Blue screen at startup---have tried EVERYTHING!!! Any ideas???

Question

Hi there, I've got a really frustrating problem concering my husband's iBook G4. One day he got home from work, tried to start up, and got only a blue screen (no cursor.) (This is shortly after updating to 10.4.11, incidentally...coincidence?) We went to the forums, and tried numerous fixes, including:
Booting from install and running disk repair (none needed)
Booting in target disk mode with my mac and removing the login.plist file
Removing all login items from both user accounts in target mode
Attempting a boot (and eventual restore) from the external firewire backup, but it won't get past the blue screen here, either.
It started up in safe mode a couple of times, and even restarted in normal mode once, but then in primary account froze back up after a few minutes. Then it wouldn't even start in safe mode.
Then we did an Archive & Install from the original startup (Panther) but when it got to the login screen, it wouldn't accept either user password (even though the hint indicated we were using the right ones) and then froze. It now won't even boot from this disk, or start up in safe mode.
Everything seems to be intact while perusing it in target disk mode; even ran a hardware test from the Apple Hardware Test disc and that all checked out (no idea if this would have made any difference, but I'm grasping at straws, here!)
I know we did a couple more things suggested in the forums/support pages, but I can't remember what they are at this point...my brain is fried! (Also remember following Apple's instruction's for what to do when you get a blue screen at startup...tried this first thing to no avail.)
Soooooo...any suggestions or ideas? We would greatly appreciate the help!
Thanks so much!
Jennifer

Answer 1

Hi Jennifer,
Ok, so...what's going on today is that Leopard will open to the login screen (sometimes I can log in but generally not), but then the cursor is frozen, as is the keyboard (can't type to login or use shortcuts) and even a usb mouse doesn't work. The only thing I can do is power down with the off button, and upon restarting, if I get past the login, get the message "Computer was restarted after Mac OSX quit unexpectedly" or something like that. (Just restarted from frozen login screen and got blue screen again.)
Wondering if it's Leopard or my wonky install (we started up in target mode, with the install disc in the drive, and opened the installer on my mac, then chose the broken mac hd to install to. Seemed to work, but may this be related to the driver issue you mentioned?) We did it this way (after doing a zero-out erase) because it wouldn't even start up from the install disc itself.
It sounds to me like this method of installing is okay. If you did not have the correct drivers, you could never get as far as you do in Leopard. I am wondering why you install with the disk in your Mac and not in the iBook.
Anyway, have reset the PRAM, still no luck. On the apple page regarding this procedure they mention a power management unit reset for ibooks...would this correspond at all to our problems? Is it something I should try or steer clear of?
Okay. Resetting PRAM was a long shot, but worth trying. I would steer clear of trying to reset PMU. That is related to sleeping, waking and such things and your problems do not seem to be related to that. Also, I have never reset PMU, but from what I recall, it sounded a bit tricky.
Am now attempting to reboot from backup. And yes, when I open Startup Manager, the internal hard drive DOES show up. If that means anything. Have a bootable backup (created with SuperDuper) which also shows up, but when I try to start up with it, I get stuck at blue screen (still.)
As far as the iBook hard drive is concerned, this is a good sign. I am thinking that perhaps the hard drive is okay and the problem is something else.
So, since the iBook originally came with Panther, and Leopard is really yet another unknown to throw into the loop, if I do another erase/install, I'm thinking Panther is the way to go? (Unfortunately we shared a family pack Tiger with a friend, and haven't got a hold of that install disc yet, otherwise I'd try Tiger, since it's what it was running and so is what the backup is, too.)
From what I have seen in the forums, when people are having startup problems, the last resort solution usually works. That is, they take the install disk that came with the machine (Panther in your case), erase and zero out the hard drive and then re-install. That usually seems to do the trick. What they have probably done is either replaced some corrupted piece of software or fixed a directory problem on the disk. In your case, you have already done most of this except not with the Panther disk. So, I think it is worth going through this effort with Panther. If this actually worked, then you could worry about how to update your software to where you want it to be. If it does not work, I would consider this more evidence that there is probably a hardware issue.
If this doesn't work (and would probably have to try in target mode again if the install disc won't open...) should I buy Tech Tool or Disk Warrior or just send it in for repair? I suppose there's a point at which I'll have to admit defeat!
Not sure that I caught this before. You imply that the install disk will not open if it is inserted into the iBook. Is this a problem that showed up when the blue screen business started? When you insert the disk into the iBook and then reboot that computer from the disk (pressing the C key during startup), do you get something on the desktop?
If, when repairing the hard drive with Disk Utility, you had received a message that the disk was not repaired, then a stronger utility would be a reasonable choice. But, that does not seem to be your situation. So, if it were me, I would probably not buy Tech Tool or Disk Warrior at this point. I do think that it is possible that these utilities might be able to do more troubleshooting than you can do with Disk Utility and the Apple hardware CD. Tech Tool in particular has some hardware testing capability. So, if money were no object, you might buy that and see if it can give you more detailed diagnostic information. Of course, these are purely my opinions. I could be totally wrong on any of this.
Oh yeah, I don't know if I mentioned this earlier or not but all the restarts yesterday were accompanied be a brief "whooshing" sound (like a fan) for a second or so, and once I got both that sound and a "boooooop" issuing from the innards. Not sure if this means anything or not, but thought I'd mention it. Maybe the hard drive is melting! (Also I get further along the startup route after it's been turned off for a while.)
This is worth mentioning and I overlooked it in your previous posts. The "booooooop" sound got my attention. When the computer is started up, one of the first things that is done is that there are some hardware tests performed. Apple does use some sounds to indicate certain problems. You can learn a little more at You hear "breaking glass" or "musical beeps" when you turn on your Mac. I don't know if you are hearing one of these sounds or if they are unrelated. But, I think that the "boooooop" sound in particular might be trying to tell you something.
Let me sum up my opinions (which could be dead wrong). I still suspect a hardware problem. However, maybe the hard drive is okay. I think it would be worth using the Panther CD to do another erase and install on the iBook. If you still do not have a working computer, it is probably time to seek professional help. (However, if you get to this point, it is conceivable that you could be having some problems with your RAM chips. If you have worked with RAM chips before, you could try to play games with them: reseating them and removing them one by one- if you have two chips. But, if you have not done this before and are do not have some familiarity with working on hardware of this nature, perhaps you should just leave this alone.)
If you need to seek some professional help, you might be able to try one of these options - If you have AppleCare, you should definitely give them a call. If you live close enough to an Apple store, you could take your computer to the genius bar and see if they can help.
Sorry that you are having such a hassle,
Rich