what does it mean to boot your computer from the disc

[tiddlywinks]

the tech suppt at my elementary school, (i'm a teacher there) told me that doing this might help with my macproblem, which is trouble getting it booted up.
She said it might be a harddrive or logic board issue.
i drive a mac 10.3.9 refurb G5 w 1.8Ghs and 1.25 GB DDR SDRAM.
when i turn it on, here lately, it won't make it all the way to the desktop before going all snowy screened, (like old tv sets when there wasn't a channel) and it locks up-can't do anthing but turn it off anyway. I have tried for hours upon hours just so i can check email, get on du, check my back bal, etc.
i have also been told that trying to fix this one would be like throwing good money after bad.
also, another tech at another school told me to multiply the number of years old my computer is by 12, so i'm driving a 70 year old computer! ha!
I can't afford another mac at the moment and my apple care support plan expired but for 'only' 50 bucks or so they would be happy to connect me to someone who can listen to my problem.
jeez louise
anyway, if you have any idea what the problem might be and or if you have other questions please write back and i'll try to respond
thanks
tiddly

ps what is 'boot from disc' ?

[struggle4progress]

1. Your computer came with an OS X disk. Stick in the optical drive and reboot.

If you've lost the disk, Apple will sell you a replacement: it will be specific to the machine you have

Have you tried this?
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1417

[tiddlywinks]

2. thank you struggle4progress

i was able to go to your link and i bookmarked the page; i will also send the link to myslef in an email and show it to the tech person
however me trying to follow those direction is like trying to read chinese, regretably

my computer has worked for the last 24 hours ... i haven't shut it down and i leave itunes playing when i walk away so i don't have to start it back up lol

but, upon startup, i will invaribly get a message across the screen that sez; you need to restart your computer now. and it's in several languages and that's pretty much it can't do anything but shutdown and try to restart if i haven't given up...

i forgot to mention.... also...when it spazzes out and the screen goes snowy, it will also start making a very loud whirring noise like it's not well and i better shut it down... reminds me of the time i was driving a 80or so model honda prelude with a moonroof and the accelerator got stuck and the motor just went nuts i paniked put it in neutral and ran out before it threw pistons or something and green antifreeze went sailing into the air

hmmm

[struggle4progress]

3. Hmmm. Loud noise. It's probably either a fan or your hard drive.

Weird behavior is possible if the machine overheats, but I'd worry first about the hard drive dying -- because (A) you're having the problem at startup and (B) if the drive dies, you're about to lose everything on it -- and it could cost hundreds of dollars to recover everything, if you haven't been backing up onto an eternal disk using (say) Time Machine

Here's what I would do in your position -- and I would do it, like, immediately because things probably are only going to get worse

(1) If you haven't been backing up regularly, get a USB flash drive (say) and copy your absolutely most important files over immediately

(2) If you haven't been backing up regularly, get an external hard-drive and copy the other files you want to it, either manually or by running TM

(3) Buy a new hard drive and search the apple site for the hard-drive replacement instructions for your model. Here's an example for the late 2004 model: manuals.info.apple.com/en/PMG5_HD_DIY.pdf

(4) Replace the harddrive and reinstall OS X. If you got a successful Time Machine backup, you should be able to restore everything onto the new drive. Otherwise, you're be re-installing a lot of programs by hand

If you want, you can use Disk Utility to check the SMART status of the drive after booting from the OS X install disk: if it tells you anything other than that it has successfully verified SMART status, you'll be pretty sure the disk is in trouble; but there can be disk problems that the SMART status verification misses

WARNING: I am a complete amateur at this. I pay attention to my own machine, and I'm telling you how I would react if I had your problem, as you've described it. When you talk to your tech person, try to be sure to tell that person everything you know about the problem (like the loud noise!) -- it really will help

[NoQuarter]

4. Uh, 10.3.9 =

no Time Machine.

10.3.x is Panther and was a loooong time ago. it was the last time I ever saw a kernel panic. (the dire warnings in several languages.)

[struggle4progress]

6. Oops. Thanks.

:blush:

[NoQuarter]

5. Your G5 can run Leopard,

the current flavor of OS X (10.5.x - currently, x=7)

When you get your hard drive's possible demise sorted out, install Leopard. Time Machine is sooo worth it. Automatic backups that you don't have to think about. It has literally saved my hide several times.

[tiddlywinks]

7. thank you all:

since i can't really respond intelligently to these comments i'm printing out this thread and taking it to my best friend and hopefully he can help me interpret! :argh: