When my imac g4 tries to bootup it shows a folder icon

while booting hold the c key to boot cd/dvd
or try holding the option key while booting

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 you original startup disk to repair your drive and setup the startup drive for booting. If that doesnt work you may have to reinstall the OS.

It can not find the hard drive or the startup folder on the hard drive. Try and fix that by putting in the original boot cd/dvd and repair and choose your hard drive start up folde as boot device. If you can not your hard drive may have died.

--SAFE BOOT MODE--

I am going to have you take your Mac into Safe Mode to see if we can't remove a possible folder(s) that may be affecting your Mac's start up function.

Try these steps:

• Reboot your Mac
• Upon restarting your Mac, press the Shift key.
• Hold the Shift key until you see a White Screen with Gray Apple icon and eventually a spinning gear.

• When you see the Spinning gear, release the Shift key.

• Allow the Mac to continue booting up. Also this may take a little while
(NOTE: this may take anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes to load to the Safe mode screen depending on the performance of your Mac, but if it exceeds this time, shutdown your Mac and try just once more. It may have just frozen up the first time around for you.)

• You are going to enter the Safe Mode (which looks like your main desktop environment - the only difference is certain start up items are disabled.)

• Once within the Desktop in Safe Mode
• From the Finder Menu, click Go> Go to Folder
• Type in this line: /System/Library/StartupItems
• This path, is going to take you to the System Library folder which has all of your Mac OS X StartupItems.

• Remove all of those folders to the Trash.

*Reboot your Mac normally and see if you can access your normal User desktop environment.

This should help get your iMac G4 back up
and running.

Regards,

Mactechtrainer

Are you running OS 9? Are you referring to the loading of extensions at the bottom of the screen on boot?

when booting in os x after the first boot chime immediately hold down keys <apple,option,o,f> all at the same time and allow computer to boot to open firmware once there type "reset-nvram" exactly like that but without quotation marks and press enter once it returns to command prompt type "reset-all"and press enter (you must have the "-" in between the commands) the computer should restart if not when the command prompt returns type "reboot" and hit enter ..... also you can check the drive status by going to "system profiler" in apple drop down menu--->about this mac-->more info or applications folder-->utilities folder--->system profiler then selct disk burning under hardware in the list on the left

Reinstall Mac Os X, this should fix the problem.

Do a backup of all your files before reinstalling the OS.

If you do not know how to reinstall Mac OS get it safely done at any Mac shop, it is not an expensive operation.

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!

The bootup permissions file has become corrupted in your system folder. Booting up and running an"archive and install" from the installation cd, or better, from an external hardrive, should solve the problem.