System Crash on 9.2 update - locked up Help

Question

Hello!
I acquired an iMac with OS 9.1. While on the MAC support site I noticed I could install a 9.2 upgrade. I downloaded it and installed it. On reboot the system freezes up about a 1/4 of the way into start up. Nothing. I've rebooted many times with no luck.
At this point I can’t access anything – keyboard/mouse are locked up. Every time I reboot is the same scenario.
Can download a boot disk (burn it onto CD from another computer) or is there a way to uninstall the 9.2. I don't have any software on CDs. It was given to me as is. Prior to the install of 9.2 it worked great. No issues.
Any suggestions.
Thank you for your help.
Tavis
iMac   Mac OS 9.2.x  

Answer 1

Hi, skierward -
Okay - it's very good that you can start up with Extensions Off. That indicates the OS itself and the drive are probably okay.
PrefRestoreInit was s shot in the dark - it's presence can cause an OS to fail to boot.
Since you can start up with Extensions Off, it is probable that you are experiencing an extensions conflict of some kind, one which you'll need to solve.
First, try restarting and then immediately press the Spacebar, keep it held down until Extensions Manager opens, which it should do just before extensions would normally start loading. In the Extensions Manager screen, select Mac OS Base from the pulldown menu labelled Selected Set. Then continue the startup.
If that boots okay, then select Mac OS All in the Selected Set menu in Extensions Manager, and restart.
If that boots okay, you will need to find out which of the other extensions you usually have enabled is the cause of the problem. This Apple KBase article outlines one procedure to do that -
Article #30929 - How to Resolve System Extension Conflicts
One thing that can help is to print out a copy of your usual set, so you can use it as a checklist. To do that - open Extensions Manager. Select your usual set of extensions (if you've not created a new set, it will be the one named My Settings). Then choose "Save Set as Text" from the File menu - this will generate a SimpleText document with the on/off status of all available extensions and contol panels.
Then change the Selected Set back to Mac OS All. Click the Duplicate Set button, name the new set something appropriate, and okay it. Make sure that set is now the Selected Set, and start adding in a few of your regular additiuonal items. Restart to test after adding in each group; when the problem reappears, you'll know the culprit was in the last group added. You can use the Spacebar at startup to regain access to Extensions Manager to reset it to a bootable set.
There is a technique that can speed up testing the extensions. After creating the duplicate set, add in half of your usual additional ones, and test. If that boots okay, add in half of the remainder of the usual ones. If it does not boot okay, uncheck half of those you added. This sounds tedious, but doing it by halves is actually very fast - even if you had as many as 500 extensions to test, it would take no more than 9 restarts to identify the culprit.
Good luck -