After OS Upgrade, Computer will No Longer Boot from Disc, Enter T-Disc Mode

Question

I purchased the Leopard update about a week ago and proceeded to install it (upgrade option) on my MacBook Pro previously running Tiger. After this update, I no longer seem to be able to boot from a disc(c on startup), enter target disc mode(t on startup), enter single user mode(command s on startup), basically anything that requires hitting a key on boot. In short, the operating system seems to override any of those commands and just loads regardless of what I press.
How can I fix this?? I fear that if my mac suddenly dies, I won't be able to fix it with archive and install via the CD, since I can't boot from it. I also won't be able to recover my files with target disc mode or anything.
For more in-depth details:
-My hard drive does have an open firmware password- it was recommended as part of the undercover anti-theft program that I use. Although I can tell putting the password on was a mistake, since I've read that single user mode is no longer accessible with this password active. I don't think this is affecting my inability to boot from disc or target disc mode though, as I was always able to do this with Tiger, even with the firmware password active.
-I have tried booting from other discs, like my old tiger OS disc that came with the laptop- that fails too.
-My Leopard installation was not clean. Like many others, I used the upgrade option and it appeared to work ok- until restart, where I was faced with the blue screen. Since I was unable to boot to single user mode and try removing potential APE files, I let the computer sit for an hour on the blue screen until it finally loaded. Upon getting in, I found that I did not even have APE's installed. I proceeded to reinstall the operating system via an Archive & Install. Upon boot after this reinstall, I still received a blue screen that lasted a long time, and the OS loaded very slow. It did this for a few additional boots afterwards, and has appeared to smooth itself out now, a week later. The OS now loads fine and works alright (from what I can see), but I still can not boot from disc or anything else.
If anyone at all knows a solution for this, it would be much appreciated. I wanted to suspect something like the disc drive going bad, but being that things like the target-disc mode aren't working either- I'm hesitant to believe its just the disc drive. Being that it also happened just as I upgraded to Leopard and faced issues, I have more of a hunch that its something to do with Leopard.
I apologize if this has been answered before, but I've looked all over the site, google, everywhere I could think of and came up with no answer.
Thanks ~Brian

Answer 1

Hi, I have been having the exact same problem with a late 2011 MBP 15 inch. I replaced the hard drive with a samsung SSD 1.5 years ago, along with a samsung SSD in the optical drive. It worked great until the Yosemite upgrade. The MBP seemed to work reasonably well for a few days after the upgrade, but then it started stalling on various programs (spinning beach ball on Mail, Safari, etc). Start-ups were also longer and had a loading bar each time, which was new since the upgrade. I left the MBP to sleep last night and when opening it, it crashed and tried to restart. On restart it loads to the login screen, then after I enter the password it partially loads (based on the loading bar), then shuts off. I removed the SSD and plugged it in with a USG, but that didn't change anything. Here is a picture after using CMD-V before it shuts off.