PowerMac G4 with Tiger loads only spotlight

A computer here at my work loads only the spotlight icon -- the rest of the screen is just the typical blue desktop.
Everything looks like it's loading fine up to that point, but that's all that shows up and you get the color wheel of death if you hover the mouse over spotlight.
Starting it up in safe mode simply turns off the computer too.
Any tips? Thanks.

Hi, Kyle.
You wrote: "Starting it up in safe mode simply turns off the computer too."That usually indicates that your startup disk is severely corrupted. See: "Mac OS X 10.4: Computer shuts down during Safe Boot."
I suggest you begin troubleshooting using the procedure specified in my "Resolving Disk, Permission, and Cache Corruption" FAQ. Perform the steps therein in the order specified.
Good luck!
Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X
Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:
I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

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Desktop freeze on user load- only spotlight icon appears

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Has anyone else experienced this fault which is now becoming 'frequent' or more importantly can anyone advise how to fix it, without losing any user data?
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Hi Jon, Welcome to Apple Discussions.
Try starting in "Safe Mode". If all works well there, then delete these 2 files:
com.apple.finder.plist
com.apple.sidebarlists.plist
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Then restart normally and let us know.
-mj
[email protected]
Message was edited by: macjack

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My firefox is not loading when my mouse pointer is inactive. It is loading only if i do something with mouse pointer.
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Websites loaded only with question marks.

Some websites are loaded only with question marks after I updated to Firefox 4.0.1. I have attached a screenshot in the link below.
[http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/2462/wmarks.png http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/2462/wmarks.png]

Update Skype to the latest version. The one you have installed at the moment is incompatible with Firefox. See https://www.mozilla.com/en-US/blocklist/
In addition, go to Add-ons | Extensions and disable "BitDefender Antiphishing Toolbar". Test your sites where you get the question marks to see if it rectifies the problem. If it doesn't, you can re-enable it again.
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If the problem persists, try running Firefox in [[Safe Mode]]. If it functions properly in that configuration, then one of your add-ons is the culprit.

I just received my i phone 4,inserted Amayim with 4G plan,but showing noservice and bar with emergency calls only screen.Also when i down loaded i tunes to my laptop (windows7) there is an error(9808) message saying i tunes store not supported completely.

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first of all the iphone 4 is not a 4G phone
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Why did carefully over heating my 4s restore the wifi function? This, after 2 months of mysteriously grey out wifi buttons, loads of time trying to resolve issue with apple tech only to be told I must pay $199 to repair the problem. I'm disillusioned now

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Every time I use safari on my macbook pro with retina display, only half the page will load then it freezes up?

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Hi. When you were in the recovery drive doing permissions, did you try and run a repair of the boot drive? Did you try single user mode? Try these first and then go back and try to reinstall the operating system.When I say repair boot drive I don't mean permissions. There are both options in disk utilities.When you open disk utilities ,you will see in the left column two drives plus possibly a boot partition that look like an external driv. click on the second drive and in first aid use repair disk. If you still can't boot and it will not let you restore, you may have to do a clean install. http://support.apple.com/kb/PH18869?viewlocale=en_US

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Hi,
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Hi Spongeofthedead
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cheers
gt

MBP HD Loaded with Tiger work in MB?

I am about to upgrade the HD in my MBP, and have a friend who needs a new drive for his MB. Does anyone know if I was to format my old drive and re-install Tiger on my MPB, if that drive with Tiger would work in a MB, or would there be issues due to hardware differences in the two systems?

I would suggest formatting the drive that you take out to put in the MacBook. The friend/MacBook owner should then install his Tiger and files onto it.
A method: 1. Clone MacBook current drive to an external drive.
2. Install and format new drive (that is actually your old one).
3. Move cloned drive info from external to the new/used internal.
Here's good instructions for the MacBook: [How to Upgrade Your MacBook's Hard Drive|http://www.macinstruct.com/node/130]
Note that the trial/free version of SuperDuper will work for this.

This machine is not compatible with Tiger OS X 10.4

Ok i'm trying to reformat my macbook pro
( 15 2.0ghz 2 gigs ram 80 gig hardrive, ALL UPDATES, FIRMWARE up to date.) I am not only unable to get it to boot from the DVD/install disk (I"ve tryed holding C/ reinserting the disk, turning it on holding C, booting from CD in startupdisk, holding c and my breath at the same time - pretty much everything. Obviously we've got a problem.
The disk is fine- reads fine, no scratches.
When I try to run OSX install from the DVD it says " Machine not compatible with tiger osx. Upon reading up on this **** it's acting like a firmware issue, however my firmware is up to date. I'm going on 3 hours of just trying to boot from my disk and I have to tell you all, I'm seriously thinking of just loading XP on this thing and calling it a night and an end to macs. I could have reformatted and loaded 4 computers if I were using XP. I appreciate any help, though and I know a lot of you are familiar grief and pain in here, so thanks for the help!

