IMac G4 OS 10.5.8 booting issues, blue screen

I'm trying to remotely help my mom to solve a big problem with her iMac G4 (2007 vintage.) It's running Mac OS 10.5.8. Everything was fine until a couple of weeks ago when it started refusing to boot. It starts to boot, you get the Apple and then it continues on to the blue screen, and never progresses from there.
It WILL safe boot, and I've tried all the things I can think of... disabled login items, reset PRAM, used Disk Utility to check the HDD and repair permissions. But it won't boot in normal (non-safe) mode.
So I decided the only solution would be to archive and install Leopard again. I figured the hardware was mostly likely okay, since it would safe boot. She couldn't find her Leopard install disks so I sent her mine.
But the system won't successfully start up from the install DVD. It does read from the DVD and starts the boot process, but again it hangs at the blue screen and does not continue beyond that.
I am not sure what to try next... I suppose it's possible that there some bad RAM or something which isn't accessed during the more limited safe boot but is used during a regular boot and causes the hang. It seems like the HDD is probably okay since it consistently safe boots without a problem. What else can I try?
Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

The test as run from the original install-restore disc #1 should be accessible
when booted per instructions on the label. Usually, there's the method on how
to use the Installer (C key on boot) and also the other is there, on how to use
the same DVD to boot the Apple Hardware Test (perhaps Opt key.)
With an older computer, there is the chance the hard disk drive may be fading;
due to use and age factors. However, one could still (maybe) find information
on what else may be going on, IF the error and crash logs in the Console utility
could be accessed, then read through, by someone with technical knowledge.
The Console logs may be accessed if the computer can be started in SafeBoot.
And there are several, in there; some would not apply. Also, they're rather cryptic.
Sometimes, a section of a hard disk drive where the boot information is stored
could be damaged; or the Directory may be corrupted, so a third-party disk
utility on its own DVD or bootable volume can be helpful to correct that aspect.
Or to totally erase, zero, partition map and reformat the hard disk drive may do
to attempt to restore function of the computer to normal; while wiping user content.
A backup of content could be made; even a clone copy to an external, then that
could be transferred (via another clone, using Carbon Copy Cloner, etc) and if
the computer were wiped, that bootable clone could be moved back. Or, should
the internal drive be bad, the content of the computer can be put into a new HDD.
{The 'pizza box' iMac with the G5 PPC processor, had a few known issues in
certain models, some due to heat and other component failures; so the hard-
ware test may be helpful. So would an inspection of the power & logic circuits.}
Anyway, sounds like 10x the trouble at a distance, helping someone figure out how.
Good luck & happy computing!

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Mac Mini Intel boots to blue screen and gets stuck

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Per apple online help, tried starting up in Safe mode. Same result. No boot. Just blue.
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Thanks

Sometimes PRAM seems to retain info from a previous startup disk error condition. There is a small chance that resetting the PRAM might help.
You can get a replacement for your original OS X install DVD and any bundled apps from AppleCare (1-800-275-2273) for a shipping and handling fee. You will need to provide your Mac's serial number so they can send the correct DVD(s) for your specific model.

Startup issue - blue screen freeze before login - Safe Boot works fine?

I've not seen this before and I can't fix, wonder if anyone has any new suggestions, here is what I've tried so far... (safe boot works fine)
1. Verbose and Single user login
2. removing the startup folder from disk library
3. Zapping PRAM
4. Reset SMC
5. Zeroed disk and reinstalled system
6. Target disk and disk repair (No Problems Found)
7. Permissions repair (No Problems Found
8. Apple Hardware Test (No Problems Found)
9. System DVD Startup - Disk Utility (No Problems Found)
10. Network Startup - Disk Utility (No Problems Found)
In every case unless I hold the shift key down for safe boot, the mac will freeze on a blue screen when the grey screen disappears, and never proceed to login. Thought about replacing the disk but it's a lot of bother on these machines and there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with it??
Any ideas?
Can anyone think of a possible fix not listed above?

