IMac G4 won't boot off startup disk

Looking at a G4 20" flat panel for a friend. He blew away some unknown file and hosed the computer. It will not start in safe mode. Get a Darwin kernel panic screen on normal start-up. Will not boot in safe mode. Will not boot off start-up disk (C) - get an interminal grey apple screen that does not proceed. It will boot off of the disk for hardware test (Option), but cannot launch off startup disk icon - get one of those Verboten circles with a line thru it. Hardware test returns two errors loading default text (1) and control (2) fonts and returns an invalid memory access at %SRRO 00000000.00000000 %SRR1 10000000.00083030.
G$ Mac OS X (10.4) unknown version of Tiger

Oops - G5, not G4. And what this young man did was delete his system library. Any suggestions about how to get him up again would be greatly appreciated.

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HELP! CD player suddenly won't boot any startup disk.

Help! I am being swamped with problems stemming from my attempt to upgrade to OS X. Can anyone help me plug the holes in my boat? I am including as much info as I can because I notice that requests like mine often generate a lot of questions about basic things. So, here it goes ... and thanks for your thoughts, Ed T. in Newburyport, MA. OK to send ideas to me [email protected]
Goal: install OX 10.3.5 (Panther) on my Mac G4 Ethernet Gigabit machine by booting from the CD install disk. I am using a full retail version (black with silver “X” v 10.3.5).
Problem: neither internal CD-Rom not external Fire Wire CD-ROM player/recorder will boot from 9.1 or 9.2 startup disks. These disks (DiskWarrior and Apple OS X insdatll disk #1) booted OK until I made upgrade preparations to get G4 and OS 9.2.2.
About two weeks ago I installed ViaVoice v2.01 Enhanced Edition and did a practice reading. I just mention this in case it might be relevant.
After installing the second HD I moved all of the document files off the original HD to the new one. I left all the applications on the original HD. I ran DiskWarrior and rebuilt the desktop for each drive. I check for fragmentation and optimized the disks which ran smoothly.
Hardware: G4 Ethernet Gigabit CPU (purchased new 2001 with RAM upgraded to 256 Mb and with an internal CD-ROM player) which uses the original processor, Que Fire external CD recorder/player connected via Firewire, Airport card upgrade and white domed Airport Hub, older HP 55M laser printer connected with an Assante Bridge unit, a cable internet box (Motorola) connected to the Airport unit. Monitor (an older SONY Multiscan 100ES purchased at SeaMUG swap meet). USB 4 jack hub (Netgear Dual Speed DS104). New external hard drive (an OWC Mercury Ultra AL 250 Gb USB/Fire Wire) connected via Fire Wire cable.
Upgrade preparations - I added some new items:
1.) I increased the original 256 RAM by installing (adding) two 512 cards from Other World Computing (OWC at MacSales.com), and ...
2.) a new ATA internal 80 Gb Hitachi hard drive (also from OWC) fitted onto the “sled” atop the original 40 Gb HD. NOTE: both drives are format extended (HFS+).
Next, I backed up original 40 Gb hard drive to my new OWC Mercury 250 Gb external HD using Retrospect.
Software: I did the following activities according upgrade decision lists from MacFixit and Apple Support Discussion Group. I did the following:
1.) Updated OS 9.2.2 firmware to v4.2.8 which I downloaded from Apple,
NOTE: this procedure involved holding in the programmer’s button (the little recessed one below the big startup button and to the right of the little reboot button) and then pressing the startup button until I heard a long tone. I released the programmer’s button and the firmware update completed successfully.
2.) I did not check for external Hard Drive firmware updates because drive is one month old, but I did disconnect the Firewire cable during the following activities,
3.) I have no “haxies” to update,
4.) There was no Stuffit Deluxe software to de-activate,
5.) Removed extra start up items (ViaVoice).
6.) Disconnected all non-Apple USB hub hardware.
6.) Booted from OS X install disk ( in the internal player) and ...
7.) used Disk Utility to check/repair both hard drives.
Here is where the PROBLEMS STARTED.
8.) I intended to boot from the DiskWarrior CD in order to run its tests on both HD’s. The DISK WOULD NOT BOOT. Instead, the screen went gray and I had to eject the disk and use the restart button.
9.) Next I tried to boot from the OS X Install CD as I did before. The screen went gray, a large gray Apple logo appeared followed by a white print on BLACK KERNEL PANIC screen.
10.) Each of the CD’s seems to mount OK and I can access and use the utilities BUT I CANNOT USE THEM AS A START UP DISK ANYMORE. I have tried the “press the C key” method and the Start up Disk control panel designation method without success.
What is the best way to get back the use of the “C” key in order to boot from the CD. And, since I have two drives, could I use one as the assigned start up in system 9.2.2, and used the OS X Install disk to get the OS X onto the other disk.
My efforts to solve this problem have only made matters worse. My new HD won’t mount and can’t be repaired by Tech Tool Pro 2.5. I may have to use the file recovery feature to retrieve what files I can and then re-initialize it. The original HD is also reporting damage but so far it will start up. All the applications are on it, it is the startup disk so I cannot effectively use my tools to work on it.
Please help me to get back to dry land and install OS 10.3.5. Many thanks in advance.

