G4 will not boot past start up screen

My G4 froze (while in Explorer, again). Ran Apple Disk Utility - which failed (1 volume - HD - needs repair). Then ran Disk Warrior to rebuild and optimize the HD - all the reports were ok, lots repaired, etc. Check with Apple Disk Utility again - disk verifies as ok, no problem - BUT - the same problem persists - the machine will not pass the start-up screen (Starting Mac OS X). I am running 10.4.11
Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do next? Or, am I stuck doing a fire wire target disk mode to peel off any essential data followed by a system reinstall. For what it is worth this happens too much with this beast - I`ve had two HDs, replaced the RAM etc.
Anybody have a clue?
Message was edited by: Evan Lloyd

An update - after running the Apple hardware test (disk) it seems as though there is a memory problem detected at startup. This would be in the installed 168 pin DIMM (not the more easily accessible upgrade slot. As memory can cause a variety of problems I will proceed to replace this and see if this fixes the problem. This is not the first time I have had memory problems - although it was previoulsy the SO-DIMM 144 pin card.

Similar Messages

  • MacBook Pro Will Not Boot Past Apple Loading Screen At All.

    I am having a major problem with my MacBook Pro and it just wont boot past the apple loading screen at all
    I have tryed al lot of ways to fix this and it just wont work
    It does not go into safe mode, it does not boot from cd, the PRAM thing wont work, verbose mode or the comand + s mode wont work
    I tryed clean install but it wont boot from dvd, also it will not boot in any other way
    It was working perfectly last night and i just shut it down and it does not work know.
    My friend was also trying to install Lion from his account but the .dmg for it did not open so we quit and that night i used it for my essay and finished and then i turned it off and next day in the morining it don't work
    HELP ME PLEASE

    You can take the drive out of the computer, use a $20 IDE/SATA to USB adpater to another Mac
    You can see if you can read the drive directly to gain access grab files, run Disk Utility and perhaps it can repair it.
    If you can't read the drive then there is DataRescue for a whopping $99 but it will read any deleted (but not scrubbed, encrypted or overwritten) data for recovery. Least that way you can get your files back.
    Once your data is off, Zero Erase the whole thing, install 10.6 on it with the other Mac.
    When installed in the sick mac, the hardware firmware will read the new EFI firmware, load it and you'll have the boot keys back again ON THE SECOND BOOT, it doesn't load on the first.
    https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3172
    https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro?view=documents

  • Help! Macbook Pro crashed? Will not get past start up screen.

    My 2006 Macbook Pro will not even reach the login screen. The grey screen with the apple loads for an unusally long time and then a whiteish grey screen with checkerboard looking graphics appears and I can do nothing but turn it off. Help! Is it done for?

    Can you boot with an installer DVD? If so, then reinstall:
    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, Leopard or Snow Leopard.) 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 click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer. Now restart normally.
    If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
    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.

  • IdeaTab A2109A will not boot past Lenovo Splash screen

    Tablet was charging over night, early in the morning I heard a couple of beeps, and thought it was my phone.  After waking I turned on the Tablet and first saw a green circle with 100%, then after trying the power switch again, it booted to the Lenovo splash screen with the audio and color bar, but will not boot to the operating system.

    I gave up and sent the Tablet into Grapevine, Texas under warranty.

  • B/W G3 will not boot past the startup screen

    It boots all the way through to the last step - "Login Window Startup". It will not boot in Safe Mode, PRAM reset, etc. No Joy. It has sat and spun the colored wheel of death for hours.
    Any suggestions?

    Boot from the Install CD by holding down the C key at startup. Do not install or even choose a language. Choose Disk Utility from the Installer Menu. Select your Hard drive and click "Repair". If anything is fixed, rerun again until it has no errors. Then run "Repair Permissions" once. Its many messages can generally be ignored.
    If it will not chime a second or third or fourth time in response to the
    Command Option p r
    keys held down at startup, anecdote says that the PRAM battery is likely to be dead.

  • My macbook will not boot past apple loading screen

    Yesterday i turned my computer off before going to class, when i got back i was not able to get past the loading screen. I havent had any problems at all, many people have been saying that their macs start freezing then they have to manually shut down the computer. This usually means the hard drive is bad. but i have not had any of these problems. I am also not able to boot into safe mode. When i go into disk utility my hard drive shows up but is in grey, when i try to repair it it shows that its working but stays in the same spot for hours, i finally shut the computer down after 5 hours of it loading in the same spot. I have tried all of the commands suggested on the forums but have had no luck. I am also running lion but since their is no cd for lion would i use my snow leopard cd or the cd that came with my macbook in 2009. Sorry for the long post, thanks in advance!

