PowerBook G4 Hard Drive Noises + and no boot chime!

[Miel]

Well, the title says it all, really...

I have a sneaky suspicion that there's something wrong with my PowerBook. It boots without chiming (I have reset the PRAM to no avail), and the hard disk has become quite noisy. Trying to get it running after sleep is also an issue -- it just won't budge until you give the hard drive a thump. The problem seems to be deteriorating.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Best,

Miel.

 

[bubbleman7546]

did you run a hardware test?

i wouldn't be too worried about no chiming. my sawtooth g4 has been doing that for a long time with no ill side effects.

 

[Miel]

Thankyou for your response!

Would I be needing my hardware test CD-Rom for this, or can it be done with regular MacOSX utilities?

 

[Byrd]

If it's not booting without a chime (assuming speakers etc are working), it indicates it's failing its startup RAM test. I've a Powerbook 12" 867 which unusually has a failed onboard 128MB RAM which it doesn't care for - the extra 1GB it seems quite happy with though

JB

(PS - seeing you are from Australia, have you checkeed out Mactalk?)

 

[Christopher]

did you run a hardware test?
i wouldn't be too worried about no chiming. my sawtooth g4 has been doing that for a long time with no ill side effects.

My dualie once basically barfed into it's speaker once. I nearly fell off my chair. It was this LOUD digital buzz and squeal.

 

[Miel]

Thankyou for your responses.

If it's not booting without a chime (assuming speakers etc are working), it indicates it's failing its startup RAM test. I've a Powerbook 12" 867 which unusually has a failed onboard 128MB RAM which it doesn't care for - the extra 1GB it seems quite happy with though
JB

(PS - seeing you are from Australia, have you checkeed out Mactalk?)

I have put in some extra RAM (1 gig), but the PowerBook was still chiming since the upgrade until just recently.

And thanks, I will be sure to check out MacTalk!

 

[bubbleman7546]

you will need the cd rom drive for the hardware test. does anything come up on the screen when you turn it on?

 

[bubbleman7546]

did you run a hardware test?
i wouldn't be too worried about no chiming. my sawtooth g4 has been doing that for a long time with no ill side effects.

My dualie once basically barfed into it's speaker once. I nearly fell off my chair. It was this LOUD digital buzz and squeal.

i used to have an old gateway laptop that would do that often.

 

[thinkdifferent]

Well, the title says it all, really...
I have a sneaky suspicion that there's something wrong with my PowerBook. It boots without chiming (I have reset the PRAM to no avail), and the hard disk has become quite noisy. Trying to get it running after sleep is also an issue -- it just won't budge until you give the hard drive a thump. The problem seems to be deteriorating.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Best,

Miel.

The CPU may have been offset.