BLUE SCREEN freeze, fixing after Leopard install

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Level 1

16 points

BLUE SCREEN freeze, fixing after Leopard install

I thought I would post this for Mac users who may be having startup problems after installing Leopard. Please note, I will not pass myself off as an expert, just a normal Joe trying to get my Mac going.

I used a combination of advice after reading the discussions myself for about an hour. My personal opinion is that there is a glitch in the install software that does not allow the computer to log in to the user correctly after the Leopard install. Here is my step by step fix for my problem.

•Start the affected computer up in Target Disc Mode via Firewire cable to a working Mac.

•Navigate into the affected Mac's drive after it appears on the host Mac's desktop and delete the following 2 files:

/Library/Preferences/com.apple/loginwindow.plist
/Users/username/Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist

I am going to guess that if you have more than one user, you will need to delete all the users loginwindow.plist

•Empty the trash can.

•Push and hold the power button on the affected Mac until it shuts down. After shutdown, unplug the firewire cable, then restart the affected Mac.

•Be patient. It takes a little time to start up.

•If this does not solve your problem, then go through the Target Disc Mode process again and delete these files if you can find them:

/Library/Preference Panes/Application Enhancer.prefpane
/Library/Frameworks/Application Enhancer.framework
/System/Library/SystemConfiguration/Application Enhancer.bundle
/Library/Preferences/com.unsanity.ape.plist

•Empty the trash can.

•Power down the affected Mac, disconnect the firewire cable, restart the Mac. Don't be surprised if it takes quite a while for the Mac to index the files after startup.

Good Luck.

•Please be sure to post your success or lack of success so others can benefit from the advice.

A WISH TO THANK EVERYBODY WHO CONTRIBUTES TO THE DISCUSSIONS. YOUR ADVICE IS INVALUABLE, AND AT TIMES HAS SAVED MY U KNOW WHAT. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. -JA

PowerMac G5 Dual 2.0, Mac OS X (10.5)

Posted on Oct 26, 2007 9:25 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 26, 2007 10:27 PM in response to Serendipity1

After two reinstalls with the "blue screen" upon reboot, I was pretty sure I had a bad DVD or something, but this fixed my problem! Thank you!

To be specific, deleting the loginwindow plist did not solve my problem by itself. I had to do the second step of removing those Unsanity APE files. Kind of strange... why should a couple old defunct files sitting in my System Frameworks folder cause a lockup on first boot of Leopard? Weird.

Also note that if you don't have another Mac to Target Disk with, you can do this same operation via single-user mode (command-S when booting) if you have a little experience with the command line interface. That's what I did.

Thanks again! It could have been a long few days waiting for my replacement DVD with a dead computer here 😉

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Answer 2

Oct 26, 2007 10:48 PM in response to Serendipity1

It looks like Application Enhancer is NOT compatible with Leopard so it would behoove folks to uninstall Application Enhancer before they upgrade.

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Answer 3

Serendipity1 Author

Level 1

16 points

Oct 26, 2007 10:50 PM in response to Ian Patterson

Dear Ian

I actually wanted to use the command line interface, but I couldn't remember my user name exactly. Go figure.

Anyways, I am very happy to hear you to are now up and going. I knew if just only one person benefitted from the information, it would be worth the time it took for me to type it in.

Enjoy Leopard! You certainly earned your stripes...oh, wait, that would be Tiger. You earned your spots.

Thank you for your reply.-James

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Answer 4

Rand

Level 2

290 points

Oct 26, 2007 10:53 PM in response to Serendipity1

YOU ROCK !

Thank you SO much. I had to get rid of all the files you listed, but now it all seems to be working.

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Answer 5

Oct 26, 2007 11:01 PM in response to Serendipity1

Another solution I have come to on my side (I have tried all the above and it did nothing) is (I am using a mac pro with a cinema display and one additional vga monitor through a stock a/b switch):

Unplug any second display plugged into the video card.

I noticed this was the fix to my boot to the leopard disc issue also (I would boot to try and install leopard and I would just get a grey screen with cursor, no welcome screen ever). For some reason, when I finally get into Leopard, it cannot detect the second display after I plug it back in. So on my end, this issue was never spotlight indexing my three hard drives or the ape files you all speak of.

