My friend have a problem with his Mac?

Mac G4 will not boot up. Gray screen only?

• This story is getting longer every day. On power up, my Mac G4 Power PC will freeze on the gray screen with only a spinning wheel and a 'forbidden' symbol. I've zapped the PRAM many times. I took it to my friend who has the OS X Leopard install disc. I put the disk in and it started up normally with no glitches. I took the tower back home, connected the Mac keyboard, monitor and a Lacie external drive. The startup problem came back. My previously-mentioned friend loaned me the install disc (the original one for this computer) which I took home and put in. This time, I only connected the keyboard/mouse and a PC monitor. The problem still persists. I can't even get the computer to boot up from the install disc. I hold down the C key and nothing. I start up holding down the option key and the HD and CD both show up on the screen. When I click on the CD icon, it goes back to the same problem. A gray screen with a spinning wheel and a 'forbidden' symbol. I tried pushing the PMU button near the PRAM battery. No luck.

• Answer:

  your computer probably has a hardware problem. it may be in the processor or the hard drive. However, because paying to fix a computer costs a lot, and u have a very old computer, you would be better off buying a new one and having someone at the apple store assist you to get all of your files off of your old hard drive.