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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Sudden Powerbook (tiger) Boot Problem ... And Then Others
media teacher - Aug 16, 2005 - 11:23 am
my powerbook has been bulletproof for two years. Today it went to sleep during travel and wouldn't wake up normally ... and restarting got the same symptoms: normal startup chime, some clicking and buzzing, no evidence of drive activity, dark screen.
a safe boot worked, but it is now very slow to do many normal system things ... for instance, searching for a folder that i know exists has been going on for ten minutes and counting.
the only new thing i did before the problem was to install windows media viewer (necessary to view student videos on a web site)... microsoft always makes me paranoid anyway; is this an unrelated coincidence? if not, where might the installer have put files that had this effect?
a safe boot worked, but it is now very slow to do many normal system things ... for instance, searching for a folder that i know exists has been going on for ten minutes and counting.
the only new thing i did before the problem was to install windows media viewer (necessary to view student videos on a web site)... microsoft always makes me paranoid anyway; is this an unrelated coincidence? if not, where might the installer have put files that had this effect?
powermac - Aug 16, 2005 - 12:55 pm
What version of OSX are u running?
You can also boot in Verbose mode, and try a disk repair.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Read this an related article for instructions.
Additionally, how comfortable are you with a reinstall of the OS?
You can also boot in Verbose mode, and try a disk repair.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Read this an related article for instructions.
Additionally, how comfortable are you with a reinstall of the OS?
media teacher - Aug 18, 2005 - 10:58 pm
i'm running tiger on an old (867mhz) 12" titanium ... first i upgraded but it seemed slow and then seemed slower, so i did a clean install ... backing up apps and docs and reformating the drive (to combine two partitions into one).
some software (fireworks especially) seems to have lost some necessary files after i copied the apps back ...
are you suggesting that i do another install ... this time reinstalling all the software (groan)?
some local advice pointed at a hardware problem. last night it seemed as if it was booting, but with no screen, so this morning i hooked it to a g5 and put it into target mode, meaning to back up documents ... the screen started working and is working still.
does this argue against a hardware problem? i almost brought it to a shop, but it's been fine so far ... it's just hard to trust it to go on working.
but how can a system problem make the screen go dark ... ?
thanks for your help figuring this out ...
some software (fireworks especially) seems to have lost some necessary files after i copied the apps back ...
are you suggesting that i do another install ... this time reinstalling all the software (groan)?
some local advice pointed at a hardware problem. last night it seemed as if it was booting, but with no screen, so this morning i hooked it to a g5 and put it into target mode, meaning to back up documents ... the screen started working and is working still.
does this argue against a hardware problem? i almost brought it to a shop, but it's been fine so far ... it's just hard to trust it to go on working.
but how can a system problem make the screen go dark ... ?
thanks for your help figuring this out ...
powermac - Aug 19, 2005 - 5:49 am
Try booting in verbose mode, and use Fsck as mentioned in the online article. You may have to repeat the fsck procedure several times. This will repair the disk, and permissions. Please do that and let me know the results when possible.
media teacher - Aug 24, 2005 - 5:25 pm
the article you pointed me to said use disk repair for tiger ... i ran it, and it reported no problems.
it took me a while to get that far, as the morning after i read your suggestions the screen once again failed to work. i tried hooking the powerbook up to an external monitor; the startup screen came on and the login menu actuall showed for a few seconds, then the monitor light turned yellow and it acted as if i'd disconnected it.
a day or two went by while i was busy with other things. when i booted it again it worked, and has continued to work since.
it's really hard to trust it not to let me down at some critical moment, yet it's hard to imagine bringing it in for repairs.
with your question about how i'd feel about reinstalling the system and your suggestion to repair permissions you seem to feel that the monitor going black might be software related. can you explain how that could be?
i'm bracing myself to reformat, do a clean install, and reinstall all my software from cds rather than copying them from a backup drive. does this make sense?
one thing that nagged at me was that i had dragged a folder into the Users folder (for reasons i'd be glad to explain). is that a problem? i couldn't find any warning that this was a bad thing to do, but maybe ...
thanks for your continuing thought about all this...
it took me a while to get that far, as the morning after i read your suggestions the screen once again failed to work. i tried hooking the powerbook up to an external monitor; the startup screen came on and the login menu actuall showed for a few seconds, then the monitor light turned yellow and it acted as if i'd disconnected it.
a day or two went by while i was busy with other things. when i booted it again it worked, and has continued to work since.
it's really hard to trust it not to let me down at some critical moment, yet it's hard to imagine bringing it in for repairs.
with your question about how i'd feel about reinstalling the system and your suggestion to repair permissions you seem to feel that the monitor going black might be software related. can you explain how that could be?
i'm bracing myself to reformat, do a clean install, and reinstall all my software from cds rather than copying them from a backup drive. does this make sense?
one thing that nagged at me was that i had dragged a folder into the Users folder (for reasons i'd be glad to explain). is that a problem? i couldn't find any warning that this was a bad thing to do, but maybe ...
thanks for your continuing thought about all this...
media teacher - Aug 25, 2005 - 1:17 pm
is this a good place to add to the end of the last message i sent? hope so ...
this morning the laptop worked fine in a meeting. i got back to my room; no screen (though i could sort of see the web page i'd been working on through dark murk) and it kept going to sleep a few seconds after i tried to wake it up ...
the mouse and keyboard didn't work anymore, either.
this time it worked to hook it to a projector, so i did a clean install and accepted software update's invitation to install upgrades.
after restarting, no change; no keyboard or trackpad(but plugging keyboard and mouse into usb worked again), no monitor (the monitors system pref couldn't detect it)
seems more and more like some serious hardware situation?
this morning the laptop worked fine in a meeting. i got back to my room; no screen (though i could sort of see the web page i'd been working on through dark murk) and it kept going to sleep a few seconds after i tried to wake it up ...
the mouse and keyboard didn't work anymore, either.
this time it worked to hook it to a projector, so i did a clean install and accepted software update's invitation to install upgrades.
after restarting, no change; no keyboard or trackpad(but plugging keyboard and mouse into usb worked again), no monitor (the monitors system pref couldn't detect it)
seems more and more like some serious hardware situation?
powermac - Aug 25, 2005 - 8:38 pm
it may be hardware related. If you are comfortable with a reinstall of the OS, then go for it. No guarantees, but as least you can rule out a software problem!
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