Power Mac G4 Boot-up problem?

I have a Power Mac G4 when it is turned on shows the apple, then OSX Loading window, then a blank blue sreen with a black turning wheel and then a black screen with small white letters at the top of screen that say,
"Darwin/BSB (my computer, local console)
login:
After I type in anything I hit the enter key,
password:
this Mac has no login nor a password except the enter key. After I hit the enter key a message appears for a millisec or long enough for me the read "incorrect password" the blue screeen with the black spinning wheel reappears then the afore mentioned black screen with white letters reappears.
Please help. Thank you for for time.

Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), does that bring up a login box?
If not let's try fooling it with a new admin user.
Reset OS X Password Without an OS X CD...
http://theappleblog.com/2008/06/22/reset-os-x-password-without-an-os-x-cd/
Admin Hack...
http://www.hackmac.org/?q=node/4
Starts up like the first time you buy a new Mac, but after filling in all that info again, you should have access to the computer and the other Users & files will still be there... give the new User a different name than an existing one.

Similar Messages

Power Mac G4 & OS 9 Problem...can use some help!

I have a Power Mac G4 with an OS 9 operating system that is around ten years old. It has been reliable over the years until now. This morning, I started my G4 and everything was like any other day. The OS 9 window appeared and after the extensions folder icons finished loading on the bottom on the screen, a new window came up afterward, telling me that the 'Time Sychronizer' error #41 existed and to restart. I rebooted and again the same thing happened. I tried one more time and the same thing happened.
Next, I figured I would by-pass the extensions folder, and I restarted with the shift key down. The OS 9 window did display itself along with it telling me that the extensions folder was 'off.' To my surprise, the error window came up again, telling me that there was an error #41 and to restart. I have been in this loop all morning and I can't get out. Even if I had to reinstall the a new operating system...how do I by-pass the the aforementioned loop within my computer to get to the installation information, etc.
Can anyone tell me what is going on? What can I do? Can it be fixed? Is it a major problem or, a simple one the can be resolved? Any answers out there? Help!!!!!
Thanks,
HJ

Hi, HJ -
Error #41 is a somewhat generic one, usually indicating that the OS itself is damaged. This Apple KBase article addresses that -
Article #TS2207 - Mac OS: Error Type 41
The solution given is to re-install just the Core OS files. In order to do that iou will need to use an OS 9 Install CD valid for that machine, and of a version equal to the installed OS 9 version.
Boot to the CD, run the installer - when you select your hard drive and click okay, you'll be asked what you want to do - click Reinstall. On the last page of the installer, the page with the Start button, click the Customize button.
On the new page, uncheck everything (make sure they have neither checks nor dashes) except Mac OS 9.x; to the right of it is a pulldown menu, preset at Recommended Installation - select Customized Installation from that.
In the new window, uncheck everything except the first item, Core System Software - again, make sure none of the other boxes have checks or dashes. Click Okay, click Start. That will re-install the System, Finder, other basic OS files, and nothing else.
<hr>
Even if I had to reinstall the a new operating system...how do I by-pass the the aforementioned loop within my computer to get to the installation information, etc.
In order to do a re-install (Core System or complete) you will need to boot the machine to an appropriate CD.
When you boot the machine to a CD, the OS on the CD is running the machine. This means that nothing on the hard drive is in use, including any damaged files. This is one of the primary virtues of retaining install disks - they allow the machine to be booted, and usually repaired, regardless of the state of health of the OS on the hard drive.
<hr>
If you do not have an OS 9 Install CD of a version equal to that of the installed OS 9, you will need to re-install the complete OS. The easiest way to do that is to use the Software Install CD that came with the machine, or a later version retail OS 9 Install CD. Boot to that CD, and on the page where you select the destination drive click the Options button. On the new page checkmark the Clean Installation option, okay the page, continue the installation.
Note that with OS 9 a Clean Install will not remove anything - it will install a brand new System Folder and do little else.
Article #TA43881 - Mac OS 8, Mac OS 9: Performing a Clean Installation
A Software Restore CD can not be used to do a Clean Install, and, if appropriate care is not taken, can result in the loss of data on the hard drive.

