10.4.9 Server Starts in Verbose Mode

Question

When I restart my G4 Server, it looks like it is starting like normal, shows the blue startup screen and says Mac Server is starting up, but when the bar reaches the end, it briefly goes to an all blue screen and then moves to a black screen with white text(verbose mode I think).
After searching the forums, I tried forcing the mac os x startup by holding command and x during startup, but nothing changes. I have also tried entering:
sudo nvram boot-args=""
to boot up normally, but still no change. I have tried repairing the disk in disk utility, booting from an external hard drive, but still boots in verbose mode.
Any help would be great.
1.6GHz G5 iMac   Mac OS X (10.4.10)  

Answer 1

Hi Dan-Cherokee:
What happens if you boot from the installer disk?
In the meantime try resetting the PRAM (ParameterRAM). Restart the server and hold down the command, alt, P and R keys at the same time. You should hear the start-up chime, keep them depressed until you hear the chime again, keep them depressed for a further start-up chime, now release the keys and immediately hold down the shift key. You will have to keep this depressed for some time as you are now booting in safe mode/boot. Eventually you will see the log in window with Safe Mode/Boot (in red) displayed, release the shift key and log in as normal, wait a few seconds and click on the trash icon, you should see a folder that has a long number for its name or possibly be called recovered items, delete this folder and reboot as normal. Safe Mode does a thorough check of your drive and directory as well as flushing system caches (this is what gets dumped into the trash).
Hope this helps – Tony