Computer won't start up after changing permissions.

I accidentally changed the permissions for all of the files on my hard drive. Now, Leopard won't start up. And to top it all off I conveniently can not find my Leopard disk. I did, however, locate my Tiger disk but the computer won't start from the CD drive either.
I also thought that I could install Tiger on an external Hard Drive using my sisters computer but Tiger would not install on the USB Hard Drive because it said Mac OS X could not start from the external hard drive.
It won't start up in "Safe Mode (holding the SHIFT key)".
Anybody have any suggestions?

You can, in addition to Barry's excellent suggestions, reset the SMU.

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My computer won't start up after i tried to install updates

last night my computer told me there were 5 new updates available and i tried to install them, and my computer froze so i manually turned it off. now my computer won't start up. i get to the gray screen with the apple and the circular icon that swirls around which makes you think it's doing something but nothing happens. in the hopes that my computer was loading the updates, i let it run all night, and 8 hours later it was still doing the same thing. now my computer won't start at all, and i know there's power to it.
HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

chiae:
am i looking for the Leopard installer or the disc that came with my Powerbook all those years ago?
You are looking for the installer disk for the system which is currently installed on your computer, which is Leopard according to your profile.
Will doing these steps erase my hard drive?
No. Running Repair Disk will not in any way affect your data or any contents of your HDD. However, if there are serious directory issues your data might be jeopardized even without running Repair Disk.
Your question suggests that you may not have an up-to-date backup, if any backup at all. That is one of the most dangerous things you can do. I suggest that you take steps to secure your data even before you do much more. If you need ideas on how best to accomplish this, please post back and ask.
While you are waiting to locate your install disk, here is something you can do right now, and it will not in any way endanger the contents of your HDD:
• Shut down the computer.
• Locate the following keys: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously later.
• Turn on the computer.
• Press and hold the Command + Option + P + R keys immediately after the startup chime.
• Hold keys down until you hear the startup chime for the third time.
• Release the keys and immediately hold down Shift key to start up in Safe Mode.
• Log in and empty Trash.
• Restart normally and log in.
Please do post back with an update or with further questions or comments.
Good luck.
cornelius

Computer won't start up after power outage....

We just had a power outage when our computer was on and now that our power is back, the computer won't start up. (I'm typing this on our power book!) I hold in the button on the back, get the "bong" and then the computer whirs for a while with a black screen and then just dies. What to do??

You can, in addition to Barry's excellent suggestions, reset the SMU.

Computer won't start up after 10.4.9 upgrade!

Hello,
I performed the upgrade to 10.4.9 on my Mac book pro, and during the installation of the upgrade the screen became blue and the computer froze. It won't start up again (I get the screen with the apple logo and the whhel just keeps turning and turning....)
Any ideas?
(I'm travelling and far from an Apple Centre)
Thank you
G.

Hello gborsel.
Problems arising right after installing a system update are usually the result of some filesystem corruption that should have been fixed first, or not having installed the update properly (e.g. applications running while installing it), or having ignored Apple’s “Important: Please read before installing” warnings, etc.
Verify/repair the startup disk (not just permissions), as described here:
The Repair functions of Disk Utility: what's it all about?
After having fixed all filesystem issues, if any, reinstall the update using the combo installer:
About the Mac OS X 10.4.9 Combo Update
Mac OS X 10.4.9 Combo Update for PowerPC
Mac OS X 10.4.9 Combo Update for Intel
After installing the update, the computer may restart twice and the first restart may take several minutes. This is normal.
If you cannot do this by normal means, but have an external HD with Mac OS X 10.4 installed from which to boot your Mac, or have access to another Mac with Mac OS X 10.4 installed and with a FireWire port to which connect your Mac in Target Disk Mode, you may be able to fix the problem by starting up that way, verifying/repairing the disk, then reinstalling the combo update (on the disk that doesn’t boot, not on the disk from which you’re booting to do this).
If the problem persists, you’ll have to consider doing an Archive and Install, but make sure first that all the filesystem issues, if any, have been fixed, that you have enough space available on disk, and that all your data has been backed up (which again you can do connecting your Mac in Target Disk Mode to another Mac if you cannot do it by other means).
Take a look at the following articles for guidelines on how to properly install system updates:
Troubleshooting installation and software updates
Installing software updates

Computer won't start up after 10.5.1 update

My leopard updates were a little rocky, but I got everything working eventually. However, after installing the 10.5.1 update yesterday, my computer no longer starts up properly. It hangs up for a VERY long time on the initial screen with the gray apple and little spinning symbol. Sometimes it eventually continues on to the logon screen, other times I get sick of waiting (literally 10 minutes) and do a hard reset. This only became a problem after the 10.5.1 update, and has been a problem every start up since then. I'm considering trying to roll back to 10.5.0 using my Time Machine backups, but thought I would check here first to see whether anyone has had similar problems (or even better, anyone has ideas about what's causing this and how to fix it). This is on my PowerMac G5 Dual 2ghz.
Thanks.

Zapping Pram didn't help, but probably wasn't a bad thing to do anyway. Another solution I've seen on another post is to start up while holding shift. This also didn't help. I have no external drives turned on, but I do have an 2nd internal drive. I've found a VERY STRANGE way to get it started: if I immediately open the CD/DVD tray while booting up, put the Leopard install disc in (probably any disc would work), and then wait till the computer gets stuck at the gray apple screen before closing the disc tray, it seems to continue starting up fine after closing the tray. Just having the disc in the drive doesn't help unless the tray is open.

Computer won't start properly after Leopard installation attempt

Yesterday I tried to install Leopard 10.5.6 on my G5 (currently running Tiger 10.4.11) and ran into a ton of problems. First, a message came up preventing me from upgrading without erasing my hard drive. I decided to quit the installer and back up my drive before erasing it, but after trying to start up again on my main disk, the computer will no longer get past the Apple logo screen. It stays that way for several minutes, and the computer revs and revs until it's at max RPM, then the computer just shuts off. I can't access my data to back it up.
I did some internet research and tried started up from the install DVD again (which still works) and tried to repair my disk using Disk Utility. This didn't work and an error message came up: "Attempted to Repair Disk, attempt failed. Invalid Node Structure, Volume Check Failed. Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit."
If anyone has any advice I would be VERY grateful, I am hoping to not have to have the computer repaired as I already have my other Mac out of service as well and the cost of repair has been high. I need to back up some important files before I update to Leopard, is there any way to do this while starting up from the DVD since my Startup disk doesn't work now? What happened??!!!

Is it possible that the piece stuck in the audio jack has resulted in turning off the internal speakers?
I would say that the Leopard installation is not 100%. Sometimes this happens. Or you may have a piece of software installed that mutes the speakers, and it needs to disable that. If it's not the latter, then I would erase the hard drive and reinstall from scratch. If that's not feasible then you can do the following:
How to Perform an Archive and Install
An Archive and Install will NOT erase your hard drive, but you must have sufficient free space for a second OS X installation which could be from 3-9 GBs depending upon the version of OS X and selected installation options. The free space requirement is over and above normal free space requirements which should be at least 6-10 GBs. Read all the linked references carefully before proceeding.
1. Be sure to use Disk Utility first to repair the disk before performing the Archive and Install.
Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported, then quit DU and return to the installer.
2. Do not proceed with an Archive and Install if DU reports errors it cannot fix. In that case use Disk Warrior and/or TechTool Pro to repair the hard drive. If neither can repair the drive, then you will have to erase the drive and reinstall from scratch.
3. Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When you reach the screen to select a destination drive click once on the destination drive then click on the Option button. Select the Archive and Install option. You have an option to preserve users and network preferences. Only select this option if you are sure you have no corrupted files in your user accounts. Otherwise leave this option unchecked. Click on the OK button and continue with the OS X Installation.
4. Upon completion of the Archive and Install you will have a Previous System Folder in the root directory. You should retain the PSF until you are sure you do not need to manually transfer any items from the PSF to your newly installed system.
5. After moving any items you want to keep from the PSF you should delete it. You can back it up if you prefer, but you must delete it from the hard drive.
6. You can now download a Combo Updater directly from Apple's download site to update your new system to the desired version as well as install any security or other updates. You can also do this using Software Update.

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I upgraded to latest version of mountain lion yesterday, this morning my power Mac was running extremely slowly (while typing, had to wait a second or two for words to appear), I shut down to see if problem would clear up. When starting up, screen went black with programming jargon, something about debugging with the word panic in parentheses. Screen then goes back to gray, says Mac encountered a problem and has to restart once I push a key. Apple logo comes on gray screen, icon keeps circling and nothing happens. This has happened three times in a row after shutting down and trying to restart. Any thoughts?

When verifying disk, said could not repair disk, back up as many files as possible then re format disk. Computer now doing Internet recovery. Should I. Do the following in this order
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Computer won't start up after installing iLife '09

My MacBook Pro is now stuck in a bricked mode after installing iLife '09.
Install:
1. The install went perfectly unlike some of the posts I have read.
2. The installer asked me to register and I chose "later".
3. The installer asked to restart to complete the process and I accepted.
4. Then it restarted my machine and the progress spinner just sits there for five minutes...then the computer just shuts off cold.
Fix Attempts:
1. Tried restarting manually many times, but it keeps shutting itself off after five minutes of spinning.
2. Tried zapping my P-Ram by restarting and holding down commandoption+pr a few times, but that didn't help.
3. Restarted while holding down option to boot Windows XP. Windows booted successfully and then I restarted back in Mac mode, but that didn't help.
4. I ejected the iLife '09 disc and unplugged the power chord and USB iPhone charger, just in case that has anything to do with the ghost in the machine, but that didn't help either.
I'm left trying to decide what to do. Going to the Genius bar does not appeal to me for various reasons.
Any one else out there experience this problem and get things running again??
~adam
Message was edited by: adam_glazier

Since I don't have the original install discs that came with my computer, I tried these things:
1. Tried booting in Safe Mode by holding down the shift key at start up, but does not help.
2. Booted in Single-User Mode by holding down command+s at start up. Then I get the fsck diagnostic by typing in "/sbin/fsck -fy".
Did that three times and get the same response:
/dev/rdisk0s2
Root file system
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow.
Checking Catalog file.
disk0s2: I/O error.
Invalid key length
(4, 25236)
Volume check failed.
/dev/rdisk0s2 (hfs) EXITED WITH SIGNAL 8
:/ root#
Then I ran the command "df -hl" to see what the drive space looks like. Looks good enough:
Filesystem root_device
Size 80Gi
Used 68Gi
Avail 12Gi
Capacity 86%
Mounted on /
Any ideas if this helps??

Computer won't start-up after installing Intel update :( :( :(

I have no idea what's wrong, but I had an Intel update installed and when I rebooted my machine it wouldn't get past the Apple logo (and hasn't each of the 10+ times I've tried). In fact, when I leave it on the Apple logo at start-up, it attempts a full reboot after about 10 minutes, then proceeds to get stuck in the exact same place. What is going on?!?

mrmilian wrote:
I am having the exact same problem - installed the update last night and now I can't get past the grey startup screen. I have tried rebooting from the cd, used disk utility to repair the disc, etc as suggested. I have also booted into single user mode and repaired through there using /sbin/fsck -fy. None of these has done anything...
When repairing I get the message "checking catalog file > incorrect block count for file pcscd.pub > should be 16 instead of 17". this was repaired when booting from the cd and then repaired again in single user mode... Trying to exit from single user mode has caused a whole string of errors "couldnt read user-sspecified computer name/ local hostname/ config daemon no longer available/ etc" mDNSResponder(40...70..120 and still going...]
My computer was working absolutely fine until I installed this update and now I'm completely stuck. ANy help MUCH apprecaited.
Again, you will get better help if you start a new thread. Unlike the OP, you can get into single-user mode. Also unlike the OP, you are running Leopard rather than Tiger. I'd suggest posting your own thread in the Leopard forums.
Very quickly, though, you should rerun fsck/Disk Utility repair until you get a message saying that "The volume <whatever> appears to be OK". If you cannot repair that way, you have to choose between trying a third-party application like DiskWarrior and reinstalling the OS.
- cfr

Computer won't start up after entering my password

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Do a backup. Boot to the Recovery Volume (command - R on a restart or hold down the option key during a restart and select Recovery Volume). Run Disk Utility Verify/Repair and Repair Permissions until you get no errors. Then try to re-install the OS.
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Startup your Mac while holding down the Option key.
That should launch the Startup Manager window where you can select the startup disk then click Restart.
If that doesn't work, try a Safe Mode boot.
Startup your Mac in Safe Mode
A Safe Mode boot takes much longer than a normal boot so be patient.
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Computer won't start after power outage

After a circuit breaker was shut off the computer won't start. I cleaned out the computer and got the light to go green by putting a hair dryer to it.
When I push start button and hold it up to 10 seconds it will not start.
The computer is a compaq presario sr5130nx

Typically what happens during a power outage is not good. It can do strange things. If it took using a hair dryer to get the green light on the back to come on, that is a bad sign. HERE is a troubleshooting guide for power supplies. Start with that.
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This is a user supported forum. I am a volunteer and I do not work for HP.

HELP PLEASE!!! Computer won't start up

Help Please!
My computer won't start up, when I click the start up button the light comes only once, sounds click (once) and that's it, no power up.
Because of the age, I knew that the battery could be the reason, so I ordered the exact same battery and replaced it today (following the instructions very carefully). Nothing changed. Then I read about the button for resetting the power management (the one below the ram memory), did that too...and nothing.
I read the manual, it talks about recently installed components (which I have not) and explains the meaning of the numbers of blinks the power light makes with this type of failure, 2 blinks=ram memory, 3 blinks...4 blinks..more than 5 blinks= take it to service.
If somebody could please help me, I would really appreciate
All the best,
Veronica

I had similar problems with my G5 2ghz dual PPC. Mine would turn on, sometimes the startup chime would sound, sometimes not. The fans would run and continue to run faster and faster until I shut it off.
The red light comes on by the way, when the internal plastic shield is not installed or seated correctly.
Anyway, I determined after fooling with the machine for several hours that the symptoms pointed to the video card so, on a hunch, I grabbed a hair drier, pulled the video card and warmed up the video card with the drier. Then reinstalled the video card, hooked up the monitor and hit the power button. Bingo, the machine booted normally. BUT, it would intermittently hang or act odd while running so, I ordered a replacement video card. Installed it and the problem never returned. Sadly someone stole the machine last month but it was in perfect working order at the time:(

G4 MDD won't start up after new memory and DVD drive Install

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I'm running 10.4.? and I just installed an extra 512 MB RAM and a Samsung DVD+R in the lower drive slot. I also looked at some other posts/threads and decided to reset the PMU button. -No change after that.
I'm trying to get this computer in working order to pass onto my mom when I visit her next week.
Any suggestions?

I have had some of the same problems that you have experienced. I have a dual 1.25 g PowerMac w/ 2 g of ram, the Superdrive, and 4 separate drives. My main boot drive was a 160 GB WD Caviar. I also had a 160 Maxtor and (2) 120 GB WD caviares (the 120s were raided for video. The 160 WD started giving me some problems so I decided to replace it with a 500 GB WD Caviar Blue. I installed it in the machine and initialized it. I left the jumper on the drive in the cable select position. I tried to backup using Carbon Cloner and kept getting and error on one file. I re-initialed the drive to make sure it was wiped clean. I then started to back up the old drive file by file. I kept getting messages saying the drive was full. THat wasn't true as there wasn't anything on it. After several attempts to move files, I decided to put the machine back together without the new drive.
Now the real fun begins. I had trouble with the machine booting. I zapped the PRAM and did everything I could think of to get it to boot. It wouldn't so I figured it was something I did. I let the machine sit for a day or two to give me some time to calm down. I read some articles in this support section as well as some articles on several sites I could find. The machine would not only not boot but it would not even beep. I opened the machine up and tried to clean out some of the dust in it. hen I removed the battery and let it sit for a few hours. Then I held the PMMU button on the motherboard in for a long 5 seconds. I put the battery back and waited an hour or so. I tried to start the machine and got nothing. It doesn't beep but the monitor lights up as it thinks the machine is on. I've all but given up on the machine.
Now I know this is long but I have another problem. I took out the 160 GB WD boot drive and used one of the external devices called an Ultradock v4 to connect the drive to my G4 Powerbook. I used Carbon Copy Cloner to back my 160 WD boot Drive to an external 750 gb Maxtor drive that is partitioned into 3 drives. I backed up the 160 WD Boot drive to it. I didn't pay attention to how much space was used on one of the partitions. I then backed up the Maxtor to the 500 gb WD Caviar Blue. The original WD 160 gb drive took up about 197 gb on the Maxtor which in turn took about the same space on the new WD 500 gb Caviar blue. I am at a loss as to why more space is taken up by backing up from a 160 gb drive to a roughly 225 gb partition when it was less than 160 used originally.
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Help, computer won't start up

Help, my computer won't start-up now. I downloaded one of those free .swf converter softwares from the net and now I think in the restart process, which should've completed the download like it said, instead it's like I don't have any OS on my computer anymore. And if that doesn't make things worse I was trying to reinstall OS X and it wants to go the net to do that but when i try to it asked my to login to the apple store with the ID i purshased it with and I didn't buy it I downloaded it from a P2P site, so of course the apple store tells me when i login to login with the ID I bought it with so now what, I don't want to lose my file's what should I do anybody got any suggestion. This is what I tried so far.
When it starts up I see the OS X Utilities window
I clicked the the Disk Utility, and clicked my HD and clicked repair.
When it was done it said
The volume appears to be ok.
Volume repair complete.
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Still when I start up I don't see my hard drive just the OS X Utilities window.
Also when I downloaded the OS X 10.8.5 I saved it on an external but its plugged to my only computer and thats the one I'm having the trouble with, sorry about all the miss spelled words if you can read this and help please do...

Try booting from your system CD, run Disk First Aid from your Disk Utility and repair your permissions.
-Bmer
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Computer won't start up after changing permissions.

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