G4 mac boots but no icons or anything else

Starting up in Safe Mode Follow these steps to start up into Safe Mode.

1. Be sure your Mac is shut down.
2. Press the power button.
3. Immediately after you hear the startup sound, press and hold the Shift key. The Shift key should be pressed as soon as possible after startup, but not before the startup sound.
4. Release the Shift key when you see the Apple logo appear on the screen.

After the Apple logo appears, it may take longer than usual to reach the login screen. This is because your computer is performing a directory check as part of Safe Mode.
To leave Safe Mode, restart your computer without pressing any keys during startup.

The Powerbook G4 power button functions like a reset button if you hold the power button in for a few seconds until the computer powers down.

1. Hold the power button in for a few seconds (until you see the screen turn off/go black and hear the fans & hard drive stop spinning).
2. Press the power button again to turn your computer on.
3. If you have more trouble, you may need to boot in Safe Mode or "perform a Safe Boot":
   Press and hold down the "Shift" key immediately after you hear the start-up tone. Release the "Shift" key when the gray Apple icon appears on the screen.

This means the mac can not find the system to start up, you can try holding down the alt key as you start the mac, this may bring up a choice of systems to boot from if not then try holding down the shift key at startup, as this will boot without extensions loading. If none of this works then you need the startup dvd that came with the mac, if you dont have it the you need a retail copy of the mac os that will boot your mac , if its g4 then osx 10.3 or 10 .4 will work.

cheers

tech 240

Use the install discs that came with the machine. Insert the disc 1, shut down the machine, turn it back on and press and hold the option key until the DVD icon shows. Then click on the icon and then click on the right arrow. When the disc boots you need to go to the top and find the disc utility folder. Then select reset password. Then choose restart.

It sounds like the system is corrupted. What I would do is to get your instal disk and boot up holding down the c key on your keyboard. Once you have booted up go to the file menu and run disk utility to verify and repair the hard drive. Then go to the instal menu and instal a fresh system remembering to preserve the users data so you do not wipe anything. Hopefully this will work.

have you tried putting the mouse icon to the bottom of the screen? that is a setting on macs it takes a few seconds to show the icons. if that doesnt work try going into settings and putting it back to default or factory reset of settings.

time to get a new laptop

your hard drive has failed
it needs to be replaced(2.5" ide) on ebay they are pretty cheap
anything else i could help you with?

After boot??? Have you tried holding down the shift key (Safeboot). If you can log into your account then check startup items in systemprefs/user accounts/startupitems

If it still crashes you need to create a new user account. Log in and if that works then copy all data from old account by using Batch Mod on old users folder. Do not copy anything from user library.

Hi, Try shutting the G4 completely down, waiting about 15 seconds, and then booting the Mac with the shift key down. That should clean up a lot, as it gives a safe boot. Then go to disc utilities and repair permissions. That might clean the whole thing up for you. If sounds like it's a Finder problem. If that doesn't work, boot from Disc Warrior or Tech Tools and run a few tests. Good luck!