Hello chip
The only thing I see missing from your list is, have you disconnected all External HD's, iPods and other storage devices befor Starting up? Sometimes when the iMac has multiple storage devices connected the Startup Manager will get lost.
Also try going to: Startup Manager in System Preferences, select the Macintosh HD and restart the iMac..
Dennis

Will not boot past blue screen

The present status is that my ibook g4 will no boot past the spinning wheel screen which hangs for a few minutes and then goes to the "Mac OS X" screen with the progress bar.
My first goal is to back up all of the data. I have a second IMac. Plus, I just purchased an external 500 gig hard drive just prior to when the error started. FYI the error started when I was going through the install process of the backup program supplied with the external hard drive. The program just asked me to restart the computer and that is where we are now.
The second goal of course is to fix the start-up issue. I have tried a number of the suggestions in previous posts including the following the install disk utilities to repair the disk.

I am having the exact same problem. I was just surfing the Internet this weekend and it completely froze and now it won't boot up. I no longer get a grey screen, at boot up, it goes from black to blue and then it hangs at the blue screen.
I have a TimeMachine and a Retrospect back up of my data but I can't boot to the Leopard Install CD which would let me restore my data.
I have tried just about everything, including booting in firewire target disk mode and connected to my old clamshell iBook G3. I was able to access my files, and I even reinstalled Tiger (couldn't use Leopard because it's not compatible with the G3). So there is a fresh copy of 10.4 running on my iBook G4 but it still will not boot up on its own.
No idea what to do at this point, but I would suggest not reformatting as it really didn't seem to help.

Restarted my iMac and now it's stuck on the blue screen

I have not had a problem with the actual computer since I received it a year ago.
This is what I did on my computer today:
I downloaded Google Chrome, for the sites that don't really work as well with Safari and then later on, I changed a couple of the Folder Sharing permission for a few picture folders and a couple of document folders so "Everyone" does not have access to them, only me. I went into my System Preferences > Accounts to see who was under "Staff" and any other computer I tried to connect to. I tried to unlock the Accounts section and my System Preferences kept freezing, so I had to force quit it.
Every time I had a freezing issue with my PC, I always restarted it, so that's what I did, I restarted my iMac. Now, it only shows a blue screen. It goes through the gray screen with the apple logo, and then the blue screen. I see my cursor to my Magic Mouse for a few seconds and then it vanishes. Now all I have is a blue screen and it's been on a blue screen, this time, for about 15 minutes.
I tried to hold down the power button, mainly out of panic, and I also unplugged everything and then tried to turn it back on and that hasn't worked.
Please help. : (

Sounds like you changed some of the file and share permissions
incorrectly and then complicated things further by hoping a restart
in the middle of this mistaken direction could cure it somehow.
Sometimes that works; but some parts of the system are not to be
messed with, since some items have to be where they are to work.
And some kinds of keyboard/mouse functions on boot are reluctant
to perform with a bluetooth or wireless mouse & keyboard; so a USB
wired keyboard is very handy to own & have on hand. I have spares.
(You may have to try and see if a power management reset can help,
if the problem has compounded by now into more than the first issue;
a System Management Controller reset. (Don't recall how, but this
will vary with the model and build year of the computer.) And it may
not help resolve the issue; booting from the installer disc may...)
Some command keys require early power in the keyboard; sometimes,
a wireless keyboard or mouse won't be seen by the computer at a
critical moment in early boot stages; so a procedure may not occur.
Keyboard commands and shortcuts on boot are important to use &
know in the case of troubleshooting and maintenance.
Can you start the computer from the OS X install disc that came
with the computer (or if you've upgrade the OS to a later than
originally shipped version, use the latest retail disc) by holding
the C key down on boot, until you see a window with either a
choice to select a language or (maybe second window) a menu
in the top of the screen, where you see Installer (instead of Finder)
and check the top menu bar by clicking to read the drop-down
menus, looking for Disk Utility.
When you find Disk Utility, as indicated from the booted Installer disc
(disc #1 of a restore install set) select the name of your computer drive
which probably is Macintosh HD in the Disk Utility left side-bar, and then
click on 'repair disk.' When that is done, note if there is a message in
the little screen inside the utility, what it said; then choose to run the item
named 'repair disk permissions' and then restart the computer normally.
This would include selecting the computer's hard disk drive from an
option in the Installer's menu bar after quitting Disk Utility; to choose
from a startup manager, the Macintosh HD as a boot volume, & restart.
You could try and see if the computer would re-start and with the Shift
key held down, through the boot process (from the hard disk drive OS)
and if it gets to a point of asking for your Admin password, enter it, &
continue until a desktop appears. If this works, use GO in the Finder
top menu bar and find Utilities folder, open it, and find Disk Utility, then
run 'repair disk permissions' on the volume Macintosh HD. + Restart.
This may not work, but if it sorta does, you could try and see if things
run OK. Another possible fix (without performing an Archive & Install
from the booted Install disc) may be to get the Combo update file for
the OS X version you have in the computer already, & reinstall it.
Be sure to repair disk permissions before and after this kind of action.
If you want other users of your computer to not access your files, be
sure to set up other user accounts with less than Admin privileges.
Then understand how security works in Mac OS X. Your user folder
content is not normally accessible by someone running that computer
from a different user account, if the computer is used correctly.
One of the better Mac browsers is Camino from Mozilla; FireFox is OK,
and for some users, Opera is fine enough. There are others; and I am
not so sure about Chrome at this point. No real need for me to use it.
In any event...
Good luck & happy computing!
{ edited 2x }

