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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Powerbook Major Crash
Peranakan - Jul 6, 2005 - 6:24 pm
hi all,
I really hate this: my powerbook G4 (only 1,5 years old) suddenly frooze! When restarting it keeps hanging in either the gray screen with the apple-sign (or sometimes just a blank gray screen) or in the blue startup screen. I have tried several things the past two days:
- Rebooting from the installer CD, but it won't respond to the CD at all (even when restarting keeping C pressed down). It just gave a blue screen.
- Reboot from a DiskWarrior CD kept it looping between a DiskWarrior screen and the bluescreen(I couldnt press any buttons).
- Rebooting in firewire mode and connecting to a G5 was partially succesfull, but worked only 2 out of many more times. I keep getting a message on the G5 saying it cannot read my PB because it contains no volumes that OSX can read. Then it gives me 3 options: 'Initialize' (obviously that is not an option), 'Ignore' and 'Eject'. When choosing 'Ignore' the PB only showed up on the G5 desktop as a firewire disk only twice (while running VirtualLab?).
I have tried accessing it with DataRescue, DiskWarrior and VirtualLab. Datarescue just crashes all the time. Same with DiskWarrior, though I was able to repair "wrapped volumes" or something like that. After that message that program also crashed. VirtualLab can detect my PB, but after scanning it it says that my PB contains no volumes or datatree.
At some point today the G5 that performed the scans on my PB kept hanging in an authentication process while starting up DiskWarrior. The crash resulted in the G5 starting up in the black Darwin screen all the time and I reinstalled OSX to get rid of that.
Doesnt sound too good does it?
And, no, I havent made a backup of my essential stuff, so if my PB is realy a hopeless case, I will have lost just about two years of my life and work! Really dumb, I know.
Anyway, Diskwarrior is probably what I will continue using as it did find some things on my PB , but anyone with suggestions; I'm all ears!
I really hate this: my powerbook G4 (only 1,5 years old) suddenly frooze! When restarting it keeps hanging in either the gray screen with the apple-sign (or sometimes just a blank gray screen) or in the blue startup screen. I have tried several things the past two days:
- Rebooting from the installer CD, but it won't respond to the CD at all (even when restarting keeping C pressed down). It just gave a blue screen.
- Reboot from a DiskWarrior CD kept it looping between a DiskWarrior screen and the bluescreen(I couldnt press any buttons).
- Rebooting in firewire mode and connecting to a G5 was partially succesfull, but worked only 2 out of many more times. I keep getting a message on the G5 saying it cannot read my PB because it contains no volumes that OSX can read. Then it gives me 3 options: 'Initialize' (obviously that is not an option), 'Ignore' and 'Eject'. When choosing 'Ignore' the PB only showed up on the G5 desktop as a firewire disk only twice (while running VirtualLab?).
I have tried accessing it with DataRescue, DiskWarrior and VirtualLab. Datarescue just crashes all the time. Same with DiskWarrior, though I was able to repair "wrapped volumes" or something like that. After that message that program also crashed. VirtualLab can detect my PB, but after scanning it it says that my PB contains no volumes or datatree.
At some point today the G5 that performed the scans on my PB kept hanging in an authentication process while starting up DiskWarrior. The crash resulted in the G5 starting up in the black Darwin screen all the time and I reinstalled OSX to get rid of that.
Doesnt sound too good does it?
And, no, I havent made a backup of my essential stuff, so if my PB is realy a hopeless case, I will have lost just about two years of my life and work! Really dumb, I know.
Anyway, Diskwarrior is probably what I will continue using as it did find some things on my PB , but anyone with suggestions; I'm all ears!
matthewpfritz - Jul 6, 2005 - 10:10 pm
Have you tried running fsck? Restart the PB with the apple-s keys pressed. At the prompt, type fsck -f
If that resurrects your machine, make a back-up of your home directory and reinstall OS X using "clean install."
Matt
If that resurrects your machine, make a back-up of your home directory and reinstall OS X using "clean install."
Matt
Peranakan - Jul 7, 2005 - 1:32 am
Yes, i tried that.
but that didnt work. Also starting up with ALT+CMND+P+R didnt give any results.
Perhaps a small detail, but my PB doesnt make the usual startup sound anymore :-(
but that didnt work. Also starting up with ALT+CMND+P+R didnt give any results.
Perhaps a small detail, but my PB doesnt make the usual startup sound anymore :-(
matthewpfritz - Jul 7, 2005 - 9:03 am
Have you tried re-seating RAM modules? I recently read an article about PowerBooks and RAM issues. Any laptop can have problems caused by RAM being jostled loose over time. If that doesn't resolve your issue, I'll send this issue back to the forum for a more-skilled individual to help.
Matt
Matt
Peranakan - Jul 7, 2005 - 9:38 am
what do you mean with "re-seating" the RAM modules? you mean physically pulling them out and putting them back in?
matthewpfritz - Jul 7, 2005 - 10:29 am
Exactly that. I doubt it will have an effect given what you've said about using the PB in target-disk mode, but it is worth a shot. Make sure you use a grounding strap, though since even imperceptible amounts of static electricity can render RAM useless...
Peranakan - Jul 7, 2005 - 3:47 pm
Dear Matt,
thank you sooooooo much!!!! It worked! You cannot believe how relieved I am right now :-)
I took uit the RAM cards and put them back in (switched places though). I didnt hear the startup chime though (my volume WAS up) and I seem to be missing the contents of a few folders, but most of it is still there (so far).
I will immediately start backingup my work!
Thanks a lot!
Erwin
thank you sooooooo much!!!! It worked! You cannot believe how relieved I am right now :-)
I took uit the RAM cards and put them back in (switched places though). I didnt hear the startup chime though (my volume WAS up) and I seem to be missing the contents of a few folders, but most of it is still there (so far).
I will immediately start backingup my work!
Thanks a lot!
Erwin
matthewpfritz - Jul 7, 2005 - 5:08 pm
That is great news!!
matt
matt
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