Hello! First, you know now that you should never do multiple upgrades at the same time. That said I'd first look at the most likely which is an error in the hard drives. Often cable select won't work. Make sure the drive jumpered master is on the end of the ribbon away from the motherboard and the one jumpered slave is on the middle connector. New drives are usually jumpered either master or cable select and if you installed it as a slave without proper jumpering then that's the most likely place to start. Post back when you're sure the drives are physically connected properly. Tom

Startup problem - won't boot from startup disk

I have a MacPro 1,1 with 2 hard disks and 3 volumes. Disk 1 has Tiger and disk 2 has Snow Leopard plus a windows partition for Boot Camp. I am the sole user in both versions of OSX and in both accounts I have the startup disk set to Snow Leopard. Recently when I start the machine it doesn't get past the blank grey screen unless I hold the Option key to show the 3 volumes when I can pick and go.
I've run Disk Utility and repaired permissions yet nothing is fixed.
The only thing I've changed recently is to have upgraded my copy of Cinema 4D but I hardly think that can be to blame. Any suggestions?

Yes. As I wrote in my first post I am the only account holder in both my OSX volumes, Tiger and Snow Leopard, and in both I have Snow Leopard nominated as the start-up volume. Also, in my Windows XP partition (on the same hard disk as Snow Leopard) I have Snow Leopard nominated as the start-up volume in the Boot-Camp control panel. So everything I can think of in every volume on my machine is pointing towards "start in Snow Leopard", only it seems to be having trouble doing that.
As I mentioned before, if I command a restart it works OK, but if the machine is off and I press the button I get the grey screen and I have to power it off with the button then boot with the Option key to see the three volumes.
Disk Utility - Repair Disk run from my installation disk or from my hard disk reports that the disk appears fine. I have repaired permissions from my hard disk to the point that it doesn't report any repair at all.
The MacPro used to start up fine but something has changed, only I have no idea what. I was hoping someone here might be able to tell me it's this or that.

IMac 20" won't boot from AppleCare disk

Hello all,
I have a new (1.5 weeks) iMac iSight 20" and am thrilled with its performance (it does not have any noticeable noise, nor does it have any dead pixels). I have tried to boot it from the AppleCare disk (the one with TechTool on it) but it will not boot. I have used that disk to install TechTool successfully on the iMac HD, but it will not boot from that disk. The iMac will boot from the OSX install disk that came with the iMac, and I have done so in order to run repair permissions before and after updates. Is there something easy I'm missing regarding booting from the Applecare disk? I'm not new to Macs, but I am new to iMacs and OSX. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Hello all,
Acting upon the advice I received here, I called AppleCare. Although it took 32 minutes, they did finally agree that the issue was with the AppleCare disk, and they are sending me a new one. I did note one interesting thing. I visited MicroMat's web page to see what the most current version is of TechTool Pro, and it is 3.0.4. That is the version on my current AppleCare disk. I guess the incompatability must be with something else on the disk. Thanks for all the prompt replies and great advice.

G4 won't boot from startup disk, disk utility can't repair, is all lost?

My G4 will not boot from the startup disk which is my second hard drive a 160GB. That's been my startup disk for the past 3 years. I tried running disk utilities, but get the error message "underlying task reported a failure on exit." "Invalid key length." "Volume check failed." "Disk repair failed."
I've tried loading in safe mode, and fsck (or something like that) nothing has worked. When I did force start by holding down the "x" key, the second hard drive image was on my desktop, but when I clicked it-it did not have any current information or files. Is everything lost? Is there a way to boot this hard drive or save all of my photos and music?
Thanks in advance for the help.

