iBook warning tone/siren?

#1 Fri, 25 Jan 2008 - 10:55

I have a friend that has iBook G3, 500mhz with the dreaded 'squeeze the left side for the screen to work' problem. He brought it to me before a trip and I replaced the hard drive after it failed. It was just a small 6gb drive but it was enough for a working computer while on vacation.

Well he's back from vacation and was using the computer and was googling and got some siren warning noise and the computer froze. The computer refuses to boot now and there's a flashing question mark and siren noises. I heard the siren/security alarm noise over the phone. I'm at work now so I don't have access to my service manuals.

Any ideas?

#2 Fri, 25 Jan 2008 - 13:23

no idea what the siren means but the question mark means it cant find its hd or a boot drive

if it has had prolonged logic board problems it might be save to say that the logic board kicked the bucket

my own 500 mhz is quite uhh flaky too

#3 Fri, 25 Jan 2008 - 15:19

It's possible ram came loose, macs make that weird siren noise if that happens.

Or as I just found, it is the SMART status telling you the HD is about to fail.

#4 Fri, 25 Jan 2008 - 15:44

I would also wonder if the HD squealed before dying, a bad bearing in the motor or something rather. That is most likely my automotive obsession speaking though.

#5 Sat, 26 Jan 2008 - 01:48

That'd be the hard drive. My PowerBook 1400 would do that in the few months leading up to a severe head crash.

#6 Sat, 26 Jan 2008 - 08:16

How reliable are those 500MHz IceBooks?

I always liked their looks, and now they are rather cheap...

#7 Sat, 26 Jan 2008 - 14:02

They are not reliable.

Dead Logic Boards, Screens etc.

Get a clamshell if you need one.

#8 Sat, 26 Jan 2008 - 14:22

Macintoshman, wrong!

The iBook's with 8MB of VRam are the reliable ones.

#9 Sun, 10 Feb 2008 - 15:10

The siren came from the hard drive. I took out the drive and put it in an enclosure. The hard drive was an old IBM Travelstar 2.5" drive.