G5 Boots only in Safe Mode, help please?

N

nadiauy

Registered
Hi, I posted here once and you were able to solve my problem so I´m coming back to see if you can help me again.
I have a Power Mac G5, 2.7 Ghz with 2.5 GB RAM and my Boot Room Version (if it helps) is: 5.2.4f1. I´m running OSX 10.4.
My problem is that I can´t get the computer to start up normally. I turn it on, I hear the chime and I see the apple logo and the spinning sticks (or however you call it) and then the screen turns grey and sometimes one or two vertical lines cross it. And that´s it, it freezes there.
I haven´t installed anything and I can´t think of anything out of the ordinary that I could have done. Then I read that I should try to reset the PRAM, I tried that. Nothing changed.
I tried to start it holding the option key, no success.
Only when I try holding the shift key it starts up, but then again I guess that by being on safe boot you can´t access to the internet for example? Is that correct? Cause I have installed a dial-up modem and the computer doesn´t recognize it, it tells me that it doesn´t exist. But when I go to the system preferences it is listed there under modem.
I read that I should remove any start up items, I did it and the situation didn´t change. I ran the hardware test from the dvd and it says everything is fine. I run disk repair and verify and it said that no repairs were necessary and that it passed the verification.
The only thing that I have noticed out of the ordinary is that when I start my computer when the apple logo comes up and then the spinning sticks, over the spinning sticks I can see something like a cyan spot over them. It´s kind of translucid but that´s the only thing that called my attention. I don´t know if matters or not. I hope there´s other solution than reinstalling OSX. I have a lot of video files that I need and that are very hard to back up.
I´m going to see if I can upgrade the OSX maybe that would help? I would reaaaally appreciate any help that you could give me because I´m at a lost here.
Thank you very very much.

nadia.
 
it sound as if you OS don't like the new hardware. I would say try taking out the modem and try restarting your system that should fix it. As for the video stuff that sounds as if mybe linked to the modem as will.
 
Well, the modem was installed at the apple store when I bought the computer, so I never had problems with the modem before, I could connect to the internet and everything. I´ve read that you can´t access to all the programs and stuff in Safe Boot so I was figuring that maybe is because of that that I can´t use Final Cut or connect to the internet for example. The only thing that I used besides normal is a Sony miniDV camera that I was using with iDVD via Firewire. What could be the problem?
 
I had a machine that would hang just before loading the finder. It would show spotlight in the upper right corner and then just hang with the spinning ball of death.
The solution:
Boot into Single user mode and then dump the 3 cache folders.

If you are able to boot into the finder in safe mode, then do this.
Then go to:

/System/Library/Caches/
/Library/Caches/
~/Library/Caches/

Dump the contents of these 3 folders and then give it a restart.
Your machine will start up slower the first time because the cache files will need to be rebuilt. If you have never cleaned out these cache files, you might be surprised how much HD space you regain. I gained back 3GB on my own laptop when doing this.
If you can't even get into the finder, then let me know. I'll post a more detailed way to do it thought single user mode on the command line.
Good Luck and Post the results.
 
thank you griz for your reply. I tried the cache folders but there was no change in the situation. It took longer to load up but still I get the grey screen. And the caches weren´t that heavy anyway. I don´t know what it could be but thanks again for the try.
 
So it hangs before the login screen or after? Or do you just bypass the login screen and perform an autologin? You might try dumping the finder prefs.
Have you run disk verification and permission fix from the install CD? Not from your HD.
I would suspect a driver issue or extension.
If you have any peripheral devices, I would check to see if they have driver updates on the companies web sites.
Last but not least, try creating a new user and boot into it. If that works, migrate your documents over to it and then rebuild from there.
Might be easier than trying to track down the one bad file.

Another suggestion would be to run 'plutil' from the command line.
This will scan your plist files to make sure they are not corrupt.

Enter this command in the terminal and then it will prompt you for your admin pass.

sudo plutil -s ~//Library/Preferences/*.plist /Library/Preferences/*plist

It will take a second to run and will only present feedback if it finds a problem.

remove the -s and it will show you all the files scanned with an OK next to them if they are indeed OK.

Hope you manage to find the problem.
 
Hi Griz
I tried the commands that you told me, the command with the -s it tells me that it isn´t a command, but I ran it without the -s and it listed all the files that are ok,
on Library/Preferences/com.apple.BezelServices.plist, and in the same address ByteRangelocking, HIToolbox, dockfixup, loginwindow, networkConfig, print.FaxPrefs, security, windowserver, xgrid.agent, xgrid.controller. All those files were OK.
I´m going to try to type the other command again, maybe I missed a space or something, the thing is I´m jumping from the internetcafe to my house.
Thanks for your help
nadia.
 
I've got a G5/2.5 dual that's about a year old. Two weeks ago it stopped booting-up, without warning. I unplugged my only peripheral which was a printer. I can run a hardware test but cannot get the machine to boot-up from any disk at all... have tried several OS's, all with the same result. Kernal panic or gray Apple start-up screen... nothing more. I've pulled the drive, reformatted and loaded a new OS (10.4.5) using my G5/1.8 dual but I continue getting the same results, though it runs nicely on the 1.8. I've replaced the RAM with the same pieces that work just fine in my other machine, I've reseated the processors, pram reset, PMU reset, even re-booted in Target mode and repaired disk permissions using my G4 PowerBook. I just cannot get this machine to do ANYTHING! Oh yes, one more thing... I have tried booting-up from the option screen to no avail as well as trying to boot into safe mode and verbose mode with no luck either. In fact I've tried "control-s", "control-v" and the "shift key" right after the start-up chime but this only produces a kernel panic. I've also tried booting off of my PowerBook book while it was in Target mode as well as booting off of a firewire drive but neither produced any result other than the Apple start-up screen... never goes any further. Any help, please! Thanks.
 
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