DiskWarrior can probably fix your problem. DiskWarrior by Alsoft
http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/index.html
 Cheers, Tom

I have an iMac that won't boot up. I've read all posts on this subject to no avail. When power is switched on, it chimes, Apple logo appears, spinning wheel, then loading bar starts to fill. It gets to about 25% then switches off! Help please!

iMac that won't boot up! When power is switched on it chimes, Apple logo appears, then loading bar, then spinning wheel. Bar seems to load up and gets to around 25%, then reverts to the start again, gets to about 20% on the bar and then switches itself off leaving a black screen. Tried all the remedies on internet with no avail so would welcome some advice other than binning what is a relatively new computer. Earliest appointment Apple could offer was Thursday 17th, really useful for a business user _ not impressed,

You've probably tried this, but will it Safe Boot? Restart holding down the Shift key until you see the grey progress bar. You'll need to input your admin password during bootup. If it will boot you can then try to eject the disk using the various suggestions here that you haven't tried already:
http://osxdaily.com/2009/08/28/eject-a-stuck-disk-from-your-mac-dvd-super-drive/
Or this (not tried this myself, but if things are desperate): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7NYW9Dr448

I have a mid-2010 27" Quad Core i5 iMac running 10.8.3. Startup disk recognizes the primary hard drive as a startup volume but will not boot from it. Have tried zapping PRAM, ran disk utility. No errors reported Any thoughts?

I have a mid-2010 27" Quad Core i5 iMac running 10.8.3. Startup disk recognizes the primary hard drive as a startup volume but will not boot from it. Have tried zapping PRAM, ran disk utility. No errors reported Any thoughts?

My bad Eric. The startup preference recognizes the primary as a 10.8.3 startup volume but when u select it the system does not boot. I can only boot from my external backup drive

I have an iMac that won't boot up. Chimes, Gray screen w/ apple icon, spinning gear and progress bar at bottom, about 20 sec then shuts off.

I have an iMac that won't boot up. Chimes, Gray screen w/ apple icon, spinning gear and progress bar at bottom, about 20 sec then shuts off.
Please Help

The internal drive is malfunctioning. What backups do you have?

My G4 won't boot off a firewire drive cloned from properly-booting drive

I've got a G4 that normally boots 10.3.9 off an external firewire drive. I cloned the drive onto a WesternDigital "MyBook" external hard drive, and connected it via firewire 400. I cloned the 10.3.9 boot drive using SuperDuper to a partition on this drive. But, the G4 refuses to boot off it when I choose it as a startup disk. I see (very briefly) the following
....couldn't read it.... @d/mac-io@7/ata-4@1f000/disk@0:5,\\:tbxi
anyone know what this is, why it won't boot off the clone, and how I can check whether the drive contains a proper 10.3.9 system and is set to be bootable?
Mike

Hi Mike-
How did you know?
I "Googled" it. It's been reported many times, and is included in a couple of reviews.
Problem is, "bootable" can be claimed in Mac's, as it will boot with Intel machines.......
Don't ya' just hate that?????
This review is from a writer for Mac-Centric.

Screen flash & restart from boot off another disk

I tried to boot off another disk by pressing option/alt at startup but when I select the disk I want, my screen flashes and my mac restarts. I tried using both rEFIt and rEFInd, but none of them appear on startup. Does any of this have anything to do with the fact that I changed some startup flags so that it always boots into verbose mode? (the flag is -v)

Using Snow Leopard forum is probably your best bet.
I don't care if someone has 20+ yrs, I still like having a good troubleshooting book/manual handy.
Mac: can't get by without bootable backups, even if you use TimeMachine, clone your system. Save you all this fuss and work.
Then invest in high quality disk repair and maintenance program.
Disk Warrior / TechTool Pro 5 / Drive Genius 3 - top 3 probably
There are always going to be normal items you just ignore with Repair Permissions. Useful to do once in a while but not magic. Same with SMC and the rest. Running disk repair is one of those things that it seems should be done before there is trouble, not after, and a weakness in HFS file system and disk directory.
Apple Support is a good place to start looking and then hardware category.
http://www.apple.com/support
http://www.apple.com/support/imac /macbookpro etc
Make sure all your software is current, don't install anything you are unsure of or can do without.
Run Apple Hardware Test off your OEM DVD specific to the Mac.
Now, have you Googled for this?
have you looked at reports about 500GB drives used in some Macs that had issues and were offered firmware update for the drive?
Considered just using another drive connected to iMac?
You can overheat a hard drive with needlessly running 7 and 35-write pass, besides which the best way to map out bad blocks is not Disk Utility.
http://www.bing.com/search?q=imacblackscreen
http://www.bing.com/search?q=AppleiMac+firmwareupdate
I'd direct your replies to iMac and MacBook Pro as well as to Using OS X Snow Leopard areas.

