OS updated, now iMac won't start

This AM I downloaded the newest update to OS 10.4.... for intel iMac & shut down as usual after it was complete. Now my iMac won't open - the pinwhirl turns for 90 sec then it shuts down. Unplugging for 30 sec doesn't help. Hardware test is OK.
Any suggestions?

For me the bare minimum is to Repair Disk Permissions before/after and let the Mac do its thing without interference. But my advice has never really faltered when I have time to be more lengthy and serious. If you search this forum with my name I think you will find my same detailed advice all throughout last year since the Intels came out.
I can't find it tonight, but there is a Knowledge Base article from Apple that advices the same thing. Folks take the whole process for granted because Macs "just work," but if you think about it, what is more critical than Security or Mac OS X updates? So when folks come here spittin nails and cursing Apple engineers because they didn't really pay any attention to any special instructions that came with the firmware update and they screwed the pooch, had to erase and reinstall and lost all their data because they didn't have a backup, I give 'em my best Sunday mornin' sermon about how to fix it and how not to have it happen again.
I've had Macs since the first one when I went to Dallas, TX for grad school at SMU in 1984 and I barely could say hello in English and maxxed my Papa's bank card to buy it cause I didn't know how to type, and I've never had a major issue on a one of them, no major repairs. I have done stupid things and had to erase and reinstall, but it was my own dumb idea that didn't work!
I guess that is much more answer than you really wanted!

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Trouble updating to 10.5.5 and now imac won't start!

Yesterday I updated my imac G5 to 10.5.5. I already updated my macbook and had no issues, so I thought this update would be just fine. I repaired disk permissions first, and then ran the update.
I left the computer to reboot and install the update, and came back to find an error message-- that the update failed.
I rebooted the computer and it wouldn't start. It gets stuck on the gray apple start-up screen-- the thing spins, and that's it. It was like that for 30 minutes so I just shut the computer down.
In my 15 years of owning macs this is the first time I've had an update fail-- so badly that I can't start the computer. Help!

A clone would make it simple, you can just re-clone back from the clone and have a working system again.
To eject the CD reboot the Mac and hold down the eject key as soon as you do. With any luck it will pop the CD out even if it doesn't finish booting.
If not, you Mac is old enough it might just have a little hole next to the CD player. If it does just stick a paper clip in there and you can pop it out. I don't know why Apple got rid of that, very useful.
If no hole you'll have to open up the Mac to manually eject the disk. I've never opened up an iMac so I don't know how it works on that Mac.
Otherwise you will have to get a firewire drive with a system on it or a firewire DVD player to boot from the Leopard install disk. Maybe you can borrow one.
You can also use another Mac, connect the two by firewire cable. Make sure your computer is off and the other is on then connect via firewire. Start yours up and hold down the t key so it won't boot but will start up in target mode. It should show up on the other computer as a hard drive on the desktop. Doesn't matter if yours won't boot with a system because you are bypassing the system and turning it into a standard hard drive temporarily.
Then you can eject the CD from the other computer, or even start up the other computer on the Leopard Install CD and reinstall the system on your computer. An Erase & Install is probably your best bet right now.

Did latest security update, now emac won't start

Hello, please help. I'm only have one mac, so I'm desperate. I have an emac running os 10.4. I just performed the latest security update (and itunes and quicktime) now the mac won't start. I get to the apple logo and the spinning/loading icon and it stays there forever. I started from my original disc and did a disc utility check, and everything is allright with the hard drive. It was working perfectly until I installed the update and did the required restart!

Hi OneDayMatt, and a warm welcome to the forums!
I agree, but 3 points...
#1, When was the last time you saw truth in advertising?
#2, I only use Software Update to see what is needed, then get them for real via...
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/
That way I can wait a week or so, check the forums for potential problems, and get Permissions & such in order before installing.
#3, Being in the Right in an accident may not be all you can do to save your behind!

Software update, now apps won't start?

I just updated the software in my girlfriend's Iphone 3gs, and now the downloaded apps wind up on a separate page, and they won't start up. Their title pages just flash onscreen, then discontinue. No error messages.

