Stuck in Setup Assistant

I also got it to work after booting into safe mode.. I was ready to re-install the OS, but decided to go simpler - with ideas found in similar threads on this board. Booted into safe mode, quit the setup, restarted (not is safe mode) logged in, and done. only two reboots. Nice! Although, it would have been nicer if it DIDN'T happen in the first place... 🙂

I had this same problem yesterday... which was only resolved by me re-installing 10.5.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1205017&tstart=0

There was an article i found that had a way to fix it, supposedly, i tried it about 5 times with no luck... but here it is.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306840

Good Luck, this is probably all the help you're going to get, i got nothing yesterday, that's why i ended up just having to re-install. Everything is the same and still works fine... it just takes an hour or so.

try what's in this thread:

"Can't get out of Setup Assistant"

You can Quit out of the Setup Assistant, Command-Q, at the registration page at which point it will ask you to set up the first account. Of course, if you already have accounts set up.. you don't need to run Setup Assistant at all.

I just had a similar problem today and got around it without a reinstall. Same situation created the problem: doing a software update, restarting, seeing Setup Assistant and continually looping.

After a couple of unsuccessful tries, I decided to start up in Safe Mode (hold down Shift key immediately after the startup tone, and release when you see the progress indicator (looks like a spinning gear)). That brought up my account icon (which still existed) and allowed me to log in. However, after logging in, the Setup Assistant came on again, with the same loop. This time, though, I could back out and get back to the account log in screen. Once there, I selected Restart (on the login screen, not on the Apple menu), and the restart got me back to normal.

Things I tried that did not work:
1) In the Setup Assistant, select "Do not transfer any files at this time" (the result was the loop described above)
2) In the Setup Assistant, select "Transfer files from a Time Machine backup" (the system froze and no backup was done)
3) Selecting Restart or Shut Down from the Apple menu (nothing happened)

Hope this helps

Thank you!

This also worked for me. It seemed to be a problem with a security update not being completed for me. The puter froze mid-update and led to the startup assistant loop.

Thanks again
kris

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6550014#6550014 worked for me. And I didn't have to reinstall!

Well, after much googling and time with level 1 & level 2 support, the answer is: do an archive reinstall of leopard.

very disappointing, but there ya have it.

SS,

Did you lose any data? or was it a simple install? I am going through this with my other mac - a dual G4 (mirror drive).

Thanks!