Power Mac G4 400 Startup Problem

Working on my brother's system. He ran software update and rebooted and now we get the grey screen with the apple logo and the counter icon, then the starting Mac OS X screen, the progress bar gets to about the half way point then the screen alternates between being totally blue and briefly flashing the round counter icon.
I've tried resetting PRAM, NVRAM, booting to OS boot DVD and running Disk Utility - nothing has worked. Although it did boot to the DVD with no problem.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Tom

Tom, welcome, it is always a good idea to Repair Permissions before and after updates.
Bootup from the install CD (C key held down) and once the disk mounts (X window) open Disk Utility from the Main Menu under Installer. Choose your drive in the left column then select First Aid, now run the Repair, if it does not repair run it again. Now select the startup volume (with the OS) and run the Repair Permissions, quit Disk Utility.
Now go back up to the Main Menu under Install/Change Startup Disk and select your startup volume then Restart.
Repair Permissions.
Joe
Power Mac G4 Gigabit Ethernet Mac OS X (10.3.9) 1.5 GB Ram, ENCORE/ST G4, Tempo SATA, ATI Radeon 9000, Adaptec 4000

Power Mac G5 dual processor problem

So I've got a Power Mac G5 Dual 1.8Ghz that I bought used that only had one processor working. When started up, the screen hangs after the gray start up screen. I figure replacing both processors would fix the problem. Having bought 2 new processors, I installed them and now the computer won't boot at all. The power light comes on but doesn't stay on, the fans spin but nothing comes up on the screen. Is this a logic board problem? Any help would be appreciated.

BDAqua wrote:
Hi Jade8503, and a warm welcome to the forums!
After changing CPUs you need to calibrate everything for one, look for Apple Service Diagnostics, ASD 2.6.3 I think, not sure which G5s that is for actually, but it's a start.
2.5.8 should work on that machine as well.

Power Mac G4 having video problems -green dots and pixelated lines

Yesterday my Power Mac G4 running OS X (10.5.1) started having unusual video problems. I started to notice green dots on the screen where the mouse pointer had been or where application windows had recently been. The severity of the video symptoms seem to vary - from a cluster of green pixels to slight amount of fuzz in text.
I'm thinking that this is a symptom of a problem with the video card starting to fail but I haven't ruled out the Apple Studio Display either. While the Mac was still under Apple Care support, I did have the video card replaced a few years ago due to symptoms that were much more severe than this.
Should I get a new video card? Could it be the display at fault? How expensive would it be to take it in to the local Apple store for diagnosis/repair?
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro:
Chipset Model: ATY,R300
Type: Display
Bus: AGP
Slot: SLOT-1
VRAM (Total): 128 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x4e44
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-A06500-124
Displays:
Apple Studio Display:
Display Type: LCD
Resolution: 1280 x 1024
Depth: 32-bit Color
Core Image: Hardware Accelerated
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Supported
Rotation: Supported
Display Connector:
Status: No display connected

Installed a new video card (ATI Radeon 9600) along with the "Apple DVI to ADC Display Adapter" - seems to be fixed now! Thanks for the advice!
ATI Radeon 9600:
Chipset Model: ATY,RV351
Type: Display
Bus: AGP
Slot: SLOT-1
VRAM (Total): 256 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x4150
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-A73503-202
Displays:
Apple Studio Display:
Display Type: LCD
Resolution: 1280 x 1024
Depth: 32-bit Color
Core Image: Hardware Accelerated
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Supported
Display Connector:
Status: No display connected

