on the reinstall and i can see that the old one (that has all my keychain info like passwords, login IDs, etc) was saved in my 'previous system' folder.

 

[gsoda3]

glad to hear you managed to save it.

to turn off the logon screen when u boot up, go to system preferences, click on ACCOUNTS, and check the "automatically logon as. . .."and select your username.

all the rest, i dunno sorry.

 

[sessamoid]

In reply to:

---

---

 

[Nacho]

everything's taken care of - except i had QT Pro but it is now requiring me to reregister for the Pro upgrade (the Pro didn't translate on the reinstall/archive) and i don't have my registration number. might that be in a file somewhere?

 

[TenaciousTgarden]

you can probably call the company and give them your name, they usually have the registration codes on file. this happened to me once, and all the upgraded software I had I had to go back and re-register, so I just called or emailed all of the companies and they sent me all the info.
for future reference, the people at the apple store are extremely helpful.