Mac G3 iBook - Can't get it to boot from Recovery CD?

Question

I've got a G3 iBook. Tried booting it a few days ago, and it just hung on the startup screen. Got the CD drive open, and inserted several of the original CD's, trying to get it to start from one, to re-install the OSX, etc. No Luck.
Any thoughts? Suggestions?
Thanks

Answer 1

The CD drive could be defective or not properly installed. Mac's can boot from anything. Check the CD drive.

Answer 2

Before I give you my best suggestion of what might solve the problem, try giving a couple more bits of info so we know what's going on. What is it you see exactly as the hanging point? Does it show a gray screen with a dark gray apple logo and a spinning wheel below it? Does it show a blue screen with "Mac OS X Starting up"? Does it show the login screen with your login name? Does it log in but hangs as the desktop is loading?

Some more questions: Do you have a set of 3 iBook Restore CDs? Do you know if those are the exact CDs that shipped from Apple with the iBook?

One last question: When you say "No luck", what happens? Does it begin to boot and hangs? What do you see when it hangs?

Here are a couple of facts: You cannot boot to a hardware specific system CD that came with a computer that is different from your iBook G3. For example, an iBook G4, iMac or PowerMac G4 CD will not boot in an iBook G3. You can boot to a retail OS X install disk (white 10.2 install CD, black 10.3 install CD or black DVD). You can verify it was sold retail if it does not name one specific type of computer on the disk label.

Some burned boot disks will work if they were burned from an image of a correct type of CD/DVD and were created correctly. Some external CD/DVD drives will boot the computer. You didn't mention if it is the original iBook CD drive so maybe it is.

If you got all that and now you know you have a bootable CD or DVD, put it in (for original restore set, start with Disk 1), restart and hold just the option key. You should finally see two icons; one is the hard drive, the other is the CD. Click on the CD and press enter. Follow the link below to be sure you are at the right screen (startup manager screen).