[leavin123]

Hello,
I have a PowerBook G4 with os x 10.4.11 installed on it. I have been having many issues lately (disk utilities were missing/messed up). The computer was working, but definitely not properly. So I decided to do a new install of the OS. I have my 10.4 Tiger disk (the retail version- my computer came with 10.4 on it but I misplaced my start up disks. I am positive that the disk I have is retail though- black with silver X) and I put it in the disk drive and restarted.

First time, on the screen popped up what looked like 2 mouse's and a number 1 and 2 and it looked like it was telling me to put batteries in the mouse? However, I have a laptop, with a touchpad. so anyway, I hit enter, and it continued on to the install. I selected a language (english) and it took about 30 minutes but appeared to install. Then the screen went black. So a few minutes later I tried to power up, and it would get to the startup screen and the progress bar would continue about 1/5 of the way and then just stop.

I have tried booting up in safemode, booting up with the install disk again, booting up without the disk in..

Now when I boot up with the disk I get a blue screen, and the cursor is in the upper left corner and I cant move it. Nothing else happens. If I bootup without the disk in, I get to the startup screen where the progress bar goes part way and then just stops.

Im stuck!
Please help!

[leon]

When powerbook do you have? If it was the final model then you need 10.4.2 as a minimum. If your retail disk is 10.4.0, then it may not contain all of the necessary drivers for your machine.

The part about the two mice seems odd to me. Never have I seen that before. You might have an underlying hardware issue with your machine.

[leavin123]

I have a PowerBook G4 1.67 ghz 512mb 120G super drive 17"

I am not sure if that answers your question or not- I do not know if it was the final? I purchased it in 2004

[leon]

If it is 2004 then it would have shipped with 10.3, so your 10.4 retail disk should have all the necessary drivers for this machine.

If you hold down option during startup does it give you the option to boot from the install DVD or the HDD?

[leavin123]

yes it does. I have tried both options but get either a blue screen with the cursor in the upper left corner, or the startup screen that freezes. Right now I am trying single user mode with fsck -fy but it doesnt appear to be working.

[leavin123]

Update:
The progress bar on the start up screen stops at the exact same place every time I start up. Its about 1/5 of the way, and underneath it it says "Starting Mac OS X..."

[midnight_e]

I'd be inclined to open up Disk Utility from the 10.4 install disc and zero out the drive, gets bad sectors on the HD out of the equation.

I've done this on old drives that were a bit flakey.
Follow up with fresh install.

[Byrd]

Does your installer DVD have any scratches on it? Notebook optical drives don't take too kindly to these and will often stop midway during a startup/install if scratched. Once you've determined if the hard disk is OK, try burning a duplicate copy of your OS X DVD on another computer and see how you go.

JB