My 12 inch G4 Apple Powerbook won't fully boot? Any help?

I am in India right now where I’m not really sure they have any experienced authorized Mac techs. When I start my computer (12in G4 powerbook) it starts and then quickly another screen comes that tells me I must restart. Are there some basic troubleshooting I can do on my own, without the hassel of trying to find someone here to fix it. I do not have the install disks and recent backup of users folder was about 2 month ago I think but that data is not here either. What does resetting the PRAM do? Is that a basic step I can safely take without much fear of making things worse. What about booting in safe mode? Please send any advise you might have, thanks. Oh, I am running OS 10.3.9