PowerBook Boot Process Takes 15 Minutes to Complete

[bjorkj02]

Hello - I have an Apple PowerBook G3 "Lombard" (Bronze Keyboard) running OS 9.2.2. And until recently, it's always booted easily and quickly - as per normal.  However, a couple days ago there began a very odd behavior with the boot process...

Currently, when I boot the PowerBook (from a switched-off state), it will begin booting like normal. However, as soon as the 'smily' face appears, the screen goes black and then the boot process begins again.  It continues repeating this cycle for a while, though sometimes the 'smily' face appears quickly and other times it takes a while to get there. I also hear a 'popping' sound sometimes, which I think is the HD shifting ...

Luckily, I was distracted enough the first time this happened that I walked away, and found that it eventually will finish the boot process.  It just takes like 15-20 minutes before it finally reaches the finish line.

So I'm first wondering if anyone else has ever seen this or knows what's causing it (and if it's a serious problem).  And any suggestions on fixing this will also be much appreciated.

Note: I'm seeing that restarting the PB while it's already turned on does boot up like normal. So this only seems to be a problem when I've powered the PB down completely and it's booting from that state.

Thanks,
Jim

[bjorkj02]

And now it's *time* a 6-month update!

So when I first booted today, it spun up like normal until the 'smily' face appeared. At which point, the screen went black and the boot process began again...  It's stays in this cycle for a while, until a flashing "?" appears alternating with the MacOS icon. After this began displaying, then the computer would shut off after a few minutes or so.

I tried multiple times to get past that initial roadblock and complete the boot process.  But now, after booting, the computer immediately goes to the blank grey screen (with hard driving clicking audibly). After about 5 minutes, the alternating "?" and Mac icons appear and stay like that for a couple minutes. Then the computer shuts down.

As always, any thoughts about what's going on or how to fix it would be much appreciated!

[DrNo7]

Hi Bjorkj,

It is difficult to be certain of the root problem without hearing the exact hard drive noise (these are very chatty things) but based on the fact that it is loud and that it is struggling to boot, I would venture to guess the hard drive is dying and you should replace it to get your Powerbook back on track. And if you have data on it and no backups, then it may just be a game of patience on an external enclosure or too late (depends really on the drive remaining health).

Getting another hard drive and swapping/reinstalling a fresh OS should quickly help to see if the powerbook is fine. And in the meantime, the current drive will rest

[Mat]

A flashing ? and clicking HD sound exactly like a broken HD to me. Install another HD (or think about an SSD, that really gives another boost to your machine), and reinstall a system.

A tip (that you did not ask for, as I am aware), if you need to rescue some data: for me it helped several times, when I let the machine with a clicking HD powered on for one or two days. I suspect that somehow the temperature or mechanics of the HD got better during this very long time under power, and I could rescue nearly all data afterwards.

[bjorkj02]

Thanks so much to DrNo7 and Mat for the replies. It's good to have a solid idea of what's going on, along with the potential next steps. I don't have much data on that computer, though what *is* there would be nice to retrieve...

So I will try Mat's suggestion about connecting my PowerBook to power for a couple days, and then try booting once more. After that, I'll take it to a computer repair shop and we'll see how it goes from there.

Fingers crossed,
Jim

[Mat]

My suggestion was not to keep it connected to power, but to keep it switched on for at least one day. So put your PowerBook somewhere where the noise of the clicking HD does not annoy you, switch it on and let it stay this way. After one hour it should stop trying to boot, but the HD should still spin. After one or two days give it a "warm reset".

A "repair shop" will charge you tons of cash. Fine if you like to support your locale computer shop, but most likely not worth the costs. Get some proven to work 44pin IDE to M2 adapter with an 128GB SSD modul (that should be 40 or 50 bucks). Here is a step by step guide what to do to exchange the HD:

https://de.ifixit.com/Anleitung/PowerBook+G3+Lombard+Hard+Drive+Replacement/47?lang=en