Power Mac G5 boot issue

Hi all,
I'm having trouble's with my recently aquired Power Mac G5. It's the dual 2.7GHz liquid cooled model, 2GB DDR-400 (4x 512), 2x 160GB drives. It all originally started with a coolant leak which seems to be a pretty common occurance with these models, however I repaired this (which included replacing the power supply unit). The RAM, HDDs and PRAM battery are all brand new.
The unit will power up when you hit the power button (i.e, the fans rev up as normal, the hard drives spin up and you can hear the liquid cooling pump running) but the power LED doesn't stay on. It only illuminates when you actually press the button. There is no boot chime or anything displayed on the monitor. The fans eventually speed up to max speed and you can feel that the CPUs are generating heat. The unit will switch off if you hold down the power button for a few seconds.
The diagnostic LED next to the RAM only illuminates when you remove the air deflector (and HDD bay fan revs up accordingly) and there is no obvious visual damage to the unit. There is a red LED underneath the CPU & cooling unit however, but I haven't found any information about what this one is for.
Any information on this would be greatly appreciated! Thanks

Hi,
Just an update. I removed the front-panel board completely and started the machine by shorting the power button pins on the logic board. Unfortunately there was no difference to the start-up than mentioned originally so we can assume that the front-panel board is working OK.
While I was at it, I also tried a full PRAM/SMU reset by removing power and battery for 20 minutes, reinstalling the battery, pressing PRAM Reset, plugging back in and starting, but was also unsucessful
Jake

Power Mac wont boot

ok I just bought my very 1st first mac last month its a power Mac G4 When I put it into sleep mode i had a black out about an hour later when i tried to start it up I got a gray screen with the apple symbol and the and the scroll symbol hanging I was able to get to the Dos command single user screen and it says this
well this is part of it
(ipc/send) invalid destination port : initCGDISPLAYSTATE cannot map display interlocks
KCG ERROR Failure : CGS NEW CONNECTION CANNOT CONNECT TO SERVER INIT_PROCESSES Could not establish connection to window server./etc/rc.boot: line 1 11ABORT open
KEY:
What does that mean ??? and how can I get it to boot normally and
I have no Boot disk or nothing like that ...

Hi Chris-1, and welcome to the forums!
Oh boy, you're up a creek without the Install Disks, in fact legally speaking, the License to use OSX goes with the Install disc, they should've included it!
Tough without a Tiger Disk, but try fsck...
To use fsck, you must run it from the command line. Unlike using your mouse to open an application to do something, you'll need to type a text command at the prompt (#) to tell fsck what to do. The Terminal application (/Applications/Utilities) and single-user mode are two examples of command-line interfaces in which you can type such commands. To use fsck:
1. Start up your computer in single-user mode to reach the command line. Hold CMD+s keys down at bootup. Note: If necessary, perform a forced restart as described in the Emergency Troubleshooting Handbook that came with your computer. On desktop computers, you can do this by pressing the reset/interrupt button (if there is one) or holding down the power button for several seconds. On portable computers, simultaneously press the Command-Control-power keys. If your portable computer doesn't restart with this method, you may need to reset the Power Manager.
2. At the command-line prompt, type /sbin/fsck -fy
(space between fsck and -fy important)
3. Press Return. fsck will go through five "phases" and then return information about your disk's use and fragmentation. Once it finishes, it'll display this message if no issue is found: ** The volume (nameofvolume) appears to be OK  If fsck found issues and has altered, repaired, or fixed anything, it will display this message: *** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED ***   Important: If this message appears, repeat the fsck command you typed in step 2 until fsck tells you that your volume appears to be OK (first-pass repairs may uncover additional issues, so this is a normal thing to do).
4. When fsck reports that your volume is OK, type reboot at the prompt and then press Return.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214

Mac Mini boot up problem.

Recently, I started to come across a rather annoying problem. Whenever I start my mac mini, boot menu comes up as if "alt" key was pressed. I choose HD and then mac mini boots normally. I suspected an imminent HD failure and checked the HD for errors with OSX built in disk utility and third party SMART utility. Nothing seems to be wrong with volume and smart tests are OK. While the OSX is running, I don't see any unusual problems like stalls, beach ball or so. Any ideas appreciated.
Mac mini 3,1 OSX SL 10.6.8.

