G4 won't boot up for new Mac user

[erosryd]

Hi guys. Brand new to Apple computers as I got a "defective" G4 from my neighbor. He was going to throw it away but I told him I would try to fix it first.

When I power it up, it makes a musical "greeting" power up sound and the monitor goes from dark black (as in "off") to a lighter gray, and then a folder appears in the middle of the screen alternating between a face and a question mark.

Does anyone know what is wrong with this computer so that I can repair it for future use? I am guessing a hard drive malfunction, but do not know for sure. And is it worth fixing? FYI - I do not have any software for this system.

Thanks for any help you can provide!

-Mark

[erosryd]

PS - it appears that this G4 is either a Quicksilver or Quicksilver 2 model, in the event this makes any difference.

[John A]

Do you have the Mac OS installation disc? I would try a reinstallation first, as it sounds like your Mac can't find an operating system to boot off of.

If you haven't got the install disc, either go out and buy one, or you're pretty well hosed... you could try some hard disk repair utilities, but the amount of money that it would cost to buy software that would repair the filesystem would simply not be worth it. If it were me, I'd probably install Linux on it or something to get a few more years of life out of it, but that's kind of advanced.

[erosryd]

Thank you, joeprogramer. Someone else recommended that i try to get a copy of OS 10.3 or better, if I can find it reasonably priced. So that person agrees w/ you that the OS appears faulty or missing. I'm going to ask some of my friends if they have an OS disk that i can borrow to see if that is the only problem with my Mac.

[John A]

Thank you, joeprogramer. Someone else recommended that i try to get a copy of OS 10.3 or better, if I can find it reasonably priced.

I think you can get a copy of 10.3 "Panther" for around $10-20.

So that person agrees w/ you that the OS appears faulty or missing. I'm going to ask some of my friends if they have an OS disk that i can borrow to see if that is the only problem with my Mac.

Well, it's quite clear that your Mac can't find the operating system. The thing which is unclear is how it happened (eg. whether the files just got corrupted, or if the hard disk is physically damaged). If you have problems formatting the hard disk when installing OS X, I'd definitely say that the hard drive is at fault.

[erosryd]

I'll look for the 10.3 Panther OS when i get back from vacation. And if that OS doesn't work, then I might try to buy a used hard drive to install. It has been kind of you to offer advice, so thank you.