It sounds ljke you interrupted an update that was failing. You said it was reinstalling upon reboot? Something's wrong there.
Clone the external drive to the internal.
Use Disk Utility to Restore your external to the internal or download and use CarbonCopyCloner.
Message was edited by: Gregory Mcintire

Installed updates, now coputer won't start

I clicked on install updates and then it wanted me to reboot, so I clicked on reboot. Now my computer will not start, a blue screen came up and it said " that a problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer". I turned the computer off for about 4 timesa and this message still comes up.
What is the problem and how can I fix this problem?

First, try safe mode and setup check disk in the command prompt. (Start - Run - type in "cmd" - type "chkdsk /F /R /B" and hit enter, say yes and restart the computer. Check disk will run and hopefully you can boot into Windows again.
Next, try using safe mode and uninstalling updates listed under Control Panel - Programs and Features - View Installed Updates - and remove one update at a time (starting with the latest); restart the computer and try to load Windows normally until you find the update that caused the problem.

Installed latest updates, now PB won't start up!

i installed the latest software updates for my powerbook g4 (running leopard) and it restarted normally after finishing the install.
after it restarted, i opened camino (my web browser) to check my gmail and when i signed in to gmail a dialogue box kept popping up saying that it "could not connect to spell check". huh? so then camino froze up (spinning color wheel of death) and i force quit it. when i tried to open it back up, the dock icon just bounced continuously and it never opened. so, i force quit it again. then i tried to open firefox, and same thing... bouncing dock icon, no firefox.
i went to restart the computer again, and it froze up during the restart process and i had to just push the power button to shut it off. then when i pushed the power button to turn it back on, it would not restart. it goes through the grey screen with the apple logo and the progress wheel, and then the screen goes black, and then goes back to the grey screen w/apple logo and progress wheel, screen goes black again, and repeat. i finally just shut it down.
any ideas *** might be going on here? i installed 4 updates, if i remember correctly one was for itunes, one was for my ipod nano software, one was a security update and one was for ilife. i have no idea why installing apple updates would totally fry my laptop... any help is appreciated.
p.s. i have tried resetting the PRAM to no avail. nothing happens. on another note, my battery has not been charging for the last couple of weeks (if the laptop is not plugged in to the ac adapter, it dies immediately). this is the second battery i have for this PB... the first one was recalled.

ok... i just got back from the apple store genius bar and the tech was able to boot my computer up to another mac using a fire wire cable so that i could transfer my files off (i have an emac, so when i got home i hooked them together with a fire wire cable, pressed and held the 't' key while starting the PB up, and it booted as a drive on my emac so i could copy my important files over).
my next step is to send it out to apple service. unfortunately i don't have apple care coverage, but it will only cost $310 plus tax to fix EVERYthing that is wrong with it. this works out to be a pretty good deal since i'm fairly sure i need a new logic board, dc inboard, battery, and lower memory slot. hopefully they'll be able to fix all that and send my PB back to me good as new.
unfortunately, i don't know how to solve the 'not being able to start up' issue, and i'm sorry to hear others are having the same issue. the tech at apple was not able to get my PB to start back up even after resetting the PMU. hopefully someone else will find a solution to this... as for me i'm just going to bite the bullet and send it out to get fixed.

Failed update, now macbook won't start

I got a notice that I had updates available and clicked install and restart. After loading the updates, it said all updates had failed and then restarted on it's own. However, it just went to a blue screen that gets brighter and darker with the scrolling wheel popping up every few seconds. I tried an SMP reset, a safe restart by holding down the shift key at restart and also held down option, ctrl, p, r for three restart cycles. none of this is working. Any suggestions for what may be wrong and how to fix it?

Start you MacBook Pro with the original DVD that came with the MacBook Pro and run disk utility on your hard drive to repair it, also repair your permissions.

Cancelled update, now Firefox won't start

Last night I cancelled a Firefox update while it was in the process of updating (because I'm a bit of a curmudgeon) and now when I click the Firefox icon on my tool bar, it just bounces once and then does not open. I tried downloading the newest version of Firefox just a minute ago but it is not compatible with my system, thus I'm not sure what to do as I rely of Firefox and all the bookmarks I have saved. Can you please send me an update link so that I can update, and actually let it update this time? I'm running a Mac that I purchased new in July 2007, so I'm not certain of the OS or any other features.
Kindly,
Marit

Firefox 4 and later require at least OS X 10.5 and an Intel Mac.<br />
You should consider updating to OS X 10.5
* http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/6.0/system-requirements/
Firefox 3.6.x (Mac OS X 10.4 and later) can be found here:
* http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-older.html

Installed latest Safari update, now iMac won't boot?