No, I doubt it's a hard drive failure although that cannot be ruled out yet. I would first consider doing a reinstallation of OS X:
Reinstall OS X without erasing the drive
Do the following:
1. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard 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 Utilities menu. 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.
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. Reinstall Snow Leopard
If the drive is OK then quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with reinstalling OS X. Note that the Snow Leopard installer will not erase your drive or disturb your files. After installing a fresh copy of OS X the installer will move your Home folder, third-party applications, support items, and network preferences into the newly installed system.
Download and install the Combo Updater for the version you prefer from support.apple.com/downloads/.
Let's see if that fixes the problem. Any chance you have another keyboard you can try? In case this doesn't help.
BTW, are you really a physicist? If so what specialty?

Power Mac G4 boots in OS9 first then OS X

I just updated from OS 9.2.2 to OS 10.1.2. When I power up I get the OLD OS 9 face icon, then I get the X icon. When the computer finished booting, I have a blue screen with only the speaker ICON and the time visible in the upper right hand corner. There is no dock visible, no hard drive and no folder for OS 9. I can click on the time, click on show time and date and get the the sysem preferences, but I can't do anything. If I go to force quiet, it shows the finder ICON for OS 9 over and over again, like it's stuck or something. If I boot the computer in OS 9.2.2, I have no problems. I know the OS X software is there, I just can't access it.
If I boot into Open Firmware it shows my boot device as the following:
/pci@f200000/pci-bridge@d/mac-io@7/ata-4@1f000/@0:9\\:tbxi hd;,\\:tbxi
Is this somehow telling the computer the boot in OS 9.2.2 even thow I choose the startup disk as OX 10.1.2
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

Hi Superboss,
Welcome to the discussions.
It would probably have been better for you to post this topic in this section:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=739
Mac OS X v10.3 Panther & earlier > Installation and Setup
I'll try and give you a hand anyway.
Make sure you have at least 1 Gig of free hard drive space - OS X is quite particular about that.
Boot up in OS 9, then go to Startup Disk. Check to see that a System X is available. If it is, select that system then restart.
If the same thing happens as before, your installation of OS X has failed somehow (the computer can't find a properly working OS X). Provided you haven't applied any updates later than what is on your OS X installation disc, try a re-install of OS X. If that doesn't work, then try an "Archive and Install" (you get to that via the "Options" button in the installation process). Note that you will need enough free space on your hard drive to install a second OS X.
Do not try "Erase and Install" or you will lose access to everything, including OS 9.
If , after all this, you still have problems, then I would suspect the installation disk itself. Is this installation the full retail version, or was it originally bundled with another machine? You should be using a full retail version, as the other editions are machine specific and using them on another machine can cause problems.
Be sure to back up all your important data before you do any of this.
Let us know how you go.
Cheers!
Karl

My Power Mac G4 booted from an OS 9.1 install CD, and then froze up. Now I turn the machine on, beeps 3 times, power button blinks 3 times. What does this mean?

I tried to install Mac OS 9.1. I turned the computer on, heard the bong noise (although with some static), and inserted the OS 9.1 installation CD. It started to boot, but froze up. I rebooted the machine, and the same thing happened. One more reboot, and i get 3 beeps and the power button is blinking. What does this mean?

Hi, it indicates a RAM problem, (or Logic Board around the RAM).
The power on self-test resides in the ROM of the computer. This test runs whenever the computer is turned on after being fully shut down (the power-on self-test does not run if the computer is only restarted).
If a fault is detected during the test, you will not hear a normal startup chime. Instead, the system will beep as explained below. If you experience one of these beeps, you may call your Apple Authorized Service Provider for additional troubleshooting assistance.
1 beep = no RAM installed
2 beeps = incompatible RAM types
3 beeps = no good banks
4 beeps = no good boot images in the boot ROM (and/or bad sys config block)
5 beeps = processor is not usable
In addition to the beeps, on some computers the power LED will flash a corresponding number of times plus one. The LED will repeat the sequence after approximately a 5-second pause. The tones are only played once.
Note: In this case, a flash is considered to be 1/4 second or 250 ms or greater in length.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1547