The issue now is why I cannot detect or use my additional display. I also unplugged my cinema display and plugged it into the second output on the video card and it worked fine, so this has to be a software issue on leopard side, since I never ever had an issue using two displays on my machine.

I am also using the video card that came stock.

Hope this helps too!
Tim

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Answer 6

Oct 26, 2007 11:03 PM in response to Jon Thornburg

Any advice on how to uninstall Application Enhancer? My copied was delivered this morning but no one home. Bought me some time to read before installing.

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Answer 7

Serendipity1 Author

Level 1

16 points

Oct 26, 2007 11:07 PM in response to Thomas Crawford1

If you are up and running on 10.4 or earlier, I think you should just navigate to the files and trash them. The files are as follows:

/Library/Preference Panes/Application Enhancer.prefpane
/Library/Frameworks/Application Enhancer.framework
/System/Library/SystemConfiguration/Application Enhancer.bundle
/Library/Preferences/com.unsanity.ape.plist

Back up your important files if you are hesitant.

Good Luck, J

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Answer 8

Oct 27, 2007 12:25 AM in response to Serendipity1

Worked after removing the files you listed. Thank you very much.

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Answer 9

Oct 27, 2007 12:36 AM in response to Jon Thornburg

Heck, at least one of the APE plug-ins wasn't even compatible with the Safari 3 Beta, I believe.

Any time you're running software that basically hacks new code into existing applications, you're playing with fire... especially when those applications change.

There's a reason they're called "hacks". 🙂

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Answer 10

Oct 27, 2007 12:55 AM in response to Serendipity1

This solved my problem in less than 10 minutes. Thanks for saving my weekend !

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Answer 11

Oct 27, 2007 1:03 AM in response to Serendipity1

I also had a freze on a 12 inch PowerBok G4
The tip with using taget tagetdisk and remowing the files worked
I removed all the files you mention in one stroke.
This realy saved some time - Thank you very much.

/Library/Preferences/com.apple/loginwindow.plist (com.apple.loginwindow.plist)
/Users/username/Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist

/Library/Preference Panes/Application Enhancer.prefpane
/Library/Frameworks/Application Enhancer.framework
/System/Library/SystemConfiguration/Application Enhancer.bundle
/Library/Preferences/com.unsanity.ape.plist

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Answer 12

Oct 27, 2007 1:23 AM in response to Serendipity1

I was so excited to get my hands on this software and and momentously dissappointed with the results... I ran the install DVD, all seemed to be going well, it checked the disk etc, etc... and not even 5% in to the install it froze! Nothing more...

I restarted my Mac, now reaching for my Tiger DVD that something wasn't right...
Tiger would not fix it'self, oh bu**ar... I thought...

I had recently backed up my HD less than two weeks ago, so I went for a clean install.
I got Tiger working; updated software and tried again, failure... I thought I had neglected to update something, but no, this time I got an error message halfway through the process informing me that the DVD was damaged and to try a new copy! -From where at 1-20am on a Saturday morning?

I would have hope that Apple whould have forseen this issue with the beta testing, we don't all have kick-*** machines anymore, time has moved on! -But until i upgrade to a dual core Mac (which will be next year now) is there some resolution to this temporary insanity?

Now where's that contact number for Apple in the UK for a new DVD maybe?

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Answer 13

Oct 27, 2007 3:59 AM in response to Serendipity1

Just to say that I had to use this target disk mode over Firewire, it popped up on the mac at work.

I trashed the Application Enhancer files then rebooted the mac. And it WORKED!

THANK YOU to the people that posted this help and one seriour BLACK MARK against apple for not fully testing their release. Not impressed Apple!

I feel lucky I was in a position to have access to firewire cables and other, working Macs to allow this though. I guess the majority of people are not going to be so fortunate!

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Answer 14

Oct 27, 2007 4:13 AM in response to Ian Patterson

Ian, I just saw your post about the Leopard install. I only have one Mac and i have the blue screen after the install. I booted up using command-S as you suggested, but I do not know how to use the command interface from there. If you have time, would you be able to post how you fixed your computer from this point? Thank you! )

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Answer 15

Oct 27, 2007 4:22 AM in response to Serendipity1

could someone please post a fix for the blue screen problem if the user only has a single working mac? I booted using the command-S feature as suggested in an earier post, but do not know how to use the command interface. Could someone please help? Thank you!

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