OK, I'm baffled. This has never happened before. I was using my machine just fine this afternoon. I got a notification that new software was available and I checked and it said it was a safari update. So I downloaded and chose to reboot later when I finished all my work and closed a bunch of items down.
I went upstairs to eat dinner, and came back down expecting to see the machine up and running. Uh-Uh. So I held the side button down until it beeped and then released it. Heard the "ta-da" and the black screen turned light gray but no slotted pinwheel. It stays right there. I tried pulling the plug for 10-15 seconds, same deal. It stops after the musical intro on the gray screen and never gos further.
Is there any way to force-boot the system? Is this what some people refer to as "freezing" or planned obsolescence? I bought an iMac because I was tired of fighting with PC hardware, OS's, and viruses. I would hate to believe that Apple has sunken so low so as to plan the early death of this marvelous machine. Its shameful that I have to use an old PC to get on an Apple Support site and ask about what's wrong with my Mac. At least with the PCs you can easily rip them apart and replace bad components. Here I'm trapped in Apple's all-in-one don't you dare take it apart design.
Hopefully there's a easy way out and maybe someone will clue me in.
Doc

No, Apple is not out to get you.
What is most likely is simply the physics of magnetic media. From your description I'd say something untoward happened during the Safari install. Whether that was corruption of your directory or a physical failure of your hard drive or something else I can't say, but the first step should be to locate your Install DVD and see if you can boot from it. Insert the disk while the screen is grey; the iMac should still "eat" it. If not you'll need to find an external DVD drive and use that.
Assuming you have a DVD loaded and the machine boots from it the first thing I would do is run Disk Repair on your internal hard drive. You will find this in the menu options on screen, upper left hand side... I can't remember the exact sequence, but poke around, you'll find Disk Utilities, one of which is Disk Repair. Run that and hopefully your problem will be solved. If not you can resort to stronger medicine like DiskWarrior or TechTool Pro, but those are 3rd party apps that costs quite a bit of $$$. If you don't want to try repairing and your Mac boots from the Install disk you can (hopefully you've kept a backup of your data) try a fresh install of OS X, or drop into an Apple Store and see what they can do for you at the Genius Bar. Good luck!

Firmware update, now it won't start poperly!

I just got my macbook back from a 29 day service, the shutdown problem, guess that dosen't matter.
However it workt fine to boot up and everyting was going fine, until I did the firmware update for SMC? The fan speed control update!
There is no doubt that the fans sounds more, they are! Alot more. Well thats not the problem.
The thing is, when I power on my macbook the only thing that happends are the "sound loop" and a black screen. Nothing more! After some google-ing i found out that I maby had to reset the "PRAM"? After powering on press altfunktionkey+RP and the machine reboots. At first I thought that solved my problem, but I have to keep resetting it every singel time I reboot/power-on the computer and that is realy annoying.
So the BIG question is, is it possible to downgrade the firmware back to the old one? And if it is HOW do I do it?
Thanks for your sugesstions!

here is the link to repair permision:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25751
just restart using your installer disc by pressing C when the disc already inside the macbook, or press option key and choose 10.4.x folder from the disc.
Then go to disk utility and repair permission, and hope that solved your problem, and repairing disk while you are there won't hurt either.
You can also reset the pmu too.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303319
Good Luck

Ran updates, now computer won't start up

Hi,
My sister just ran a bunch of software updates. A message appeared that said couldn't update iDVD because program could not be found. Then it asked to restart the computer, which she did. A grey screen appeared with the apple in the middle and a spinning disk. Then after a long while it went to a blue screen sometimes with a spinning disk again. She has tried to reboot but the same thing happens. Any thoughts? Thank you!!

