Apple Blue Screen of death.

[Reality]

Guys I really need help! I made a new account on my computer for the family to use. I made the account require no password, and put only a few restrictions on what apps and utilities they can use. I set that account to be the one my computer logs onto automatically when the computer boots up. Then I pressed Restart and everything we wrong.

I get the normal boot sound..then the gray screen with gray Apple logo. Then comes the "Loading of Mac OSX" window. Then a few seconds later the screen goes blue. Like the desktop is not loading at all. I can see my mouse censor which I can move around but there is nothing else. Just a blue screen. I can't even use KeyBoard short cuts. Man guys what can I do? If this account doesn't load fully then I wont even be able to get into my own account.

Things I have tried:
Boot into Safe Mood.
Restart while holding down these keys: apple-option-O-F > reset-nvram > Reset-all.
Booting up off the Mac OS X disc and running disk utility.
Tried starting up with: apple-option-P-R
Prevent automatic login (Holding down left shift key during start up)

Do you guys have any idea what i can do? My OS X version is 10.3.9. I run on a eMac thats about 887mhz (I believe) and has 700-something SDRAM.

[sourcehound]

[QUOTE=Reality
Things I have tried:
Boot into Safe Mood.
Restart while holding down these keys: apple-option-O-F > reset-nvram > Reset-all.
Booting up off the Mac OS X disc and running disk utility.
Tried starting up with: apple-option-P-R
Prevent automatic login (Holding down left shift key during start up)
.[/QUOTE]

1) boot into single-user mode (hold down command + S at startup)
2) run fsck -fy
3) mount the fs with mount -uw /

issue the following command exactly, and be careful...a typo here could KILL you...

4) rm /etc/kcpassword

5) reboot, and the machine should now ask for a username and password

BTW: the kcpassword file is what stores the password for autologin.....

Sourcehound, author of Mac HelpMate: http://www.macworkshops.com/machelpmate

[Reality]

When I press Cmd-S there is no change in how the computer boots up. its not taking me into single user mood I mean. Any ideas why?

[LaSara]

Try Command, Option, and S. That should do it.

[Reality]

Thank you LaSara. It worked with those button combos. What's the proper text I need to type in order to mount fsck though?

[LaSara]

1) boot into single-user mode (hold down command + S at startup)
2) run fsck -fy
3) mount the fs with mount -uw /

issue the following command exactly, and be careful...a typo here could KILL you...

4) rm /etc/kcpassword

5) reboot, and the machine should now ask for a username and password

BTW: the kcpassword file is what stores the password for autologin.....

Sourcehound, author of Mac HelpMate: http://www.macworkshops.com/machelpmate

Type fsck -uw/ then hit return. Continue with sourceshound's post step 4.

[Reality]

I try that and it says the following:
fsck: illegal option -- u
fsck: ? option?
localhost:/ root#

[bobw]

Type: "fsck -y" (that's fsck-space-minus-) (without the quotes)

hit return

The fsck utility will blast some text onto your screen. If there's damage to your disk, you'll see a message that says:

***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****

If you see this message--and this is extremely important-- repeat running fsck. It is normal to have to run fsck more than once -- the first run's repairs often uncover additional problems..

When fsck finally reports that no problems were found, and the # prompt reappears:

3. Type: "reboot" to restart,

or type "exit" to start up without rebooting.

4. Press Return.