Imac bootup problem

I'm having bootup problems with both my imac and MacBook Pro. It's a coincidence that both are having similar problems I'm sure and wonder if anyone can shed some light on my plight? It's doubly frustrating!
I've gone through the safe boot method and then press restart but both of them still hang as soon as I try to open an application. e.g if I go to the apple icon to "About this computer" it just stalls and stays on the spinning ball. I've also tried the Ctl+cmd+ R option a few times but keep going round in circles. Any suggestions?

Download and run Etrecheck. Copy and paste the results into your next post. It's a diagnostic tool that was developed by one of the most respected users here in the ASC.

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When I first built this system last week I experienced a really annoying bootup problem when booting into WinXP....the system would lock up with a blue screen *Machine Error* every single time....so I loaded the "failsafe" bios settings, booted into XP finally, and then began a process of elimination among the bios settings to try and determine which ones disagreed with WinXP so much.... (Oh, joy!)
To make a long and tedious story very short, I eventually found that I had to manually *disable* UDMA auto-config for my empty hard-drive slot of IDE0 secondary channel, and in combination with that had to *disable* UDMA auto-config for both of the DVD/CD-ROM devices I had then which were located at IDE1 primary and secondary. (All jumper settings for the drives were correct, btw, and the machine error manifested whether I set CS or M&S or, in the case of my WD boot drive, "stand-alone.") Once I did that, I could boot fine from IDE0 prime autoconfigged @ UDMA5, and my two IDE1 devices would then boot with PIO4 set by the bios's PIO autoconfig. I had to set it up exactly this way to boot--doing one or the other as regards each IDE channel would result in the Machine Error that I didn't want see--so I had to do both, in other words, to boot.
In reading the forums here I saw mention of ps2 keyboard problems, but replacing my PS2 kboard with a native USB kboard *did not* solve the problem or change its nature (had no problems with either native PS/2 or USB kboards.) Then I read about config problems people had with Audigy2's, so I removed my A2Zs card, refreshed the CMOS, and rebooted--right back into the Machine Error again (unless I manually setup the IDE channel UDMA autoconfig as described above, of course.) So my A2Zs (0350) was not the cause of the problem. I did the same thing with my TX4200 PCI RAID controller--again, without positive result. Last, I disabled WinXp SP2's Data Execution Prevention to see if that might have been the cause--it was *not* (so I reenabled it with the OptIn policy.) So by then I knew the problem was not caused by my keyboard, my A2Zs, DEP, or my PCI RAID controller--any one of which, of course, *might conceivably* have caused a resource conflict of some kind--so I had to to test out all of these avenues.
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So the problem having been solved in this fashion I will make the following observation about the K8N2P (I'm running stock bios 1.3): this board does not like *old crap* connected to it!.... Heh... My former CD-type drives were scarcely two-years older than the drives I installed today (according to their tagged manufacturing dates), but even so my old drives were "old enough" it seems to not get along with my k8n2P system's resource allocation! Installation of the new drives solved the last remaining problem that I had, I'm very glad to say.
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Finally, along the lines of "old stuff" I did note that the board does not seem to recognize PS/2 devices using PS/2-to-USB adaptors of any description--so go native whether PS/2 or USB and you should be fine.
I'm certainly relieved--hope this account helps a few folks!

Quote
Originally posted by syar2003
Nice work .
I have suspected the K8N boards having trouble with optical for some time.
Nice to have some proof .
Did you by the way try with one of the old ones as the only optical on the IDE1 port , or have the opticals on IDE0 and harddrive on IDE1.
Some has had success in swapping it around if i remember correctly.
Thanks, syar.... I'm just relieved that everything is working as expected now as it was a bit of a bummer to have to go to a bootup workaround for a new system over something as routine as IDE autoconfig.
Those older drives, a Samsung CD-RW/DVD SM332 and a Lite-On LTR32123S CDRW, came out of my former nf2 (Chaintech 7njs) system--that the wife will inherit from My Most Beneficent Self (which of course was my excuse to build a new system)--and if I recall correctly it seems the combo presented some problems for me there which I finally solved by going to a cable select setting for them in the Chaintech. So maybe it's just the particular combination of these drives in my case, or possibly something less than completely compatible optical-drive support from the nVidia IDE controller implementation...? I didn't try swapping them on the channels, but I did try setting the IDE 0 secondary UDMA bios config to "auto" while disabling the UDMA auto-config for IDE1 prime and second--and still got the machine error, and vice-versa. It does indeed seem to me as if these newer platforms are a bit pickier about what you hook up than maybe was the case in the past (with nf2 and circa core logic.)
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Hi,
I have a iMac(iMac9,1) here which experiences some boot problems. If you try to boot "normally" it just sais "No bootable device". Keycode's don't work so I imagened that the firmware password was active. And indeed; holding the option key gets me to a password an after that a screen where I can choose where to boot from.
If I start from the harddisk, most of the time Mac OS X starts. But it takes a very long time and the performance after starting isn't that great either. I repaired the harddisk using the disk utility on the Mac OS X DVD and tried to delete the firmware password(so I could try to reset the NVRAM at startup). But it just doesn't reset, althought it should(I even couldn't change the password while starting from the DVD). That seemed very odd.
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"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install 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 at top of the screen. (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. Select your Mac OS X volume.
5. Click Repair Disk, (not Repair Permissions). Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
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(Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive.)
If perchance you can't find your install Disc, at least try it from the Safe Boot part onward.
If that doesn't help Reinstall the OS.