Thanks for all the help - I have wasted countless hours of my life on a computer, but I have learned. Tiger install disks are all for different machines. When I called apple for a replacement tiger disk for my macbook pro, I found out my apple care expired last month and that it would cost $40. As much as I would like to have one - i'm probably won't buy one, I'll look for "other" ways of getting one for sure.
Word to the wise - goto an apple store - they re-install tiger for free. Took me 15 minutes and cost me $0. I don't have a few apps like Ilife, and other meaningless programs that were originally on my macbook pro, but like I told the guy at apple, give me some bad news! I am so sick of macs, I"m still trying to get bootcamp to load XP over 4 days later- the pain is neverending, but thanks for the responses everyone, it's nice to know i'm not the only one in |-|ELL....
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Message was edited by: sickofmacs

More Heat/Fan Issues with Tiger--Help

I have followed the heat & fan issues for sometime. However, I finally decided it was time to move from 10.3.9 to 10.4.3.
I upgraded yesterday, first using the upgrade option to move from 10.3.9 to 10.4.0 and then installed the 10.4.3 combo upgrade. I've repaired permissions and rebuilt the disk directory using Disk Warrior. There were no directory errors and only a couple of trivial permissions changes.
However, my Powerbook's fans are running constantly and my CPU heat is always pegged at about 135 degrees F, which is as hot as it ever gets. This happens within about 40 minutes of starting the Powerbook up cold and it stays that way for as long as I'm using it, regardless if there are any apps being used.
Activity Monitor indicates that the launchd process is using from 18% to 20% of my CPU, even with nothing else running. I've disabled all Spotlight indexing and I've turned Dashboard off. It appears that it's the lanchd process that is accounting for the extra heat and fan use. It simply won't drop below the 18% to 20% of CPU. There is no other process that is using any significant amount of my CPU when nothing else is running.
My processor is set at Automatic, the same as when I was using 10.3.9.
I was using Silk, Application Switching Menu (ASM) and Macaroni, but I've uninstalled them. No change.
I've reset the Power Manager (including deleting the com.Apple.PowerManagement.xml file) and reset NVRAM. Again, no change.
Finally, when I boot back into 10.3.9 (on my backup hard drive), the fan activity and heat return to what I consider normal--much lower than with 10.4.3. Specifically, the heat and fan activity is directly related to CPU use. If I'm not doing anything, the heat drops and all the fans go off.
There is one other curious effect of 10.4.3 vs. 10.3.9. When I'm running Firefox (latest version), all Firefox user-interface stuff (menu selections, opening many tabs in succession, etc.) are MUCH more sluggish than when using 10.3.9. Frankly, I was expecting the opposite.
I would really like some help with this. I've read all the troubleshooing info on MacFixit and Macintouch related to heat and fan issues associated with Tiger.
12 1.5Ghz Powerbook Mac OS X (10.3.9)

I'm the originator of this thread and I appear to have an answer.
I tried an "Archive and Install" of Tiger, on top of my existing 10.4.3 install that was giving me the trouble I described above. I had the time today and figured "what the heck[ll]".
I then installed each additional piece (10.4.3 combo update, airport updates, quicktime updates, java updates, etc), stopping after each one to check CPU temperatures and CPU use in Activity Monitor.
I'm now back to a full 10.4.3 install, with all current recommended Apple software and I don't have the heat/CPU use problems I previously had. There is no significant use of the CPU by the launchd process.
I also re-enabled Spotlight indexing and that doesn't cause a problem either.
Also, my entire system is *MUCH* quicker and responsive. I wish I knew what piece in my previous system install was causing the problem, but hopefully my experience can help someone else. When in doubt, do an "Achive and Install" rather than an update to the previous system installation.
By the way, with heavy Spotlight indexing going on and mild web browsing, my CPU temp is just 112 to 115 degrees F. Previously, with no Spotlight indexing and with NO apps running, my CPU temp was maxed at 135 degrees with fans on full. And if you're reading this thread, you know what max fans sound like on a 12" PB.

ICal with Tiger and Leopard

Hi,
I have a PowerMac G5 running Tiger 10.4.11 and a powerbook pro laptop that runs Leopard. I cannot seem to have iCal work on Tiger: it keeps crashing after a few seconds, after sync starts asking to review conflicts. On the laptop with Leopard, there is no problem. Do you know if this problem can be resolved?
I tried to remove the Library/Application Support/SyncServices directory and redo the syncing but it does not work.
Thanks for any help,
marc

I have a problem that may give you the answer, though if it's correct it's not an answer you would like. I don't have iCal on my machine. I reinstalled the OS a few months back and I guess it didn't go with it. There was an installer in library/receipts in a package form, but the installation wouldn't go through. By the way, I'm running 10.4.11. Anyway, I went to Apple's download site and found that the only iCal they had on the site was for 10.3.9 at the latest. There was nothing past that to download. I'm thinking perhaps if you don't have the same iCal you did when you bought Tiger/your new computer, you're running a version that's not supposed to be on that version. Now I just have to find a copy of the program for Tiger. If not on Apple's site (and I tried versiontracker), then I don't really know where. That's really all I can think of.

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