I’ve just come back from a 5 month road trip around Oz and started up my old faithful mirror door G4. No worries, ran for an hour or two then a splash screen came up saying a restart was needed. I did this but just ended up with an endless running of the little circular dial. I restarted again only this time got a kernel panic screen. Tried again but now there is not the usual start up sound just 3 longish beeps which I have never ever heard coming from any macs I’ve ever owned. The start up button now stays solid for about 10 seconds followed by 4 quick flashes and there is no screen at all.
I suspect hardware problems but also thought it could be the battery having been unpowered for so long. Has anyone heard the sound before? Any suggestions greatly appreciated.
The startup chimes and beeps are all documented on Apple’s Support site at apple.com/support
3 Beeps means “no RAM detected.” This has a few possible causes, in order of likelihood: