G4 hung at boot - what updates were recently installed?

Question

I am an experienced PC user working on a friend's iMac G4 800mhz. A few days ago, she installed two or three Apple updates. Now her iMac G4 hangs at the boot screen with the Apple and the rotating "gear".
I have indeed searched the discussion forums beforehand. I have found what I think will be the solution to the problem; *reinstalling the updates from a mounted USB disk using terminal*. My problem is that I do not know exactly what updates she recently installed and she doesn't know either. Is there anywhere on the hard disk that I can find a dated list of her updates or anything that will allow me to know what updates I need to reinstall?
Lastly, where on earth do I find and download these updates?
I would appreciate any advice. Thanks.

Answer 1

Glynn provides good advice but also try starting in Safe Mode and see if that helps - it's easier if it does.
[Mac OS X: Starting up in Safe Mode|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107393]
[What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode? (Mac OS X)|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107392]
[Safe Boot takes longer than normal startup|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107394]
[Mac OS X 10.4, 10.5- Computer shuts down during Safe Boot|http://support.apple.com/kb/TA24054]
If it doesn't start up normally after a safe boot I would then try starting with the installer disc (a bit easier for most than a bunch of typing commands, and the fsk thing doesn't repair permissions which has to be done from a full boot).
Boot from the installer disk, select language if applicable, choose utilities, run Disk Utility and verify (and repair if necessary) the drive. You can verify a drive from DU on your main drive while booted but I have found this can result in incorrect reporting of errors. To repair your drive you have to run it from a drive other than the boot drive anyway.
Next, boot from your drive in [Safe Mode|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107393] and repair permissions. You can repair permissions while booted from the installer disc but this uses the permissions configuration on the installer disc which may be out of date if you have run any updates on your computer. Booting your computer to Safe Mode restricts the number of things running on your computer while permissions are being run and does a bit of spring cleaning at the same time.
[Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214]
[Using Disk Utility in Mac OS X 10.4.3 or later|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302672]
[Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25751]
From BDaqua (couldn't have said it better):
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc that came with your computer (Edit: Do not use this disc if it is not the same general version as what you have currently on your computer, e.g. use a Tiger disc for a Tiger drive, not a Panther disc), then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
5. Select your Mac OS X volume.
6. Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk.
Then Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it completes."
If no installer disc, then try the command line repair method.
If you don't have an installer disc available you can try effecting repairs using [fsk in Single User Mode|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214].
[Post by japamac about using fsk|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1649143&tstart=0]
Message was edited by: Limnos