    You can take the drive out of the computer, use a $20 IDE/SATA to USB adpater to another Mac
    You can see if you can read the drive directly to gain access grab files, run Disk Utility and perhaps it can repair it.
    If you can't read the drive then there is DataRescue for a whopping $99 but it will read any deleted (but not scrubbed, encrypted or overwritten) data for recovery. Least that way you can get your files back.
    Once your data is off, Zero Erase the whole thing, install 10.6 on it with the other Mac.
    When installed in the sick mac, the hardware firmware will read the new EFI firmware, load it and you'll have the boot keys back again ON THE SECOND BOOT, it doesn't load on the first.
    https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3172
    https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro?view=documents

  • Laptop will not boot past the grey screen bootup screen

    Hi,
    I have started up my machine today and its displaying the grey screen and is not booting any futher.
    The machine is only 2 Months old, its a :
    2.8GHz Intel Core i7
    8GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2X4GB
    512GB SATA HDD
    SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
    MacBook Pro 17-inch Hi-Resolution Antiglare Widescreen Display
    Any ideas?, It was fine yesterday now nothing
    Thanks.
    Ron

    Try this article.
    Mac Os X: Gray Screen appears during startup
    http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570

  • 3g (3.1) Will not boot past the apple screen

    I have been having the random shut off issue intermittently for a while now. I woke up Wed morning and my phone worked fine. I checked it 20 minutes later and the screen was black. Completely unresponsive.
    I plugged the phone into the wall and thought all was fine as I saw the apple appear when I pressed the sleep/wake button, but the phone shuts off. The phone will continuously show the apple on bootup and then shut off when I press the sleep/wake button. I booted the phone and managed to get the "connect to itunes" to display, but the second I disconnect from the power source again the phone shuts off.
    The phone is completely unresponsive when plugged in via usb. I have tried multiple computer and different cables.
    I have tried, resetting, hard resetting, DFU mode and nothing works. My phone is out of warranty and I am running out of options outside of having the unit replaced.
    Can anybody shed some light on this issue? It would be much appreciated.

    Hi,
    Try leaving the iPhone directly connected to a high-speed USB2 port the computer, using the cable that came with it, for 5 minutes. Then try to restore the iPhone from recovery mode as described here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1808
    If that doesn't resolve the issue, the iphone will need service. This webpage: apple.com/support/iphone/service/faq/ provides answers to Frequently Asked Questions about iPhone service.
    -Jason

  • I have a Macbook and I left it unplugged. It started up slowly when I plugged it in again, but it seemed fine. Once it started charging I shut it down so it would be easier, but now it will not go past the grey screen with the apple. What do I do?

    I have a Macbook and I left it unplugged. It started up slowly when I plugged it in again, but it seemed fine. Once it started charging I shut it down so it would be easier, but now it will not go past the grey screen with the apple. What do I do?
    I have Snow leopard on my computer, and I tried to do a hard restart as an article suggested, but it did not work. I also tried cleaning out the PRAM.
    The only things I did last night:
    -cleaned the history of Firefox out, including cookies
    -let it unplugged all night
    -plugged it back in the morning, it took a long time to figure itself out, but eventually the time was correct and I got on the internet for a bit
    -shutdown the computer since I was going out and thought it would help the computer charge
    -came back, tried to turn it on, and found that it would not go past the grey screen the apple on it and the spinning wheel even though I left it for 20 minutes or more
    -tried turning it off and on to no avail

    Before doing a reinstall, which may not be needed at this point,
    Try using Disk Utility to do a Disk Repair, as shown in this link, while booted up on your install disk.
    You could have some directory corruption. Let us know what errors Disk Repair reports and if DU was able to repair them. This could just be a start in repairs and you may need a better utility to finish the job.
    Then Repair Permissions.
    No need to report any Permissions errors........we all get them.
       DALE

  • Intel iMac will not boot past gray screen

    Intel iMac will not boot past gray screen
    my system:
    new (month old) 24" intel imac, 2.8 ghz, 4 gb ram.
    running: leopard (upgraded from tiger, which was pre-installed at purchase), installed 10.5.1 update right before this huge problem occurred.
    install discs on-hand: two-disc tiget set, single leopard upgrade disc.
    what led to this:
    i wanted to install windows using bootcamp on a 50 gb partition.
    at this point i was running leopard 10.5
    i followed all bootcamp instructions, printing out the guide, as well. once i got into the windows setup, i was prompted to choose a partition to install windows. unlike the bootcamp guide, which showed three partitions, one clearly labeled "bootcamp", i saw only one partition. not wanting to risk writing over my mac partition, i quit the setup and rebooted the mac os. after some googling around, i looked for firmware updates (didn't need any), and then software updates. i decided to try updating to 10.5.1.
    i then ran through boot camp again, deleting my previous windows partition, creating a new one, and moving forward as before. once again, i was only shown one partition to choose from in the windows setup. i exited the setup again to reboot through the mac os, but this time, i was only given a blank gray screen.
    here's what i have tried so far:
    booting from a CD, holding down the C or D keys: no response (in fact, i have to restart the computer holding down the mouse button to be able to eject the CD)
    booting with option key held down: gray screen
    booting with option key held down with external bootable firewire drive attached: the firewire drive appears as a boot icon, and i can click on it within a five second window, but then the screen freezes after that time period, and nothing changes
    booting into target mode while attached to another mac: gray screen (no firewire icon, and drive never shows up on other mac)
    resetting NVRAM: i'm able to hear the boot chimes, but no difference in performance. gray screen every time
    Safe boot: nothing but a gray screen
    Verbose mode: gray screen
    Single user mode: gray screen
    Single user mode with firewire drive attached: occasionally (not every time), i am able to get the white on black terminal to show up. from here, i'm able to run fsck, but it appears to only be checking the firewire drive. i have tried several times to boot from here, and once it took me to a blue screen with movable arrow cursor, but it never went beyond this.
    is there anything else left to try before taking it to apple?
    any help would be greatly appreciated.
    thanks,
    Casey Burns
    Casey Burns Illustration and Design
    http://CaseyBurns.com

