computer not starting up completely

dadgadder

Registered
Hi,

I recently had computer problems that we addressed and the ticket is now closed but I can't seem to locate it to reopen.

One of the solutions was to delete files to get at least 12 gig of space on my drive to eradicate errant files on my desktop.

I did that and everything was fine until I deleted the trash, repaired permissions, and then restarted.

Now the computer will start, I'll hear the chime, see the gray screen, then the blue screen showing the mac loading, and then the desktop but just for a second then the screen goes to blue again with the small little gear looking icon spinning. That's as far as it will go and this is what I need help with.

I'm on a library computer so I may be slow to respond because of the travel that's involved.

Thank's in advance, I hope I explained it well

Charles
 
I'd try holding down the shift key while starting up, or booting up from the INSTALL DISC. and going into disc utility in the software/utilities menu and select "Verify Disc" (also, repairing permissions again can't hurt, sometimes it takes more than once.)
 
Charles - I've been trying to catch up with you:
Your DVD drive should open by pressing the eject key.
That doesn't always work on third-party keyboards, but the f12 key almost always works when the programmed eject key does not work on a Mac.
Your Logitech keyboard is not wireless, is it? You will struggle on many third-party wireless keyboards, where the various boot commands may or may not work. You haven't said, but the keyboard REALLY needs to be a USB wired keyboard.

The aluminum-cased displays always get warm around the top edge - it's part of the cooling process (heat is better on the outside than inside the case)
Lastly - if you put in a new drive, it will probably need to be formatted (erased) in your Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder) which is all you need to do to prepare the hard drive for use. Then it will appear on your desktop, and you copy files to it, or install OS X on that new hard drive, whatever you need to do...
Once the drive is formatted, there's nothing else you need to do - the system automatically knows it's there.
Does that help answer your questions?

I have to tell you - this once-a-week response is NOT very practical to get your Mac up and running again. The main thing is - you are NOT doing what I recommend:
Verifying the keyboard (I need a lot details about what works, what doesn't work, and if the keyboard keys all respond the way they are supposed to)
ANY keyboard should work, a wired USB keyboard is by far your best choice, but you may have to make allowances for a couple of keys that are different on a Windows keyboard, compared to a Mac keyboard - review my post above...

AND - we haven't made any progress in discovering why you can't do a normal boot of your Mac. It probably means that you need to reinstall OS X, and you'll need to have an OS X installer to do that. Do you have an OS X installer DVD?
"Any OS X installer" won't be good enough. You need either your original OS X installer that originally came with your G5 (the set of grey disks when it was new), or an OS X commercial installer DVD. You CANNOT use an OS X version newer than OS X 10.5.8
Do you have an OS X installer disk that will boot your PowerMac G5 (or that you know has worked to boot your Mac in the past)?

Finally - Is your G5 the only computer that you have at home? That is, do you have an alternate means to get to this site, without having to make a special trip to the library? Maybe a neighbor or friend with a computer that you can use a couple of times a week (you wouldn't want to look like you were moving in, eh? :) )
Just a suggestion...
Let me know what you find out...
- DeltaMac
 
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