MAC OS X Boot issues

[sreedharvs]

Hello,

I'm running Mac OS 10.4.x on a Power PC Mac Mini. Over the past few months, I've been having a strange boot up issue. I've been looking for help all over.

Symptoms:

a) on power up, the 'white page' showing a swirling circle comes up. At times, this page is in the 640x320 resolution. At times, it is in the default screen resolution (correctly) of 1024x768.

b) After some time, the blue ("Starting Mac OS x") progress bar screen does NOT come up.

c) I have to power down the mac and restart. At times, I've to do this almost 3 times.

d) Even if it boots up, at tiimes, it loads an older desktop background image. Seemingly, it brings up an older profile, to the best of my understanding.

I have read that some particular external device could be creating this problem. The devices that are always connected are a) wired Apple USB keyboard, Wireless microsoft mouse & speakers. On demand, I connect other devices such as the iPod, card reader, etc.


Any help to resolve this would be of help.

Thanks & Regards,
Sreedhar

[supanatral]

Well, I won't lie, that is strange. How often does that happen? If it happens enough then what I would try to do is unplug one device at a time and restart your computer.

However is sounds like Mac OSX is to fault. That could explain all of the symtoms your getting. I mean, it seems to forget your resolution settings, your background settings your new profile, And sometimes it fails to boot. I would say that unplug one device at a time and see if that doesn't help, if it doesn't then try reinstalling OSX

P.S. Just thought of one more thing. Test your ram.

[sreedharvs]

Hello,

It happens in at least 60% of the start-ups. I will try the device-by-device unplug/plug sequence.

I have run the hardware test and it has not reported any flaws/suspects. Hence, for the moment, I would eliminate the RAM.

It appears that I'm heading for a OS X reinstallation. I'll be getting an external HD to backup my current contents.

I'll try these out and let you know. Thank you for your time.

Regards,
Sreedhar