Strange boot bug; open firmware not working

Hi!
I have a powerbook Alu 15", 1.5Ghz. It runs OS X 10.4.2 with the latest security update. My problem started last Saturday.
The problem is that my pb will not restart nor boot on its own. The computer makes its usual chime, the hard-disk starts to spin for a few second, and then stops suddenly before anything is displayed on the screen (the display does not even light-up). If I press the option key after or before the chime, and keep it pressed, or the shift key, or the c key, or the t key, or the command-option-p-r key combination, or even the command-option-o-f key combination, the behavior is exactly the same: the disk starts to spin for a few second after the chime, and suddenly halts. The computer appears to shutdown on its own before the boot can even start.
Here is the strange part: the computer boots normally if I press the command key (this key on its own is not suppose to do anything). It also works if I press the command-s or command-v key combination. No other key combination seem to work.
Except for this strange boot behavior, the computer works flawlessly. I did not have any kernel panic for at least a year, the computer did not crash recently, everything works fine except for one small detail on which I will come back at the end.
I've tried to fix the problem by the following actions:
1) Clean install of Tiger with a new partitioning of the disk; I even zeroed the entire disk. This did not change anything so the problem is probably not OS related.
2) Reset of the PMU with the four finger salute: shift-control-option-power combination. No effect except that I lost the date/time information. Hence the reset worked.
3) Tried to reset the PRAM, but the command-option-p-r key combination does not seem to work.
4) Tried to load the open firmware with command-option-o-f, but this does not work either.
5) Memory seems ok. I have 1x256M of Apple RAM + 1x1G of RAM bought from OWC. I've had the OWC RAM for about a year without any problem. Anyway, I removed the 1G module and tried to boot on the 256M Apple module alone. Exact same behavior. Then I removed the Apple module and put back the 1G module. Exact same boot behavior. So the problem is not with my RAM, unless both modules have simultaneously developed a malfunction.
6) Tried to run the Apple hardware tests. However, for my machine, these tests come on the install DVD, in a special hidden volume. To boot on this special volume, one needs to boot with the option key depressed, and to select the boot volume from the open firmware interface. But this does not work on my machine, the computer seems to shut down before this interface can be activated!
So this problem is very strange. I can live with having to press the command key for booting my machine, but I would sure like to know what is going on here. Is the problem hardware related? Perhaps, but as I said, the machine works flawlessly except for the strange boot behavior.
Is the problem related to firmware? I think that this is the most probable option. What do you think? Maybe, the firmware got slightly corrupted? Maybe a bit got flipped in the flash memory? Is this possible? I guess so. But, what can I do? Should I contact my friendly local repairman?! I have to admit that this option scares me a little bit for such a strange problem. I would need an Apple engineer with boot related experience/expertise!
Now, here is a little bit of further information. I don't know if its related, but it is also very strange. I work with a dual screen configuration. Usually, I connect my screen and then I wake up the computer. Last week, I noticed that if I connect my second screen live, the system detects it automatically. I guess this is new to Tiger? Anyway, the strange behavior is that the computer then asks me if I want to sleep, restart or shutdown my pb, as if I had pressed the power button. But I did not press this button when I connected the dvi connector >:-o
Many thank

Hi Scott!
Almost every time the PowerBook woke after sleep, I got the 'Are you sure you want to shut down your computer now...' message.
I get this message upon wake only rarely, but every time I plug or unplug a display live.
The strange behaviour was tolerable, so I've lived with it for several months. But then when checking out the PowerBook discussions, I read about the failing lower RAM slot problems, and just out of interest, checked out my System Profiler....
Ok, so the good news is that my pb may continue to work for several months
My lower RAM slot appears to be ok for now.
Interestingly, I'm sure that the start-up problems began when I started using my PowerBook with a 23" Apple Cinema Display (a pink hued one, but that's another on-going saga) - and you too have mentioned that you use an external display, so I wonder if that's part of the cause of our start-up problems.
Yes, I've noticed the 'Are you sure you want to shut down your computer now...' message just a few days before noticing the strange boot problem (not sure if the machine booted in between). I use ViewSonic displays (one at home and one at the office), and several different projectors in different class rooms. From what I read, it is plausible that there is a link between this problem and the dvi port. Could it be that the boot sequence of mb is affected by a hardware problem on the dvi port? But not when a press the command key?!
Anyway, my machine is no longer under warranty, so I intend to live with the problem for as long as possible...
But I've been doing more regular backups since then.
Best wishes to you and your (almost) new machine!
Marc.