IMac 2007 won't boot

I have a strange problem.
My 24" iMac 2007 won't boot. It won't boot either from CD/DVD or anything. It will display the white screen with the Apple logo, and the spinning wheel under it, until the spinning wheel will stop spinning. Using my old Linux knowledge, I find that it seems like it freezes on "Login Window Application". Before this happened the iMac would occationally freeze, creating strange wave-patterns across the screen.
I have tried the following:
1) safe mode - same result
2) reset NVRAM - same result
3) single user - I can fix the filesystem, delete loginmanager files - same result
4) boot from Apple CD - same result
Every time the computer hangs, the strange waves will appear on the screen. My guess it is the video card that's causing this - and I need to replace it.
Can anyone give me heads an idea to confirm my suspicion - or to find the real culprit?
regards

OK, thanks, that was a helpful reply.
Somewhere in my browsing, I gathered that any Mac OS install disk would have the AHT. After searching around, I found the CD/DVD.
After extended testing, the AHT says nothing's wrong, but I find two things strange:
1) the AHT tells me that my memory is 1 GB, while it is 2 GB.
2) the AHT tells me nothing about my HDD - as if it's not there.....
I make two conclusions from that; namely that one RAM block is faulty and the HDD is invisible seen from AHT. The latter would stress me immensely, if I hadn't seen the entire drive from single user mode before. There could be some faulty sectors though that would mean that the OS is behaving strangely.
Please advise on hints on where you would go next - anyone?

IMac G5 won't boot up

My iMac g5 won't boot up. The indicator comes on, but the screen stays black. Help!

Looks like you have both an Intel and an older iMac G5 PPC. Do you hear the chime on startup?
The chime is quite meaningful. It means the computer passed the P.O.S.T / Power On Self Test.
http://www.tuaw.com/2010/10/22/mac-101-whats-happening-when-your-mac-is-starting -up/
See
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1367

IMac G4 won't turn off

hey, my iMac G4 won't turn off. When I select "Shut Down" from the Apple menu, nothing happens. If I press 'OptionShift+CommandS' nothing happens. Each time I want to turn off my computer I have to manually hit the power switch, which I'm sure isn't too good for it.
Any advice?

nevermind, I fixed it, there was some kind of stupid option to disable the shutdown & restart buttons in the Apple menu, I must have done this w/o realizing it. Oh well, at least this debacle reminded me to run a system scan w/ techtools

Upgrade from snow leopard 10.6.8 to montain lion on a iMac system won't boot getting a crossed out circle

Upgrade from snow leopard 10.6.8 to montain lion on a iMac system won't boot getting a crossed out circle

Clean install OS.10.6.8 update it completly. May be you ignored some firmware update.
I have two incedents.
My thunderbolt port stopped working after upgrading to ML 10.8. I booted from external 10.6 , 10.7 still didnt work. Then i clean installed 10.6.8 and ran software update it updated the thunderbolt firmware and all is well now. This firmware update for some reason didnt show up in ML 10.8.
Secondly , when i upgraded my Brother's Macbook from 10.5 to 10.6.3 it would install but stuck with crossed out circle. Then i downgraded checked for update found an efi update , then the 10.6.3 worked fine.

G5 gets grey screen with logo then goes black, won't boot from any disk

Won't boot from any disk, already changed VRAM battery, no success. tried hardware disk once and ran a full scan, said error with Video, but now won't boot at all with any disk. Screen is choppy also(have pic). Thinking video graphics card? Not sure. Need help!

Hi bribiel, and a warm welcome to the forums!
It certainly sounds like the Video card from the little info we have, & that can certainly cause it to fail to bootup.

IMac G4 won't boot off startup disk

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