HELP - Can't reboot Mac OSX on Mac Pro desktop

SosaiX · #1 November 21st, 2006, 12:36 PM

Everything seemed to be fine until OS X crashed this morning on my Mac Pro - Quad 2.66 Ghz desktop. I just realized I should've changed my start-up volume settings before hand to Mac OS X. *sigh* So, as I manually rebooted, I walked away to get a coffee refill and Windows XP started up by default as expected. Fine, no problem here. Now however upon restart and reboot, holding down the Option (Alt) key avails to nothing, no BootCamp hard-drive icons to choose from either OS, just a blank white screen and then XP launches.

Wondering if any of this has to do with the latest Mac Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.1 that I installed recently?
http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?...61121014726316

I get the feeling the majority of BootCamp users are on the laptops (e.g. MacBook, MacBook Pro) as I understand about the slower PIO mode for SATA for Mac Pro desktops in this current version of BootCamp, but if anybody has any suggestions to help boot back into OS X, I would be most grateful! (i.e. key commands to hold down while rebooting, etc.)

Oh yeah, and I do generally run Parallels which is a fantastic otherwise solution in the meantime.

Thanks!

Natobasso · #2 November 21st, 2006, 12:45 PM

Hold down the "X" key on restart to boot into OS X.
Hold "option" key on restart and you'll get a horizontal list of drive/system choices.

SosaiX · #3 November 21st, 2006, 01:09 PM

Thanks but nope, neither worked. Even tried holding down "C" key to see if I could launch from the Tiger install disc. Also tried Option-Command-Shift-Delete...but still white screen before XP automatically launches. :-(

Natobasso · #4 November 21st, 2006, 01:28 PM

Try booting in single user mode: hold command + s keys on restart till you see black screen with white text/type fsck -f/type reboot when process is complete. Hopefully that will get you out of your jam.

As long as you don't mess with the UNIX that Singer User Mode offers you, this is a perfectly safe operation.

A little more on Single User mode:
http://www.ncsu.edu/mac/selfhelp/Mac...1247AA3D0.html

SosaiX · #5 November 21st, 2006, 02:30 PM

Fixed!!!....well sorta, not really. I unplugged my USB Apple keyboard, usually connected via an older Apple Studio monitor, and then plugged it back into a USB port on the Mac Pro and was able to access the BootCamp horizontal list holding the Option (Alt)key.

Now that I'm back in OS X (thankfully! phew!), I've just tried to restart and reboot to access the BootCamp horizontal list holding the Option (Alt) key, it just automatically boots only in OS X (even with keyboard still connected to Mac Pro). ??? Go figure. I also made sure this time, under System Preferences > Startup Disk, I chose Mac OS X. Don't know if that had anything to do with it.

For now I'm just content to be back in OS X and running XP (when I have to) through Parallels. This is the first time for me to encounter these booting issues as I installed Mac Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.1 yesterday, so just my guess that might have something to do with it.

Thanks for your other command suggestions. May still need them if I encounter more stuff. Will post anymore discoveries when I have time.

Cheers!

spiderman80 · #6 November 22nd, 2006, 04:37 AM

Just been reading through these posts and wondered if anyone can offer some help...

I updated my firmware yesterday to 1.2, thought it might stop my mac booting into windows automatically!
After restarting, the firmware didn't install properly, the progress bar didn't move past 5%, so I forced quit and restarted into X but got the grey restart box Now I'm having problems ALT booting to OS X or from the CD. OS X keeps throwing up the grey restart box...

I'm thinking I need to zero the windows partion and correct the firmware, but everytime i get into the CD's disk utility I get the grey box, If i get into OS X i get the grey box, I'm starting to get a little annoyed...

Any help would be really good

**fryke** · #7 November 22nd, 2006, 05:18 AM

If the firmware update process failed and now the firmware's incomplete, you'll actually need to return your system for repair. That grey screen is a kernel panic.

Force quitting a firmware update can have lethal consequences - and you probably found that out now. :/

spiderman80 · #8 November 22nd, 2006, 08:58 AM

I've managed to successfully update the firmware and remove the Windows partition. Obviously I understand quitting before the firmware has fully installed is generally a no no but if the machine hadn't got past the 5% mark after 12+ hours I did feel I had no other option.

As for the kernel panics after removing the evil windows partition I've still had a couple, disk utility doesn't show any bad permissions, can you recommend any good house keeping system checks to run to confirm everything is AOKAY?