Linux Wont Boot Up- Blue Screen Of Death.

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I didnt pay for a locked up frozen hunk of junk! I want it to support other operating systems (OS)
Ive done some google research and what i can find is toshiba basically doesent support linux but could the black screen be releated to something else,others have successfully booted linux with toshiba I got the laptop a few months ago.
And when i tried to boot into windows after trying to get linux to boot after a few hours doing this, I get a blue screen of death for a split secound then the pc turned of, I have now formated the partion to reinstall windows
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Whats the probablem??
Thanks,
Spudster
Laptop Model: L750D Laptop Satelite Series.
PS: Everything was going perfectly fine before i tried ran my bootable linux..
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Going to bump!

Slow boot after blue screen and system restore

I did the updates (Security 2008-002, Safari 3.1 and others) in Software Updates and then could not get past the blue screen. Tried all the advice on these boards but none worked. So I used Time Machine to restore the system. It worked except that now the booting process pauses (on a blue screen) for about 5 minutes. Then the process completes and everything appears to be fine.
However, this delayed booting does not seem right and never happened before.
Anything I can do?
thands
Ken

What kind of incompatibility issues?
How far does the xp installation get?
What do you mean by 'uninstalling the vista bootloader'?
It seems very unusual that you can't boot from the CD anymore. Maybe double check the boot priority again, or have CD as the only boot option?
I can make XP BSOD and Reboot on my V200 by setting the SATA mode to AHCI. *no floppy = no F6 driver installation
I can't recall how VISTA reacted to setting SATA to AHCI.
Let me know how it turns out.

G5 Power Mac (ppc) boots to blue screen only

Hi, I realize that this is an old machine (10 years, at least) but until a few days ago it was working fine. I use it only for the FCP Suite, which will not run on my new Intel-Based Imac.
Anyway, I was able to boot up from the CD and run both the Disk utility and the Hardware Diagnostic Test. It passed the Hardware test without problems and then the disk utility found a bunch of errors, all of which is fixed (I have run it several times and it now comes up at "ok" everytime.
Still, when I go to boot it up it takes forever and goes through the gray screen, then the blue screen, and does not go past that.
I am stuck. Any ideas about the next steps? Should I use the Firewire Target Disk Mode?
There is another internal hard drive (which also passed all the tests) and I am wondering if I should try to install the system onto that and then try to boot from that. Any ideas about that? And, if I were able to boot from that disk, any ideas whether or not I would be able to then see the primary hard drive to copy off the project I was in the middle of when it went down?
I know I have a lot of questions, but any insight would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Debbie

