Hmm, curiouser and curiouser!
When you referred to the power going out, have the problems for you and your brother started since a power cut/brown out/power surge? If there had been a power spike, I'd be a little concerned about potential hardware damage, and would want to rule that out through running diagnostic software. If things have started since your Macs had been forced to shut down due to a power cut one night, I wonder if it could be a case of corruption of system data.
Out of interest:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1564 Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Apple Starting up into Safe Mode does three things to simplify the startup and operation of your computer: - It forces a directory check of the startup volume.
- It loads only required kernel extensions (some of the items in /System/Library/Extensions).
- In Mac OS X 10.3.9 or earlier, it runs only Apple-installed startup items (some of the items in /Library/StartupItems and /System/Library/StartupItems - and different than login items).
- Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger only: It disables all fonts other than those in /System/Library/Fonts .
- Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger only: It moves to the Trash all font caches normally stored in /Library/Caches/com.apple.ATS/(uid)/ , where (uid) is a user ID number such as 501.
- Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger only: It disables all startup items and any Login Items.
Taken together, these changes can work around issues caused by software or directory damage on the startup volume. Some features don't work in Safe Mode
Safe Mode can be useful for troubleshooting. However, certain Mac OS X features do not work when you are started up in Safe Mode. For example, you can't use DVD Player, capture video in iMovie, use an AirPort card, use audio input or output devices, or use an internal or external USB modem. |
Other ideas:
1) Does your Mac boot OK from an OS X (Installer) DVD? If both Safe Mode and booting from an optical disk are consistently fine, I'd begin to suspect it is corruption of data on your hard disk (i.e. a software issue, not hardware).
2) Did you receive a diagnostics CD with your Mac, which you could boot from and run? This will clarify whether or not there is anything obviously wrong with your hardware.