Finder/? screen on load

[buckuxc]

So...my iBook (G4) freaked and froze a little while ago. I tried force quitting, I tried a few things, and eventually tried putting it to sleep. That worked, but when I woke it back up, a bezel came up saying that I needed to restart the computer. So I just pressed the power button and shut down. Upon starting back up, 30 seconds later, the booting process stopped at a blue-ish screen with a OS Classic style folder in the middle with an icon alternating between the Finder and question mark.

Can someone explain to me what is going on and what I need to do now?

 

[eva01]

it can't find OS X. Boot from disc repair disk check smart status zap PRAM etc. etc. if that doesn't work reinstall, if that doesn't work, dead HDD

 

[buckuxc]

seriously...

I went through all of this a little less than two months ago, though instead of this icon screen, all I got was a gray screen. I sent the computer to Apple three times, the third finally getting a new hard drive. What gives?