Ward One step forward, two steps back. I used the reset button you told me about, and at the next startup I had a startup chime (which I didn't have before). I was able to get it to come up as far as the apple logo, then it stopped. This is with the Hardware CD. The next couple of restars brought up the flashing question mark again. I restarted again with the option key held down, and got the icon for the hard drive. Exciting, right. Almost. I hit the arrow button and nothing happened, except the (much loved) hard drive icon went away. Now when I try to restart, I get nothing. It will not respond at all.
Also worth noting, we are doing all this work with just a battery. When we plugged it into the adapter earlier, it made a 'scary' noise, so we are trying to avoid plugging it in. Also a little bit ago when I restarted it made some noises, hard to describe, but something like a steam engine letting off steam. This was before the 'progress' I wrote about in the last paragraph. Thank you for you input so far. I am calling it a night, but will plan on attacking this again tomorrow. Or bringing it to you, if I have don't as much as a can. This has been a good learning experience for me, although I wish I could learn on someone else's computer:) Diane | The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will | be November 25. The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>. | This list's page is <http://erdos.math.louisville.edu/macgroup>.
