Help!! My Mac won't boot up!!

Question

Level 1

4 points

Help!! My Mac won't boot up!!

Hi,
I have a Dual 2.5 ghz G5 w/5 gb of RAM. I just purchased the Adobe CS3 Master collection and I was about to install it on my computer when noticed that it said the OS had to be 10.4.9. I was running 10.4.8. So I went to the downloads section of the apple website, downloaded the 10.4.9 combo update for PPC, and did the installation. Only when the installation finished, it said that the software didn't install, adn there was an error. I tried to open the .dmg again but it said that it couldn't open it because of a "broken pipe." So I trashed that .dmg and downloaded it again. This time, the .dmg wouldn't open at all and gave the same "broken pipe" message. So I tried to restart the computer...and now it won't boot up at all!!!

THe white screen shows up with the swirling little circle, but when it gets to the blue screen with the shiny apple and the status bar it just freezes! The status bar isn't even blue! It's just empty!!

I don't know what to do. When I had that error in the initial installation, did it erase my OS? I have a PowerBook running 10.4.8 too. Is there any way I can use my PowerBook to fix the G5? Help! Tech support is after hours already! I need this computer for big time production work!

PowerBook G4 15", PowerMac G5 Dual 2.5, Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Posted on Aug 30, 2007 6:57 PM

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Answer 1

Aug 30, 2007 7:36 PM in response to sssaudio

Try things in Apple doc.#106464 for your startup issue. The article says it's is for 10.3.9 and down but it still applies to 10.4 systems.
Also, try using Disk Utility to do a Disk Repair, as shown in this link, while booted up on your install disk.
Let us know what errors DU reports and if it was able to repair them. It's possible you had some corruption that the update made more noticable.
I always do a Disk Repair before a combo update, then Repair Permissions after for best results.

Cheers!
DALE

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Answer 2

sssaudio Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 2, 2007 9:46 AM in response to Dale Weisshaar

Hi,
none of the options in that link you gave me worked. THanks anyway. Shouldn't i be able to boot up the G5 if I use my PowerBook in Target Disk mode or something like that? But I'm not sure which machine to use as the master and which as the "disk" in order to make it work so that I can try downloading the combo updater again and getting the OS to boot up again on the G5.

Also, about 2 months ago, I backe dup my entire G5 system to an external hard drive using Carbon Copier and I'm pretty sure I checked off that it should also be a bootable backup. How would I use this hard drive in order to boot up the computer and then try re-installing the the OS updater?
Anybody?

Thanks.

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Answer 3

maclover

Level 4

3,850 points

Sep 2, 2007 12:52 PM in response to sssaudio

Hi. If you cannot boot from the system DVD and repair the G5 boot drive (...?)

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=DiskUtility/10.5/en/duh1018.html

You may be able to use firewire TDM

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58583

to access the G5 boot drive as the Target from the laptop and run Disk Utility(the one on the laptop) > Repair Disk on it.

Or you could connect the firewire external drive with the CCC clone on it to the G5, and try holding down the Option (alt) key on Startup - which should offer you the choice of booting from the external firewire drive - if it is bootable. Good Luck.

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