G5 Power Mac Wont Boot

Hello, all.
I'm trying to fix a G5 tower, power pc with issues booting. The owner was browsing a large folder of images when, suddenly, the pinwheel of death began spinning without end. He had to reboot the system. When he now boots the system, there is the white/grey screen with the apple logo and the fans go on overdrive after several minutes of idling on the screen.
When we booted from our 10.4 disk, we could not repair or verify our hard disk. It said that the disk could not unmount. We even installed a brand new hard drive, but we couldn't install 10.4 on it. We even tried to verify the new drive after the failed installation and we got the same "unmount" error.
I'm not sure what to do. I've searched and browsed other posts, but I can't seem to find any similar issues. Perhaps someone can help?
Thanks,
J

Hi Jeremy, did you pull the old Drive when trying to Install to the new one?
If you have anther Mac With Firewire, you might try putting the G5 into FireWire target disk mode...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58583

Power Mac G4 - corrupted disk problem?

The G4 will turn on, but I unable to log in. Tried rebooting. Lost Disk 1 and 2. Neighbor's friend repairs Macs and he suggested that I purchase Tiger and new hard drive. I purchased Tiger, but not a new hard drive yet (don' know what to buy!)
Inserted Tiger disk and went to Utilities, then run on Hard Drive, and tried to Repair Disk, but "First aid failed" - disk utility stopped repairing Mac HD because "the underlying task reported failure on exit."
I spoke to another Mac repair person and he suggested that I remove the hard drive and send it to him for disk repair/recovery.
Was able to remove ribbon cable. I tried to unplug the cord bundle with no success. It's underneath the drive and hard to get to. Also, I cannot figure out how to remove both the case and drive from computer. There's a plastic lever on the left hand side. What do I do with it? And where is the screw I'm supposed to unscrew?
Should I remove the drive and send for repair? Or should I install a new hard drive and install Tiger on that? If I install Tiger on new drive, what will be left on my computer? Anything programs that came with the computer?
I found this from another message and looks similar to what I have:
http://ebay.dncomputers.com/pictures/i1012143p8-TCsN7pTbGv.jpg?
Thank you.
Linda

What type of G4 do you have? You may be limited by the 128 GB barrier...
When you say you "try to log in but it doesn't boot", this means the system is being recognized. All in all that is a good sign. What I would first try doing is unplugging all periphreals (PCI cards, printers, usb/firewire devices, etc. minus the monitor and keyboard obviously). Then start up holding the shift key, this will boot your computer into +safe mode+. If that gets you to your desktop, run disk utility from there and repair permissions.
If that doesn't work, you can boot into +single user mode+ and run fsck. This is another disk utility you can use. Here's instructions from Apple on using fsck. I advise reading the entire article, it will give you a lot of insight as to what steps you can take to fix the drive yourself.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Post back with your results.

Power mac g5 start up problems

i have a powermac g5 and it was working fine yesterday, now today i turned it on and it showed a world flashing icon and i waited forever but nothing happened... then my friend tried to start it and it did the same thing but this time it showed the flashing world icon which its blue then after awhile it showed a flashing question mark then it finally showed my desktop
i seriously need some help it is running even slower than ever

Hi there, it's having trouble with the Hard Disk.
Could be many things, we should start with this...
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Tiger 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. (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 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.)
If perchance you can't find your install Disc, at least try it from the Safe Boot part onward.

Battle Field BC 2 Mac pro boot camp problem

Im very new to boot camp and al of that stuff.
I installed windows 7 on my mac pro, then i installed the snow leopard cd.
Then i installed BFBC2 and when i try to start it up it starts gathering info then one part of my screen goes white and the mouse starts loading then everything goes back to normal and it doesn't start.
I wonder if there is any drivers i have to install or something i forgot to do.
Please help me!

32-bit limits your RAM and with 1GB ATI 57x0 that does matter, but if you bought retail, you have both, though many just opt for System Builder which is half the price (and have SP1 now already).
Realtek Drivers
AMD_ATI Drivers Software

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

Power Mac G4 Boot-up problem?

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