Question mark on bootup.
Help. Titanium Powerbook4 will not boot. Black square appears with a question mark in the center. What does it mean?
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This means that your machine cannot find a valid system folder. Could be a corrupted system or a failed hard drive. Try starting up from your system installation disk, "C" key. Go to the second screen pull down menu to Utilities and see if your drive shows up in the left hand column. If so, try repairing it. If not replace your hard drive.
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To clarify what @mayer suggested, If you have the reinstall CDs or DVDs that originally came with your Mac, put them in the superdrive, hold the power button to force turn off the Mac. Keep the "C" held down when turning it on. "C" tells the Mac to try to boot from CD.
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Please follow what @mayer suggested.
If in case you do not have the original system reinstall disks, you can download Ubuntu for PPC.
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releas...
You will need another computer to actually burn the .iso to a DVD or CD. Then put this in the superdrive, force the powerbook to turn off, and then hold down "C" while turning it on again.
This will give you a working desktop environment so you can backup your files if your hard drive is still in a usable state. There should be a file explorer built in. Use an external USB drive to save your files.
If you are comfortable with the command line, you can also check the hard disk for errors.
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