No login screen on bootup. Dont know how to get into the computer

J

JustOwnin

Registered
Long time windows user and first time mac user. I got a g5 simply becasue after doing research it just made sense.

In anycase i have a problem that I thought was a virus, until after reading the virus sticky that revealed it not to be true. Now I'm all kinds of confused.

Here's the situation:

Certain programs such as macromedia studios, safaria, internet explorer, and office I would open and then a message such as "unexpected error" would appear and the programs would close. I would then create a seperate user account where they would work for a month or so until finally the same problem would creep up on that accoutn and I would continue.

My neglectful ways, as you all know simply by me existing in this forum, did catch up with me. One day I turned the computer off (an action I seldom partake in) and I turned it back on to see no login screen.


Usually there would be a login screen asking for a username and password. But this time it did not appear. There was just blue.

I have no idea how to fix this problem and am currently working from my laptop (which cant handle the task heavy demands that I set forth) and I desperately need to get back on the g5 for it has a clients website.

How would I go about fixing this problem?

And furthermore, what books should I read to learn how to fix macs?
 
Well we want to help. First thing is we need a little more information then just you have a G5.

Second thing is you need to stop thinking Windows when on a Mac. Third is learning the little quarks of OS X maintenance we talk about a lot on this board. There is Disk Utilities of "Repairing Permissions" (in Applications->Utilities->Disk Utility). Then there is the fact OS X is based on BSD Unix and Unix uses many log files. These files can be viewed in Applications->Utilities->Console and as you can see there are many underlining logs to make any Unix geek happy. Well the fact is these log files can grow huge over time and need to be "rotated" to keep them in check. OS X hold an old command line program that runs late at night (or early in the morning by some peoples thoughts) called cron. So the Mac community quickly came to the rescue and created much programs to run theses "cron" scripts at any time. There are shareware programs that can do this (plus a whole lot more) and other maintenance duties. most people here swear about Onyx and other program. I personally like one trick ponies that are small and do one thing well so I use a small program (that only does cron) called MacJanitor.

Now the repair permissions should be done about once every two weeks or after large software installs, even after Apple updates. The rotation of the Unix logs(cron) with a program should be done around once a week. This may not fix you current problem but doing these two things will keep your Mac running in tip tip shape.

Thirdly is learning OS X to become a mid level or power Mac user. So a good book to start off with is OS X: The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition. After that is varying levels of books that can mind blowing. So a good reference of OS X books (along with any other computer/server/router books) is from Orielly.com. they have most every kind of computer book you will ever need.


So please list you full computer specs when posting on trouble shooting forums and you will get quicker and better suggestions. Good Luck.
 
Thanks for the insight sir. I have a g5 mac os x 10.0.1 with a 1.5 processor and 160 gigs.

I cant even get into the computer at all. SO I dont know how I would possibly be able to do that maintance script if that could repair my problem.

Like I said the screen is just blue where the login screen is and I dont know how to get in to those little tricks?
 
i tried resetting the pram

i also tried fsk and it didnt work?

People tell me disk utilty will fix thep roblem but i cant get in my computer to get to it!! Is there any boot disk I could make to use disk utility or something?

I dont have the mac os x disk either so I cnat use that.
 
If you really are running 10.0.1, the first thing I would do is wipe the drive and install 10.3 or 10.4.

10.0 was not a very good system, more Beta.
 
then I must be wrong and I havea 10.2.7 or whatever it is. I thought thats what I have but if it counldnt be then I dont know whati t is. But in anycase, how would I fix my problem?
 
If I bought the newest mac os x OS would I be able to boot from it and run disk utility to make the disk utility work? And furthermore could i update with out losing my files?

And if the disk utility doesnt work could i update the os and would that fix the problem anyway?
 
Keeping in mind that the "newest mac OS X" comes on a DVD, do you have a DVD reader?
 
yes my g5 has a dvd drive. Could I buy disk warrior to fix the problem since its cheaper? Would I be able to run it without booting up to system and would disk warrior run from bot to fix the problem?
 
Try starting up the computer, and hold down the shift key the entire time.

This might get you into OSX because it does not load many 3rd party extensions and startup items.

First, Please go to About this Mac under the apple menu and give us all the info in there.

Next, open system preferences, go under startup items (i think, or else accounts>startup items) and look for any suspicious items in there. if you dont see anything suspicious, deleting everything there will be a last resort. open disk utility (Applications/Utilities/) and run repair permissions, then open the terminal application in the same folder, and type in VERBATIM:

sudo periodic daily
hit return, type in your password (the characters wont show up)

wait till you see the prompt again, then run
sudo periodic weekly
and
sudo periodic monthly

these scripts will clean out your logs just for good measure. lastly, depending on your system version, software update may or may not work.

Apple Menu> software Update


WB with the results!
 
i'd say that the best thing to do is to get the retail os, then use it to fix your g5. that way if you have problems in the future, you'll be able to install the os again.
 
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