Hi BDAqua,
Many thanks for your thoughtful reply. I have done as you said—actually, I tried it right after I read your post—and the wheel is still spinning on the blue screen, which can't be good! It may be doing something, as previously it would go to the blue screen and eventually lose the spinning wheel, but still...
So, I had also done a reset of the PRAM and, I think, the SMU. What's next, do you think? What do you think of the idea of installing a system on the second hard drive...too risky? And is there anything I should be vacuuming, or looking at inside the whale? I saw some others had recommended that for other reasons...
Again, many thanks,
Debbie

R61 driver issues/ blue screen

Hello all:
I have a 2008 R61 (7733) Serial (L3-G5721). I got this computer through my college at the time, and over a 2 year span I had 4 or 5 HDD replaced through the Lenovo service program on campus. Now I recently replaced my HDD 2 times so far since leaving my school in 2010, none were for bad HDD's like previously. I had Issues with Lenovo/Windows drivers. Now on my 3rd an WD black. What I would like to know is my HDD or Motherboard is having driver issues?!? How can I fix this?!? Is their a program that can diagnose what driver is causing my blue screens and also keeping me from booting up the laptop past the extended boot screen?!? Love that laptop so much runs like a tank besides the HDD problem it's very solid any help is appriciated.
Sincerely:
Christopher Patti

Hi,
Do not rely solely on System Update to maintain your computer. It frequently is weeks, months and even years out of date. Some updates never get to System Update at all. In addition, the driver matrix does not contain all patches and updates. Because you don’t have a preload, it is possible that you are missing some critical updates, which may not be in the Driver Matrix, and I am not sure if they are available using System Update. I suggest that you verify if the following updates are installed on your computer.
Rescue and Recovery patch to fix the blue screen issue caused by the lack of the AHCI driver - Windows XP
- See document: http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloads/detail.page?DocID=DS002238
Intel Chipset Support for Windows 8 (32-bit, 64-bit), 7 (32-bit, 64-bit), Vista (32-bit, 64-bit), XP (32-bit, 64-bit) – ThinkPad
- See document: http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloads/detail.page?DocID=DS014952
Intel Chipset Support for Windows Vista, XP, 2000 - ThinkPad Reserve Edition, R61, R61e, R61i, T61, T61p, X61, X61s, X61 Tablet, X300
- See document: http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloads/detail.page?DocID=DS01318
Monitor file for Windows 7 (32-bit,64-bit), Vista (32-bit,64-bit), XP (32-bit,64-bit), 2000 - ThinkPad
See document: http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloads/detail.page?DocID=DS015012
There might be others, but these come to mind first.
Here are some examples of System Update being out of date:
Update Retriever and System Update contain drivers for System Migration Assistant 6.0, at version 6.00.0009, while the Driver Matrix and Drivers and Software pages indicate the current version at 6.0.010 (released on Nov 23, 2009).
Enabling Wake on LAN from Standby for ENERGY STAR Version 4.0 for Windows 8 (32-bit, 64-bit), 7 (32-bit, 64-bit), Vista (32-bit, 64-bit), XP (32-bit, 64-bit) - ThinkPad
- See document: http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloads/detail.page?DocID=DS013949
- Update Retriever and System Update contain drivers for Enabling Wake on LAN from Standby for ENERGY STAR Version 4.0, for version 1.06, while the Driver Matrix and Drivers and Softwarepages indicate the current version at 1.07 (originally released on Feb 15, 2011).
I even tried submitting site feedback, rather than opening a dialog using the Lenovo Forums to get some of these problems fixed. The astonishing response I got back from the Lenovo Web Content Team was:
Dear Valued Customer,
Thank you for your feedback. We have checked the link that you have provided. Yes, the current version is the one in the document, however since we haven't received the latest xml file for the driver, that is why in TVSU contains the previous driver update. In the meantime, please download manually. We will update TVSU with the latest package as soon as we receive it.
Thank you for contacting the Lenovo Web Content Team. http://support.lenovo.com
Case Number – 00224092
Do some research and see if this helps. Good luck.
ThinkPad R61 8932-CTO T8300 2.40 Ghz 3GB RAM Win XP
ThinkPad R500 2714-CTO P8600 2.40 Ghz 3GB RAM Win XP; Two ThinkPad R500's 2714-CTO T9600 2.80 Ghz 4GB RAM Win 7
ThinkPad T500 2241-DB9 T9600 2.80 Ghz 4GB RAM Win 7
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Slow Booting Leopard (Blue Screen)

