It looks like the iBook may have been going dark due to bad PMU settings. I reset that, and the Leopard DVD tried to boot for a very long time, several hours, but with no errors. I shut it down before heading off to bed with no progress beyond the spinning grey gear.

Discovered that I had made a bootable TechTool Pro 5 DVD, but assumed that it wouldn't work on the iBook. Tried it anyway, and it booted right up. Verdict: Everything I could check came back normal after several passes. RAM is at 640 MB, which, I guess, is why the Leopard DVD wouldn't boot up.

Any tests related to the HD's integrity were unavailable of course, and by the way, the HD isn't just non-functional, it vibrates incessantly. It sounds like an electric razor sitting on a hard surface. Very annoying, and also very odd.

...and I'm having one bitch of a time getting these boot discs copied. Tried all sorts of techniques, but iBook spits them all back out. Content is being burnt onto the discs, but they're not bootable.

Hi all, I'm back.

The iBook has now got a brand new 60 GB hard drive, and a brand new 1 GB RAM module. It's running smooth as silk!

The HD showed up right away in FireWire Target Disk Mode. Discs in the iBook's SuperDrive show up right away on my Mac mini. I was able to clone the previous bootable OS (Tiger) back onto the internal drive to get it to boot, and that's working fine too. TechTool Pro 5 boots the iBook and the tests all show normal.

…and, miraculously, I am able to connect to the internet (and download software updates from Apple's servers)!

Here's the problem: When I try to boot the iBook using my retail Leopard DVD, I get either a decrementer exception error message in the Open Firmware screen (usually if I've taken the battery out), or the DVD will try to boot for a long while and then the iBook just turns itself off.

What's going on here?

Is the Leopard DVD supposed to support PowerPC models (like the G4)?

Good question. I thought of that too. Seems to me that I had this DVD (family pack) which was installing itself onto PPC and Intel alike. The instructions on the DVD itself indicate that it's Universal Binary.

How about if I created a separate partition on the internal HD and somehow clone the DVD onto it so that when I reboot the iBook, it sees that DVD image as bootable? That would eliminate possible problems originating at the optical drive.

Any other suggestions?

Have you reset Open Firmware? Boot to OF by holding down Command-Option-O-F at boot. You'll see a text screen with a white background and gray text. At the prompt, type

reset-nvram (and hit Return)
reset-all (and hit Return)

The computer should reboot.

Trevor

About two dozen times over the past month.

Holy mackerel, it worked!

Restored the Leopard DVD onto a separate partition while the iBook was in FW TDM, and it actually booted into the installer. Same data on both discs, so what should I attribute the failure to? A bad optical drive? Problems on the logic board? A firmware glitch?

It was a PITA. I wouldn't say it was particularly difficult, but just very looong, long like the Lord of the Rings, and complex. I split it up over two or three sessions, and I recommend at least taking a sandwich break in the middle there.

On top of the already lengthy procedure, I found that some Thai technician who worked on this before me had put several screws back in the wrong order and wrong configuration. I had to take extra time to backtrack and re-order the screws, take things back apart, and extract one screw that got stuck because it was in the wrong position (not easy!).

If you want something done right, you really have got to do it yourself, especially over here. I think all screws are now in order though.

The most difficult thing for me was finding just the right tool to pull out some of the cables with the tiny plastic sockets. Apparently, you can't just pull those cables out with your fingers. I was able to bend a paper clip into the right shape, but it certainly was not optimal.

Gotta give credit where it's due: iFixit's guide was the key. I followed it closely, and it provided all of the necessary information.

Hmmmmm. Bad optical drive is possible, as is a dirty lens on the optical drive. Perhaps try running a cleaning disc through your existing optical drive before you try replacing it.

I doubt it's the logic board, and since you reset Open Firmware, it shouldn't be any problem with that either.

Trevor

Okay, but remember that my TTPro 5 disc boots the machine right up, no problems. I'm also reading that exact same Leopard DVD while in FW TDM with no problems. Your guess could be correct, but it seems not highly probable.

Don't these DVD writers (SuperDrives) have firmware of their own? I was guessing that the problem might be there if somehow it got out of whack. The reset command from the open firmware screen, does that affect the firmware of the SuperDrive too? I was under the impression that it does not.

Very common for Leopard DVDs to read OK, but really struggle to actually boot.
I have burned numerous copies of Leopard installer disks, even brand new out of the box, where the original may boot with errors, or not even boot at all. Burning a copy usually will give you a working disk.
It's also a good reason that I have the Leopard installer on its own partition on a Firewire external drive. MUCH more reliable, and faster install, too.

Yes, the DVD writers have firmware of their own. It's far less sophisticated firmware than the Open Firmware present in your iBook. If there were a problem with the SuperDrive firmware, you could look for a program to reflash it, but I doubt that that is the problem, and I also doubt that you can do much about it if is were the problem.

And of course you're right that nothing you do in Open Firmware will have any effect on the firmware in your Superdrive.

Trevor

Agreed--not highly probable.

Trevor

Thanks for taking the time to give input here guys.

This iBook is now just about 11 years old, but running Leopard really takes it into the golden age of Mac OS X. (We're now post-golden age, if you ask me.)

Anyway, next question would be: Anybody want to buy an iBook? :) As much as I love having this guy up and running, I really would prefer to have a Mac mini of the same era. Will have to find a local buyer since shipping costs will eat up all the profit.