Hi help209, and a warm welcome to the forums!
Could be many things, we should start with this...
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Tiger Install disc that came with your computer, 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."
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Then try a 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.
(Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive.)
The usual reason why updates fail or mess things up, is if Permissions are not fixed before & after every update, with a reboot... you may get a partial update when the installer finds it doesn't have Permissions to change one obscure little part of the OS, leaving you with a mix of OS versions.
Some people get away without Repairing Permissions for years, some for only days.
If Permissions are wrong before applying an update, you could get mixed OS versions, if Directory is the slightest messed up, who knows!
If many Permission are repaired, or any Directory errors are found, you may need to re-apply some the latest/biggest updates.
May even need to do an Archive and Install if you have room on the HD, but saves all your files and gives a new OS...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107120
I only use Software Update to see what is needed, then get them for real via...
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/
That way I can wait a week or so, check the forums for potential problems, and get Permissions & such in order before installing.
If all the above fails, then it appears to be time for a relatively painless Archive & Install, which gives you a new/old OS, but can preserve all your files, pics, music, settings, etc., as long as you have plenty of free disk space and no Disk corruption, and is relatively quick & painless...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107120
Just be sure to select Preserve Users & Settings.

After installing update, iMac won't start up

After installing the last updates my iMac won't start up, starts what look like install then just shuts down.

Would you care to tell us what exact model and version of iMac and what version of OS X you are using? We need a hint to help you.
Hope this helps .

IMac won't start without install disc

Hi, I'm new to all of this. I tried resetting my admin password using install disc on my iMac as I'd forgotten it. Now iMac won't start without disc. If disc is ejected on restart apple logo flashes between no entry sign and folder with "?" on it. Will start up with install disc in, but then wants me to choose language and install OS. Tried repairing and verifying HD and all seems ok. Tried holding option key and selecting HD on startup, but same outcome - choose language and install OS. How do I get back to normal desk top? Do I have to install OS again? Will I lose data? Please, please help! Thanks.

It should only take a minute or so at most to boot from the DVD.
If your sure you have the correct Install Disk for that iMac, I'd start over. Then if it still doesn't work then perhaps a trip to your Local Apple Service Provider with the Disk or Disk and iMac is in order.
http://www.apple.com/buy/locator/service/
Alternately using the correct Disk as per the following article, see if you can run the Apple Hardware Test? > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509

Firefox update failed, so I re-installed. Now firefox won't start up at all?

''locking as a duplicate of https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/969557''
So I ran firefox, and it was updating. While updating, firefox crashed for no apparent reason so I had to close it. Afterwards, every time I tried to start up firefox, it gave me the update failed error, followed by a crash less than a second later. I followed some instructions, uninstalling and re-installing firefox (without removing personal data), but now firefox won't start up at all!
Now what?

We're sorry to hear that your Firefox seems to be crashing when you open it. Please perform the following steps to give us a crash report ID that helps us find out more about the cause of the crash.
#Press the following shortcut to get a Run window: [Windows] + [R]. This should bring up a window that contains a text field.
#In that text field, enter %APPDATA% and press Enter. An explorer window should open.
#From that explorer window, double-click on the ''Mozilla'' folder, then double-click on ''Firefox'' and then on ''Crash reports''. Double-click on ''submitted''.
#Now, you should see a list of files that contain reports. Go to ''View'' > ''Arrange Icons by'' > ''Modified'' to get the most recent files at the top of the window.
#Open the most recent 5 files with a text editor and copy the IDs.
#Paste each ID with '''bp-''' into the reply window on the forums.
Thanks in advance!
You can find more information and troubleshooting steps in the [[Firefox crashes]] article.

IMac won't start with Thunderbolt Display connected after firmware update

After updating my thunderbolt display firmware to version 1.2 this morning via the App Store, my mid-2014 iMac won't start up with the external display connected. I can get the iMac to start up only by disconnecting the display's thunderbolt connector. After the iMac comes up, I can reconnect the display and everything appears to function normally. I've tried several restarts and the iMac won't start up with the display connected. Anyone else experience this?

Hello rameta,
It may help to reset your Mac's SMC and PRAM.
Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
Reset your computer’s PRAM
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
Cheers,
Allen

OS updated, now iMac won't start

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