iBook G4 12" 800 MHz-1.2 GHz: replaced a failed hard drive and it still won't boot

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:07:11 -0700

about a year ago my iBook would freeze and i would have to reboot it constantly. Eventually It wouldn't boot at all and would just stay on the gray or blue screen. I took it to the genius bar and they told me that my hard drive was dying. I then took it to someone who said they could replace it for around $700. No. Thank. You.

So I just got around to my little project yesterday. Took it apart and replaced the 30GB hard drive with a 160GB one, and also increased the ram with a 520MB ram chip. It was all very straightforward and simple, thanks to this awesome website.

But when I got to the part where I needed to install OS x 10.4 Tiger, I ran into the same problem that I had before I replaced the hard drive. I inserted the disk and held down the option key while restarting the computer. An OS X icon appeared with a swirly arrow on the left (like a refresh icon)and a right pointing arrow on the right side. When I clicked the right pointing arrow it went to grey screen, then blue screen. I tried restarting it while holding down the C key and same thing.

BTW, my iBook did not come with Tiger. I think it came with Jaguar (10.3.2 maybe?) I bought the highest version of OS that my 800MHz processor can handle, on ebay. It is not a black disk but a grey one that says "for G3, G4, and G5 computers" or something like that. Can't tell you for sure because the disc is now stuck in the optical drive.

Can anyone tell me if there could be some other problem besides the hard drive? Am I installing the wrong OS? And how do I get the darned disk out of the drive if it won't boot? Is there anything else I should be considering?

Sorry for the long winded question, but I am very frustrated. Please help!

⟐ Answered January 18, 2012 at 8:07 pm -0700

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iBook G4 12" 800 MHz-1.2 GHz: replaced a failed hard drive and it still won't boot