I was trying to tweak my boot time of leopard. It shows a blue screen for a long time before showing desktop. I checked log and found a few problems and deleted and unloaded various services (I removed machinit_peruser.d and mach_init.d folders and inloaded com.apple.dnbobserver.plist. Finally I think I got the problem in the log but I am not sure of the solution to tweak it.
this is the log which seems culprit to me.
+08/05/08 4:31:41 PM com.apple.launchctl.System[2] com.openssh.sshd: Already loaded+
+08/05/08 4:31:52 PM org.ntp.ntpd[25] Error : nodename nor servname provided, or not known+
+08/05/08 4:32:14 PM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.UserEventAgent-LoginWindow[78]) Exited:Terminated+
So majority of blue screen time (almost 23 seconds) is spend here. Any idea what is is this UserEventAgent thing or org.ntp.ntpd stuff and any suggestions to shut them off.
I am sure many users have the same problem. If someone could find out why is this happening, I am sure it is resolved issue.

More Updates:
I figured out org.ntp.ntpd is related to time server thing. So disabling auto time updates, i narrowed down to the following log
+08/05/08 4:59:31 PM com.apple.launchctl.System[2] com.openssh.sshd: Already loaded+
+08/05/08 5:00:10 PM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.UserEventAgent-LoginWindow[78]) Exited: Terminated+
+08/05/08 5:00:13 PM Dock[95] _DESCRegisterDockExtraClient failed 268435459+
+08/05/08 5:00:15 PM [0x0-0xf00f].com.apple.iTunesHelper[107] USBMuxListenerCreate: No such file or directory+
So I guess I am pretty sure, blue screen has something to do with com.apple.UserEventAgent-LoginWindow. Can anyone tell me what it is and can we safely unload it from launch agents and how?

Ipad air boots with blue screen

my ipad air boots 4 5 times with blue screen as i use my wifi.....and it happend as i updated to ios 8. And i'm noticing from few days. I need the solutions

Hi Air.sam,
Welcome to the Apple Support Communities!
I know that situations like this can be very frustrating. There are some very good troubleshooting steps that I would recommend in this situation however. Please use the attached article and troubleshooting steps to help you resolve the situation.
iPhone: Hardware troubleshooting
Will not turn on, will not turn on unless connected to power, or unexpected power off
Verify that the Sleep/Wake button functions. If it does not function, inspect it for signs of damage. If the button is damaged or is not functioning when pressed, seek service.
Check if a Liquid Contact Indicator (LCI) is activated or there are signs of corrosion. Learn about LCIsand corrosion.
Connect the iPhone to the iPhone's USB power adapter and let it charge for at least ten minutes.
After at least 30 minutes, if:
The home screen appears: The iPhone should be working. Update to the latest version of iOS if necessary. Continue charging it until it is completely charged and you see this battery icon in the upper-right corner of the screen . Then unplug the phone from power. If it immediately turns off, seek service.
The low-battery image appears, even after the phone has charged for at least 20 minutes: See "iPhone displays the low-battery image and is unresponsive" symptom in this article.
Something other than the Home screen or Low Battery image appears, continue with this article for further troubleshooting steps.
If the iPhone did not turn on, reset it while connected to the iPhone USB power adapter.
If the display turns on, go to step 4.
If the display remains black, go to next step.
Connect the iPhone to a computer and open iTunes. If iTunes recognizes the iPhone and indicates that it is in recovery mode, attempt to restore the iPhone. If the iPhone doesn't appear in iTunes or if you have difficulties in restoring the iPhone, see this article for further assistance.
If restoring the iPhone resolved the issue, go to step 4. If restoring the iPhone did not solve the issue, seek service.
Regards,
Joe