    I'd call Apple support at this point. You'll need
    to put this issue on the record.
    Call U.S. iPod and Mac technical support: 1-800-APL-CARE (1-800-275-2273)
    The wait may be long for an agent to come on the line
    so expect that and have some other stuff to do in the meantime.
    If you have the applecare protection plan, I'd ask about "onsite"
    service.
    I like your work ! Good luck !
    Slim
    Message was edited by: slimpikkunz

  • IMac will not get past chime & white screen

    iMac will not get past chime & white screen. I have tried all the start up key combinations I can think of (d or c etc) with a start up disc, but no joy. The disc drives seems ok - you can hear it working & it will eject OK.
    Any other start up ideas, please?

    Have you tried a safe boot? If not, hears how (it's straight from Mac Help):
    To start up into Safe Mode (to "Safe Boot"), do this:
    Be sure the computer is shut down.
    Press the power button.
    Immediately after you hear the startup tone, press and hold the Shift key.
    Tip: The Shift key should be held as soon as possible after the startup tone but not before.
    Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple and progress indicator (looks like a spinning gear).
    During the startup in Mac OS X 10.2 through 10.3.9, you will see "Safe Boot" on the Mac OS X startup screen.
    During the startup in Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you will see "Safe Boot" on the login window, which appears even if you normally log in automatically.
    To leave Safe Mode in any version of Mac OS X, restart the computer normally, without holding any keys during startup.
    To learn more about Safe Boot check this page:
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107392
    Intel iMac (Early 2006)   Mac OS X (10.4.8)   2.0 Ghz, 1 MB

  • Ibookg4 will not go past the grey screen and will not accept a disc

    my ibook will not go past the grey screen and will not accept a disc

    Have you tried starting up in Safe Mode? If not, I suggest that you give it a try. This will take quite awhile longer than a normal startup because it does a file check and repair of the hard disk.
    If this works you will see your normal desktop. Once completely started up in Safe Mode, try to restart normally, and go to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility. Click on the top hard drive icon in the left sidebar and note the S.M.A.R.T. status at the bottom right of the pane. What does it say?
    Select the named boot volume in the left sidebar, ("Macintosh HD" unless you've renamed it). What is the hard drive capacity and how much space remains available on it? Repair permissions on it.
    See if you are able to do a little hard drive maintenance to help things out.

  • MacBook pro will not boot up. Blank screen with message File is possibly corrupted. Checksum does not match etc

    MacBook Pro suddenly will not boot up. Blank screen with message File is possibly corrupt. Header checksum does not match, etc

    Hi s.cheslik,
    It seems your MacBook Pro will not boot properly and it displaying an error message. Based on the information you have provided, it appears your MacBook Pro needs to be serviced. The following link should help you get started with the process and has links with additional information on topics such as warranty and service pricing, battery replacement, and express replacement service.
    Apple - Support - Service Answer Center
    Thank you for contributing to Apple Support Communities.
    Take care,
    Bobby_D

  • Satellite L500 will not load past the 'welcome' screen

    Hi,
    My Toshiba Satellite L500 laptop will not load past the 'welcome' screen. The cursor thing just keeps going around and around but won't go to my desktop.
    Last night it went into some temporary profile and it had a message saying 'your other profile cannot load at this time please try again later'
    Any help would be greatly appreciated.
    Thanks,
    Kara

    The error message is not known to me and also searching in google didnt get any hints.
    Possibly your Windows OS is muddled up.
    Did you try to boot Win 7 in safe mode?
    Try this. Restart your notebook, tap the F8 key.
    In advanced boot options choose the option called Safe Mode.
    If the notebook does not allow booting in Safe Mode, try the option Last Good Known Configuration.
    If this didnt help, try Repair my Computer. Here you can choose between different settings.
    The one which could solve this is HDD recovery which helps you to set the notebook to factory settings. But this means also that your HDD would be formatted!
    So be aware of this!

  • My MacBook pro will not load past the grey screen with the spinning wheel. What do I do?

    My MacBook will not load past the grey screen with the spinning wheel of death. Anyone have any solutions?

    Invoke Safe Mode by holding down the shift Key as you restart. This will do a Disk Utility "Repair Disk" as it starts up (so it takes a few minutes longer) and then load with minimal extensions loaded, and request your login username and password, even if you normally do not use them to log in.
    Safe Mode runs the screen using simple, unaccelerated commands. Most things are available in Safe Mode, but things that rely on extensions will not be.
    Acomputer that works in Safe Mode, but fails again after you restart, often implicates your extensions and add-ons.

Maybe you are looking for