mac mini 10.5.8 unresponsive !

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mac mini 10.5.8 unresponsive !

Hi  there,I've joined your forum out of frustration and exhaustion !!
I've read countless forums on how to reboot mac using a command prompt and all the start up key options , but to no avail..
My mac mini 10.5.8 just stopped working day and now only opens up with an alternately flashing folder and question mark. 
Can anyone help ?
I've tried the usual startup commands, the only one that has any effect is holding the option key down - but then i get a command prompt and I don't know what to do from there to boot up my mac.(Typing mac-boot doesn't get me to a useful screen/ utilities )
Please help ! 
Thanks, Leonhard

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Re: mac mini 10.5.8 unresponsive !

leonhardf,

I am not sure if this will help, but
is there a battery in there somewhere that may need to be replaced?

Any Mac Mini Folks have an idea?

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Re: mac mini 10.5.8 unresponsive !

If leonhardf is able to boot open firmware and see the 'can't find boot drive' icon, I suspect hard drive failure.

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Re: mac mini 10.5.8 unresponsive !

If leonhardf is able to boot open firmware and see the 'can't find boot drive' icon, I suspect hard drive failure.

I had similar symptoms to those of the OP and suspected this with my PPC Mini too, swapped out the hard drive - didn't fix it. Turned out to be the Airport Card causing the issue; removing that allowed the machine to boot again - though I kept the replacement drive anyway!!

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Re: mac mini 10.5.8 unresponsive !

That's bizarre. Like being back in the scsi voodoo days.

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Re: mac mini 10.5.8 unresponsive !

Replacing the battery on a G4 mini is a little involved requiring a number of pieces to be removed. You’d be best looking up the directions online. Usually the directions come with pictures which are very helpful tearing down a mini for the first time.

That said, while it is possible that there may be other causes, the most likely is drive failure.

If you have or can borrow a 10.5 or 10.4 install disk then you could boot off that and use the Disk Utilities on it.

If you have access to another Mac and a firewire cable then you can start up in Target disk mode and maybe the other Mac can see something with Disk Utilities.

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