Startup problems, followed by installation problems...

[FREQ_FORCE]

I booted up my G4 running 10.2.3 this evening to find that cursed prohibitory symbol glaring at me during the grey startup screen. I initially thought that this indicated a kernel panic, but I can't think of anything that I could have done to cause this. I booted from the system software disk to run Disk First Aid, which revealed a few disk errors. I had these errors repaired and even ran DiskWarrior just to be sure. Still, I kept getting the prohibitory sign.

I decided to archive and re-install the system software. The first attempt was sucessful in the sense that I was able to complete the re-installation process. However, something strange happened when I restarted. The grey boot screen came up, but immediately froze after some glitchy-looking static lines appeared across the screen. I've never seen anything like this in Mac OS X.

I've tried safe booting, and even force booting. I've unplugged all my external devices. And to top it all off, every time I try to re-install the system software again I get an installation error halfway through the process.

I'm stumped here. Can anyone help out?

 

[zefcolor]

I have the same trouble on my PMG5 every day when i come to work i cant never startup my mac at 1 time becouse it just freez in the startup and somethimes it hapens a kernel panic I heve try to find hanswers to this problem in the forums and nothing i already have gone to macserviçe in portugal and they couldnt resolve my problem if you have any idea on resolving this please mail me . " a 3000$ mac that only start at 4 time every day is bad please helpe me"" a 3000$ mac that only start at 4 time every day is bad please helpe me"

 

[perfessor101]

Problems such as you describe may be a symptom of a failing DIMM module. The only reliable way to test this is to remove the DIMMs one at a time, or in the case of the G5 - two at a time, and see if the problem goes away.