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When I said "but dies when it tries to boot" and "..then no response." I meant that the keyboard works to power up the computer, but won't work for anything else. So, I am figuring that the usb ports are supplying power to the keyboard and mouse, but the usb ports aren't relaying information from the keyboard or mouse.
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Have you tried this key combo?
commandoption+of
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You could try another usb keyboard.
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Yes, I agree. You could try removing the clear plastic around the bottom of the machine. At least you will not have to slide in the carriage. Note. The tv portion will still be surrounded by plastic! Don't remove the plastic around the tv!
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Robert

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Summary:
Let me provide a little backstory.
According to the [DARPA Visitor Guidelines|http://www.darpa.mil/body/visitor_guidelines.html] wireless network technology is prohibited from DARPA facilities. Laptops with a wireless card are required to be "disabled at the BIOS level".
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A bit [more research|http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/805-4436/6j4719c8v?a=view] revealed that the device tree is not created by Open Firmware until after the nvramrc is executed. The solution is to build the device tree in the nvramrc and tell Open Firmware not to rebuild it. The documentation states that this is accomplished with the probe-all, install-console, and banner Forth commands. I added those commands to my nvramrc and rebooted. The contents of nvramrc:
probe-all install-console banner
dev wireless
" device-id" delete-property
" vendor-id" delete-property
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no active package
Apple PowerBook5,6 6.4.9.1f1 BootROM built on 01/21/05 at 10:51:16
Copyright 1994-2005 Apple Computer, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Welcome to Open Firmware, the system time and date is 05/06/2008 10:00:00
Command security mode
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ok
0 > _
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Question:
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Release keys to continue!_
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Getting more desperate...
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Again, since the laptop was open, why not remove the hard drive and see what happens. The machine wasn't even making it to the boot-loader hand-off so I didn't expect this to produce any results. No results produced.
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Cheers,
Mark

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Beltran Espinosa

We had to disable the 7300 on 10.5.8 because of issues with the driver. It should work on 10.6.3, but there may be driver problems with 10.6.4.

Keyboard & Trackpad only work before booting, USB devices also not working

Hi,
Yesterday I installed MacFuse and NTFS-3G because I needed to store some things on an external drive for work. I rebooted as was instructed in the install docs and that's when things got ugly.
When on the login screen I've got no keyboard or mouse. Hooking up an external keyboard and mouse didn't work either, they didn't seem to be powered from the USB ports.
Odd thing is: I can boot to safe mode or single user mode, but after letting it boot I lose keyboard again.
Things I've tried:
- Safe mode: keyb not working at logon screen
- Single user mode: keyb not working at prompt
- Zapping PRAM: Can zap PRAM, but keyb not working at logon screen
- Resetting SMC: keyb not working at logon screen
So at first I thought this was a hardware issue (since USB devices don't get power), but since the keys work when booting up I start to wonder if it's just a software issue.
Any thoughts on this?
EDIT: I now hooked on a mouse befor being at the login screen and it seems to get power right up until the apple logo appears (until OSX is booting I presume?). So definitely a software issue? I'll try the setup disc this evening, but I don't want to lose any data. What's the best way to do that?
Thanks in advance, by the way!
Message was edited by: Kiff

Hi,
Same problem here after a reboot on evening of the 12th, i can boot into hardware test and no problems found, trackpad, keyboard and external USB working ok but when I boot normally, none of the above work.
I'm fairly new to MacOS but could boot as an firewire drive OK to get files off the machine?
Anyone have any starting points re drivers or prefers, I've done the PRAM, SMC reset etc, with no difference.
Thanks
Carlo

Strange boot bug; open firmware not working

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