Can I upgrade from osx 10.3 to 10.4 on this laptop

According to Mactracker you should be able to go all the way to 10.5. I suspect the problem is in your software. Is the install disk the black retail version or the grey machine specific version? If it is the grey are you certain its for your computer? There will be a part number on the disk and you can then google that number and find out what computer its for. There are a great many iMac disk being sold on ebay and as usual its buyer beware. After you confirm you have the correct disk and you still have problems please get back to us. Good luck. Ralph