Mac G4 won't finish startup after 10.2.3 update

A

akerychuk

Registered
After running the Software Update for 10.2.3, my husband's PowerMac G4 733 DVD-R/CD-RW will not complete the startup process. It slows down at the point of "waiting for directory services" and goes into "waiting for application services" and that is where it gets stuck.

We have let it run for several minutes(up to 20+) to see if anything happens but it never finishes the startup process. We have ran all of the common utility programs(fsck -y, disk utility, drive 10, norton) and none of them show anything wrong with the system. Are there any pref files that can be tossed to remedy this startup problem or something else we can try?
 
Almost the same problem - used Software Update to get/install 10.2.3. Once it installed, and restarted, it gets to the point where the screen turns blue, just before your desktop picture appears, and that's where it stops. At least Windows gives you a HINT at what the problem might be.

It's back to OS 9 for me - someone let me know when Apple smartens up and starts making OS X installers Mac-like!!
 
I ran into the same problem last night. MY Software Updater continued to cycle and never finisdhed. After a force quit of the install and rebooting, I found 10 working fine, but when I attempted to boot 9 inside of 10 it was missing resources.

I attempted to run Software Updater again and it informed me that there way no new software available.

I went to the apple site, mac os x and located the download version of the 10.2.3 updater. After downloading it and reinstalling the updater, the systems appears to be working fine, and 9 is booting inside of 10 as well.

Now if I could just get my deskjet 1220 to respond, I would be in great shape.

Hope this info helps.

:cool:
 
I installed the update last night on my pbG4 and everything worked fine. Try reinstalling the update, but this time d/l it from the apple site.
 
HOW do you suggest I re-install - since I CANNOT get into OS X?!?!?!?!?

Once again, I re-iterate - Apple's new installers suck - they have problems, but they insist on keeping the problem to themselves - leaving loyal Mac users up the creek without a paddle!!!

Tim
 
As our final attempt to fix the weird problem I first posted last night, we tried installing Jaguar 10.2 from the original CD "over top" itself(by just running the install again) and that brought it out of the weird "start up" problem we had yesterday. Then we proceeded to do the 10.2.3 update through the Software Update panel and it worked fine! ;-) The only side effect we have noticed, thus far, is that you have to reinstall iSync and iCal because they weren't launching properly after all this reinstalling/updating we did late last night. Maybe the steps we took might help some others on this thread with their problems as well?

But I agree, Apple needs to give more information out to their customers on how to help themselves out of a bind when things go wrong like this. Some of those 'invisible' tech notes probably eh? HA!

April K.

(btw, the 10.2.3 update worked fine on my PowerBook G4)
 
I came hear tonight looking for messages just like this before updating - I'm not messing with 10.2.3 because I have been burned before, but I am sorry to hear about all of your troubles. Who needs this kind of thing in your day! I can tell you if you call Apple, the semi-clueless tech will probably ask you about USB peripherals and suggest you have bad RAM - this seems to be their canned answer for every problem with 10.2. The result is they tell you, "Gee we have no confirmed issues with 10.2.x..., therefore it is probably your USB devices or RAM." Am I nuts, but does anyone else see how this sort of thinking on their part enables an endless loop that fosters this kind of denial about issues with OS X 10.2 or anything else?

P.S. Can anyone answer thomms question? Maybe try the 10.2 disk install then get it up and running and then get the update from the site?
 
Just as a last hope - I was actually 'getting used to' OS X - I decided to re-install my original OS X (Jaguar) over the fouled-up 10.2.3 update.

I decided to use the "Archive and Install" option. I waited the usual 30 minutes while the updater did its thing, only to have it give me the multi-lingual "You must re-start your computer" message, which resulted in me having NO OS X system available!!!!

Once again, I say - if the installer ran into a problem that caused it to halt - which it obviously did - then it must know why!!!! And, if so, WHY DOES IT NOT TELL ME SO THAT I CAN TRY TO CORRECT THE PROBLEM?!?!?!???!?!??!?!

Apple has really dropped the ball on this one - in their desperate attempt to become more and more Windows-like, they have completely surpassed Windows in the stupidity area!!!

For example, on the Apple site today, I read the "Read Me" for the 10.2.3 update - something I NEVER saw or knew about, because I assumed that Apple's very own Software Update system would NOT install anything that would harm my system!!! But, I don't know - because, unlike those people who decided to use the stand-alone installer - I WAS NEVER GIVEN _ANY_ INFORMATION ABOUT ANY 'PROBLEMS' WITH THE INSTALLER!!!! IF APPLE IS GOING TO PROVIDE AN INSTALLER THAT HAS 'SPECIAL NEEDS,' THEN IT SHOULD _NOT_ BE MADE AVAILABLE AS A 'DUMMY' SOFTWARE UPDATE!!!

As I said before - since Apple has apparently abandoned its long-time 'user-friendly' philosophy, it is time I started looking at Dells. At least then I KNOW that there will be problems!

Tim
 
I had the same issue with running the Software Updater.
From now on I will always update with the downloaded updater instead.

Just as an aside...
I have multiple partitions/drives and use carbon copy cloner to make a dupe of my current system just in case something like this happens and I need to boot to a working drive (not the CD).

I rebooted to my other drive, downloaded the full updater. Ran that over the failed update and I was back to normal... with a major improvement in OGL performance I might add.
 
Originally posted by Anim8r
Just as an aside...
I have multiple partitions/drives and use carbon copy cloner to make a dupe of my current system just in case something like this happens and I need to boot to a working drive (not the CD).
Click to expand...

You are a genius! Here I am with a copy of CCC and an extra 80 GB drive all worried about 10.2.3! Even though I use CCC to make periodic backups of my entire system, I'm always thinkging about my files and not Apple's upgrades. Duh on my part!
 
I feel for all you guy whom are having issues with 10.2.3 -- I am running a B&W with a 30gig drive (3 partitions) 512 ram CL2, and a OWC 550mhz G3 upgrade... I have had not issues with the update or and USB devices.. ( QUE USB CD/RW). Matter of fact cause of this update is the first time I had to reboot this month. and now the system in much faster ... Notiably faster with all applications... Wish you all good luck though ... Merry X MASS!!!
 
The White Box with that states you must restart your computer is caused by a kernal panic; which I believe is caused by hadware... ie) memory, motherboard, HD etc.... For those having problems or those getting ready to update to 10.2.3 I suggest running Apple's hardware troublshooting CD. I ran mine too late and scrambled boot files on my HD from 1 too many Kernal Panics... really sucks! Moral of the story don't ignore Kernal Panics find out what the cause is.
 
I ran into the same issue as the original poster on a client's brand-new eMac. She had just unboxed it a couple days earlier. I brought along a copy of the standalone combined updater (since she was running 10.2.0), installed it, and upon reboot, the thing wouldn't boot -- it hung at the "Waiting for Directory Services" point.

I booted into Verbose mode, and saw that NetInfo was crashing on startup. Not good. Did an archive-and-install from the 10.2 CDs that shipped with the eMac, bringing it back to 10.2.0.

Too bad, too, 'cause 10.2.3 has a lot of optimizations that would've benefitted her. If she weren't on 56K dial-up, I would try letting Software Update do its thing, but it'd take a day and a half on her connection.
 
So what do youguys think can be done? I have 50 gigs of installed software and personal/clients data, and the fu$#$ machine will not boot, even after reinstalling 10.2!!! How do I acces the drive? Apple really screw us on this...
 
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