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I am using Mac Power Book G4. I think the OS is the most ...

Sent to Computer Experts May 4 2006 at 10:35 AM
   

I am using Mac Power Book G4. I think the OS is the most recent. I have two problems. First, it will start up but the screen is gray, there is the apple icon present and the circling ball that goes on forever. In short it will not go beyond this. It seems stuck. Second, I have tried to start up from the original install disk and from Norton. Same results. Here too the disks will not reject.

The only way I can get it to eject the disk is to press Option + Command + O + F and pwer. Then I type in eject cd. It will not start when I type in "mac-boot".

Can you help?

Thank you.

Dale Albers

 

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Already Tried:
mouse + pwer. ap Pram, rebuild desk top

Customer (name blocked for privacy)
Status:  Closed   Value: $25
Answer
May 4 2006 at 1:21 PM (2 hours and 46 minutes and 28 seconds later)
         
REPLIEDCheck Mark
• You may have an incompatible third-party startup item. Do the following to temporarily disable startup items and then see if your computer starts up normally:

1. Shut down your computer.
2. Press the power button and immediately press and hold the Shift key to start up in Safe Mode.
3. When you see the "Safe Boot" screen, let go of the Shift key.
4. When your computer finishes starting up, drag any third-party items out of the /Library/StartupItems and /System/Library/StartupItems folders.
5. Restart your computer to see if it starts up normally.

• An incompatible login item could cause this symptom. Do the following to remove them and then see if your computer starts up normally:

1. Shut down your computer.
2. Press the power button and immediately press and hold the Shift key to start up in Safe Mode.
3. When you see the "Safe Boot" screen, let go of the Shift key.
4. When your computer finishes starting up, choose System Preferences from the Apple menu.
5. Click Accounts, then click the Login Items tab.
6. Select all the login items and remove them by clicking the minus (-) button.
7. Restart your computer to see if it starts up normally.

• If you have an Ethernet cable connected to your computer, temporarily disconnect it, then restart your computer to see if it starts up normally.
• Try resetting a couple preference files by doing the following:

1. Shut down your computer.
2. Press the power button and immediately press and hold the Command and S keys to start up in Single-User mode.
3. When you see white text appear on the screen, let go of the keys.
4. At the prompt, type mount -uw /
5. Press Return.
6. Then type mv /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist preferences2.old
7. Press Return.
8. Type mv /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist preferences3.old
9. Press Return.
10. Type reboot
11. Press Return. Your Mac should start up normally.

Hope this helps
Reply
May 4 2006 at 6:12 PM (4 hours and 50 minutes and 52 seconds later)
         
Reply to Stephen's Post: Unfortunately your suggestions did not work. As I red your post, you have three suggestions. Right?

No 1 re third party items didn't work. I could not get beyond the gray screen and fuzy ball circling.
No 2. Same result as No 1.

No. 3 Use of Command and S.At prompt followed your instruction and nothing happned. Here I get a prompt that says something like local host. It is possible that I entered mount -uw / incorrectly. Is the foregoing correct? Maybe the spaces are a problem. Also I get the apple logo about half the time when I follow this procedure.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

Dale
Customer (name blocked for privacy)
Answer
May 4 2006 at 9:10 PM (2 hours and 58 minutes and 18 seconds later)
         
REPLIEDCheck Mark
There were actually 4 suggestions - they were kind of grouped weird though.

Quote:


• If you have an Ethernet cable connected to your computer, temporarily disconnect it, then restart your computer to see if it starts up normally.


Beyond this -- I would imagine it is a hardware problem. Was there any RAM recently installed? or any other changes to the physical system.

If not, it is possible that some of your parts have gone bad and will need to be replaced. Do you have a local apple store, or an authorized mac repair shop near you?

Hope this helps.
Reply
May 5 2006 at 3:56 AM (6 hours and 45 minutes and 55 seconds later)
         
Reply to Stephen's Post: No ethernet cable.
Maybe this will help. Just before it "stumbled and quit" I had been downloading several updates. I think there were five in all. I did not use disk utility after downloading although some have suggested that this should be done routinely after downloading. Might this be a factor? Any other suggestions? The computer as purchased about a year ago and has been used less then ten hours total.

Wait to hear from you.

With thanks.



Dale Albers
Customer (name blocked for privacy)
Answer
May 5 2006 at 6:53 AM (2 hours and 57 minutes and 6 seconds later)
         
ACCEPTEDCheck Mark
IF you were downloading a system update and it crashed while installing it, then yes, that would cause this.

The problem I have with this solution is that putting the OS disk in should solve that problem, since it will load a good OS from the CD instead of your Hard Drive, above you said you tried that and it did not work. However, I just scrolled up and looked at what you wrote, and I want you to try again with the CD. This time when you boot the machine hold the "C" key down to force the system to boot from the CD. It is possible that the last time, it never tried to boot from the CD.

One other thing - have you zapped the PRAM? This will sometimes fix these types of problems as well. While booting hold down ctrl-option-p-r.

Hope this helps.
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