IBook G3 will not start up-hangs up at blue screen

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Kasper137

Registered
My IBook G3 will not start up. I can get the gray apple screen with pinwheel and then after a really long time it will go to a blank blue screen. A couple times it went to the login screen instead but in the user id it says "other" and when I try to enter my username and password it won't recognize me. I am a college student and one of the Apple geniuses here did a check of my hard drive and it checked out okay. We were not able to get it to start up in safe mode; it seemed like it was starting in safe mode but then it came to the login screen and would not allow me to login with my usual information. I was able to start up in single user mode and run fsck which found a couple things and after another fsck it said everthing was fine. But, it still gets hung up at startup. When I try to boot from the OS X installation CD it doesn't seem to be booting up with it, it only goes to the screen to install OS X. According to the directions on the Apple support site when I insert the CD and start up holding down the "c" key it should start up and then I should be able to repair permissions but I can't get that far.
 
I've had a couple of eMacs hang on the blue screen. Pretty blue but no action. If you can't start properly from the system disk by holding down the "c" key, try option-command-shift-delete when your restart. Over the years it's been one of my favorite maneuvers. I had to reinstall the system when the blue thing happened.

biz
 
orthobiz@aol.co said:
I've had a couple of eMacs hang on the blue screen. Pretty blue but no action. If you can't start properly from the system disk by holding down the "c" key, try option-command-shift-delete when your restart. Over the years it's been one of my favorite maneuvers. I had to reinstall the system when the blue thing happened.

biz
Click to expand...

I've never been sure what cmd+opt+shft+del offers over the option key, apart from not giving you a choice of startup volumes.

If I'm missing something ingenious here, please do enlighten.
 
Actually, I've never just pressed the option key by itself! Don't tell me I've been pressing 4 keys instead of one all these years. Maybe it's an old habit like Command-Y to eject a volume when E will do just fine.

I'll try option next time I'm stuck.

biz
 
cmd+opt+shft+del offers over the option key
Click to expand...

The Option key method wasn't available until the G4/AGP's.

When I try to boot from the OS X installation CD it doesn't seem to be booting up with it, it only goes to the screen to install OS X. According to the directions on the Apple support site when I insert the CD and start up holding down the "c" key it should start up and then I should be able to repair permissions but I can't get that far.
Click to expand...

When you get to the startup scrren, go up to the Installer Menu to Disk Utility.
 
"On page 25 of the Mac OS 8.5 Troubleshooting Handbook that ships with the iMac and Power Macintosh G3 (Blue and White), a procedure is listed for starting up the computer from a CD by holding down the Command, Option, Shift, and Delete keys.
This procedure is intended for certain older Macintosh computers, and does not apply to the iMac and Power Macintosh G3 (Blue and White). For these, and later, Macintosh computers, the recommended method of starting up from the CD is to hold down the C key during startup.

Older Macintosh computers that did not support the C key as a method of starting up from the CD can use the Command-Option-Shift-Delete key sequence."

from Apple support
 
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