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(3) why can't I boot in safe mode?
(4) think there's going to be any way to save my data?

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Once in there choose Zero Out Data (write zero's in earlier versions). This will map out any bad blocks on your drive and bring it back to almost new condition (providing there's nothing wrong mechanically with it, bad bearings, defective or damaged surface, etc.).
Once this is done, go back to the install screen and begin the "Erase and Install" installation. This will put a factory fresh system on a clean hard drive.
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comprachio wrote:
ah right I follow now. To do that I'll either have to buy another HD or wipe my bootcamp HD:( Neither is an appealing option though.
I have two external drives for backup: One for Time Machine, one for SuperDuper!. I wouldn't think about doing otherwise, as they complement each other functionally. Regardless of your current issue, I (and I think most folks) would strongly recommend that you do indeed get a second external backup drive, for a clone backup (either SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner). You may as well do that now, as it will then enable you to create the clone (as I said, I believe it's something that you really should have anyway) and use it to help diagnose your current problem. And if it turns out tht your internal drive is failing, it's much easier to use a clone than TM to recover everything to a new internal drive.
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Sorry, that thread got moved for edit and as a user tip... which I didn't want and won't be doing....
Here is the post:
A tip and workaround for how to get ATI mobility/laptop drivers so that Windows no longer thinks the ATI is a desktop card:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=11286987
Summary (my own edit steps):
1. Install Boot Camp 3.0 and upgrade to 3.1
2. Uninstall graphic drivers and run Driver Sweeper
http://www.guru3d.com/category/driversweeper/
instead of:
removing the crashing driver by going into windows 7 setup via its install cd and deleting the ati driver manaully
3. Install ATI Mobility (link)
4. Uninstall ATI (Programs control panel?) Device Manager (rollback; uninstall?)
5. Device Nanager: update driver and BROWSE BACK to 8.681 (the original apple driver that was causing freezes and purple artifacts) - navigate to /Apple/Drivers/ATI
(Apple uses) a 4850 card in the iMac, its modified a bit for apple. Enough that desktop drivers don't work, and modded-for-laptop desktop drivers don't work either.
Now the upshot of using modified drivers is that it FORCES the catalyst control panel to be installed, meaning you get a few more options to mess around with the card.
I couldn't use the original apple drive, it locks up, the newer one had banding, the newer radeon drivers direct form ATI wouldn't work until they were modded and then they cause black screens.
SO the solution, as obscure as it was, was to download ACTUAL mobility Radeon drivers - version 10.3 still, but made for laptops.
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx
THESE drivers I was able to install - and here is where things changed.
THIS driver changed they way windows saw the video card in device manager.
As I mentioned before, its NOT a desktop card, its a modified laptop card, but installing mac drivers makes windows THINK its a full desktop card, and running the original 8.681 driver crashed it.
Once installed 10.3 LAPTOP driver it now appeared in device manager as a MOBILITY card.
+These Steps "should" work:+
delete ATI driver manually
reinstall apple driver after that and see if that works,
otherwise try the steps above
(mod drivers, remove via windows recovery off setup disk, install laptop drivers, reinstall apple driver over it)

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Hi,
Try this one:
HP 3D DriveGuard here
** Say thanks by clicking the "Thumb up" icon which is on the left. **
** Make it easier for other people to find solutions, by marking my answer with "Accept as Solution" if it solves your issue. **

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Skip the iCloud sign in for now.
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Are the driver installed, or installed properly?

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