What does this symbol mean on my mac g4?

Question

I went to turn on my Mac G4 and instead of the operating system loading normally, a small flashing symbol appreared in the middle of the screen. It did nothing more...just kept flashing. The symbol was a folder icon with a question mark in the middle. It would flash to the same folder icon with a face in the middle. If an illustration helps copy & paste the link below:

http://new.photos.yahoo.com/gingerbear2731/?change_count=0

Nothing I tried made any difference. What do you think this means? Is my computer dead or having serious problems? Before this problem occurred, the computer would freeze alot and I'd have to restart it to continue. But Í've never seen this before. Any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

Usually that means it is having trouble locating the OS. Not a huge problem - just inconvenient. Hold down the "Option" key when starting up to get in through the back door, or insert your original OS disk and start up holding down the "C" key to reboot from the CD. Then I would probably install the OS again - if you read the menu prompts carefully, you can do this without losing any info on your Mac. It might take an hour or so, though. If you ever get the Mac face with "Xs" over the eyes, then your Mac is dead.