G4 - deep tone and blinking start button - then "off" ???

[pacyew]

Hello-

When the start button is pushed my G4 Tower now emits a single long deep tone, the start button blinks rapidly approx. 8 or 10 times, then it turns itself off.

If - I continue to hold down the start button, the deep tone and blinking occur, but power remains on. Then - a gray screen comes up with a small 4 line message about firmware and telling be to type "mac-boot" and hit return if I want to continue booting, or to type "shut-down" and hit return to shutdown.

I type "mac-boot", hit return - then the apple symbol appears on the gray screen, the little circle of dots rotates and it appears to be booting. And then, before it completes - it just shuts off. Down this half a dozen times.

It will boot using my Jaguar 10.2 system disc - normal desktop and all. I was even able to do work on it this way. I ran the repair program on my regular 32 gig startup drive, but no help. Still the deep tone, blinking buttons and then "off".

What's happening!?

BTW - this deep tone event - the G4 was "on" and working fine - was preceded by kittens playing on my keyboard! The deep tone brought me in from the next room, just in time to see it blinking and then shutting down.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Ric]

Hi there and welcome !

sorry for the delay in replying !!!

Try starting the Mac and hold down the option key...then select OS X if it comes up.

see if this gets you any further ?

regards

Ric

 

[pacyew]

Hello Ric,

Thank you soooo much! That worked like a charm - back up and running!

Was it likely the kittens dancing on the keyboard that did the deed?

Thank very much again - Jay

 

[Ric]

No problem, Jay !

Glad it worked. Could have been the Kittens, could have just been coincidence...

For some reason your Mac had 'forgotten' where to look for it's System Software, could be a number of reasons why.

Always a good time to make sure you have a 'recent' backup, now it's working again, just in case.

regards

Ric