My imac starts up and goes to a blank blue screen

my imac froze and when i restarted the computer it went to a blank blue screen i can only acsess the system prefences the grey bar at the top is also gone all of my files are there pics,documents, music ect. but i cant click on anything i tried to boot in safe mode and it wont go into safe mode when i put my snow leopard disk in it wont read it how do i get the computer to boot in safe mode or restore the computer to an ealier day is there a way to manually go into safe mode or restore the computer

Manual instructions > Mac OS X: Starting up in Safe Mode
If you can't boot in Safe Mode, try Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM
When booting from the install disc make sure you are holding down the C key.
Restore... you need to be able to boot from the install disc and run Disk Utility. It's very possible the startup disk needs repairing.
Instructions here > Using Disk Utility to verify or repair disks

G5 2.7 boots to blue screen

all this happened while exporting video from final cut pro to a firewiree lacie drive. the machine went to spinning wheel for hours. had to reboot. Now boots makes the chime shows the os loading then goes to a blues screen with mouse pointer that you can move nothing elese is there.
I have to reset on the motherboard. booted to another machine and run disk utility.
still the same.
Any ideas ??

Start up the computer in Single-User Mode.
Check the volume with fsck.
Press Return.
Type: mount -uw /
Press Return.
Type: cd /Users/[affected username]/Library
Tip: Instead of "[affected username]", type the username for your account, or the account that is experiencing this issue. For example, if the username is "theta," type:
cd /Users/theta/Library
Press Return.
Type: mv Preferences Preferences_old
Press Return.
Type: mv Caches Caches_old
Press Return.
Type: reboot
Press Return.
If you can now successfully start and log in...
Corrupt plist, 3rd party startup item, corrupt directory, are all suspects, especially after a "crash" or hard freeze the directory and filesystem could be left in an unusable state. I always first reboot into single user mode to run fsck along with applejack. Did Disk utility find errors and repair them or not?
Mac 101 - Startup issues
Single User Mode
Safe Mode

Install CD Boots to Blue Screen

I am trying to revive a donated iBook G4 12" 1.2GHz. The system booted to the OS once, then every subsequent time booted to a blue screen. No additional RAM is installed. Booting to a 10.4 retail install CD also results in a blue screen. I do not have the original install discs.
I ran the Apple Service Diagnostic v2.5.8 for a few loops and it reported NO issues.
I'm out of ideas. Any suggestions?

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 a little hard drive maintenance helps things out, although where it won't start up from the optical disc, I'm not very optimistic.

Mid 2010 MacBook Pro won't boot past blue screen

I've been having problems booting up my MacBook. I can't get past the blue screen. It went from booting slow at the grey apple logo screen to not booting up at all. Is it a problem with my hard drive? I also have boot camp running as well, but I can still see the boot camp drive for windows and my OS X drive, as well as my installation disk when I have it inserted when I hold the option key at start up.
I'm still able to run windows on it without any problems when I pick the windows drive. I tried different methods from different forums but I'm just not getting through. I tried holding 'c' to boot up from cd and I let it run over night but it never got past the grey apple screen with the gradient wheel (still spinning). I had already used time machine to back everything up before this happened since I was able to boot up properly (but slowly). Can anyone help? It's driving me nuts, and I can't remember what os/firmware version I'm running.

n your signature you said you are running 10.6.3. So let’s assume you are running Snow Leopard.
It sounds like your diagnosis of disk problems is correct. The OS X partition may be corrupt.
Try booting in Safe Mode.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1564
Try again to boot in normal mode.
If it will boot in Safe Mode but not in normal mode then you could have some 3rd-party software preventing the boot or you could have a corrupt disk or OS.
Boot as from the startup manager (Boot - option) and then select the installation disk.
Hopefully that will work better than starting with the Boot-C option.
Then try to repair the system disk.
Start the Disk Utility.
Perform the steps in http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5836.
If it repairs OK but still won’t boot reinstall OS X.
Installing Mac OS X 10.6 SnowLeopard
http://kb.iu.edu/data/akav.html

IMac G4 OS 10.5.8 booting issues, blue screen

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