start up issue

evilla

Registered
Hello.
I have a powerbook g4 running 10.2.8. I was using it this afternoon and was connected to my office server when the finder froze. I tried to force quit the finder 2 or 3 times and let it sit for about 5 minutes before deciding to do a hard restart. When the computer restarted I got to the login screen and entered the password and it gives me the logging in bar and returns me back to the login screen. (the password is correct, this is not the shaking/wrong password thing, it accepts the pass and tries to log in)
I have used the install disk to get to Disk Utility and repaired the disk many times, and then tried to repair permissions. It freezes up right at the end of the repair permissions progress bar. I cannot restart in safe mode. This computer has an extended journal, and I am not sure what that means, but figured from other posts that it is important to mention. I have a 60GB hard drive, of which about 6GB are left (I know, I shouldn't have let it get so full.) Please help.
 
You might try starting up in Verbose mode which may give you more information on why it's failing to boot. Try starting the machine and holding the Command (Apple)+V keys after you hear the traditional "Bong". You can let go when you start seeing the white text on black screen.
 
And by Bong, he means Shhhhwwwwvvvvvooooouuuuummmmm.

Sorry. Seriously, now: when you say you "can't restart in safe mode", what do you mean exactly? Does it fail in the same way as normal startup?
 
If all else fails, you'll probably want to reinstall. There's a small risk of data loss when reinstalling. Keep that in mind.

IMHO, after you've solved this problem, upgrade to 10.3 (.9).

More reliable server connections
Journaled filesystem standard
Expose'
Snappier interface
Lotz o bug fixes
Fewer spinning beachballs of doom

I'm not sure exactly how much it costs, but I'm sure it's well below $100. If cost is not an issue, go to 10.4 (.5).

Further advantages or 10.4:
Spotlight super fast search!
Dashboard - widgets
More refinements

Doug
 
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