Powerbook G4 Start up issues

Ever since I downloaded the newest version of itunes my laptop has been running slow. I don't think that has anying to do with the problem but thats when it started. I'm still running OS X 10.3. Last night I installed the new secruity update. The computer froze at 51% during the hard drive optimization. I let it set for a while and never went any further. I then restarted my laptop. Now all it does is start up to the gray apple screen and it never does anything else.

Things I've tried:

Ressetting my PRAM. The computer restarted but wet back to the same screen.

I'm using disk utility currently. I'll see what happens. Does anybody have an idea whats going on?

Thanks in advance!

 

Just Verified the disk, it did its thing and came back with this:
1 volume checked HFS volume verified

EDIT: Ran disk repair, it came back repaired. It went back to the gray start up screen again.

 

My first suggestion is to try fsck
Hold command and control when you start the machine.
You should get a command prompt.
Type: /sbin/fsck -fy
hit enter.
You'll either see a message saying that the volume is OK, or that the volume has been repaired. Repeat the /sbin/fsck -fy command until you get the volume is OK message.
Type: reboot
hit enter.

Alternatively try apples startup issues fixes

 

thanks system!

EDIT: fsck seems like a last restort and it should be done by someone who knows what they are doing. Or is it pretty easy?

 

It's very easy. You don't have to do anything aside from the steps I listed(you can also find/print them from the apple site I linked). If anything other than "volume has been repaired" or "volume is OK" comes up, post back here.

 

The comand prompt never comes up. I've tried it three times, same gray screen.