Persistent blue screen startup

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Persistent blue screen startup

I finally took the jump and upgraded to Leopard. I CarbonCopied my system to an external FW drive and reformatted my internal HardDrive.

Initially the switch went smoothly. The first 2 times, I had my external FW with Tiger attached and started up with the option key down and selected the internal Leopard system. Then I removed the ext FW drive and when the iMac booted up it took forever with the spinning timer before going to a blue screen that also took 5-10 minutes before finally getting onto the log-in screen.

Once booted up I found I couldn't get it to recognise the FW drive on any of the ports. I took the FW drive to another iMac and it booted fine with the same cable. My USB drives are mounting OK.

I also couldn't connect to my VDSL modem via ethernet, but finally, with some trouble, connecting via my Airport Extreme. I still can not connect to the ethernet.

It seems to me on boot up it is possibly looking for something (possibly on the other drive) a long time and something has gone AWOL in the communications that is effecting the FireWire and ethernet but not the USB 2.0.

I tried force quitting during the slow boot up to try and read what the problem could be in the report, but I can't make head or tail of it.

Could someone please guide me as to steps I can take to isolate the problem. Possibly from some legacy software that transferred with CarbonCopy.

iMac G5 2Ghz 17", Mac OS X (10.5.2)

Posted on Apr 20, 2008 11:12 PM

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Answer 1

Apr 21, 2008 5:32 AM in response to PeterBreis

Hello Peter:

Welcome to Apple discussions.

How did you upgrade? At this point, I think I would consider an archive and install:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107120

You also have the option of (assuming your backup is good, I do not use CCC...I dumped it for SuperDuper ages ago) restoring from your external HD and starting over. The archive and install would install a fresh copy of OS X while, at the same time, preserving your files, programs, and settings.

Barry

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Answer 2

PeterBreis Author

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Apr 21, 2008 5:42 AM in response to Barry Hemphill

The Leopard install was an upgrade from a freshly installed Tiger onto the erased internal HD from the original iMac DVDs. All current upgrades were made to the Leopard upgrade to bring it up to date.

Going from the backup will be difficult, as at the moment my iMac won't see the FW external drive.

Seems problems like to come in 3s.

It also has occurred to me, more than once over the last several years, that Apple's assumption that there is always the Internet to turn to, is a tad "optimistic" when things go wrong. I am lucky I have several Macs, but many do not.

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Answer 3

Apr 21, 2008 7:06 AM in response to Barry Hemphill

I am posting this from another iMac.

I rebooted the G5 iMac from the installer DVD. The System Profiler reports on the Firewire bus:

"Warning: unable to list FireWire devices"

I tested System Profiler and Disk Utility on the DVD with the backup FW drive a 2nd FW drive and a FW DVD burner using 2 different cables. None showed up in Disk Utility or System Profiler.

Disk Verification on the internal HD comes up OK.

Permissions always shows "ACL found but not expected on System/Library/User Templates/..." then lots of instances. I repaired this (for the 3rd time) and it comes up Permission Repair Complete (for the 3rd time).

I shall see if I can find a version of Tech Tool Pro that works on Leopard and run hardware tests.

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Answer 4

PeterBreis Author

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Apr 21, 2008 8:28 AM in response to Barry Hemphill

I ran the hardware tests in Mac Techtool Pro 4 and it reports all the hardware OK but the Firewire is unavailable.

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Answer 5

Apr 21, 2008 10:58 AM in response to PeterBreis

Hello Peter:

Ignore the permission message - that is meaningless (there is a knowledge base article someplace if you want to look further).

Try resetting the PRAM:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238

If that does not help, I would do an archive and install (as I indicated above).

Barry

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Answer 6

Apr 21, 2008 4:39 PM in response to Barry Hemphill

I have zapped the PRAM (twice to make sure) but the problems persist.

I went thoroughly through my System Preferences, shutting down any haxies or apps (which I first updated) at launch. I also specifically chose the internal HD as the start up disk. I turned off Spaces and anything else non-standard.

Nothing's changed. It still takes 1m 45sec to get through the initial spinning cursor and it is 5m 45 sec before it gets to the admin sign in.

The system still can't list the Firewire devices and still will not see my VDSL modem via the ethernet cable, although Airport Extreme is working and does see the VDSL modem.

What should I do the archive and install from? The last good system I had was the Tiger on the external Firewire drive that the iMac will no longer see to mount. If I do a clean install from scratch, I am worried I will lose eMail and all my settings. If I use the existing system on my iMac I may just be reintroducing the problem to the fresh install.

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Answer 7

Apr 21, 2008 9:27 PM in response to Peter Breis1

Hello Peter:

Do you have at least 10% of your internal HD free?

I would suggest you do the archive and install from your Leopard DVD. An A&I will install a fresh copy of OS X while, at the same time, preserving your files, programs, and settings. The A&I should also eliminate software as an issue.

I would definitely NOT do an erase and install. I think that should be for disasters (I have never done one). I would back up as much as possible first (always a good idea before software changes).

Barry

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Answer 8

Apr 25, 2008 8:32 PM in response to Barry Hemphill

Barry Hemphill wrote:
Hello Peter:

Do you have at least 10% of your internal HD free?

I would suggest you do the archive and install from your Leopard DVD. An A&I will install a fresh copy of OS X while, at the same time, preserving your files, programs, and settings. The A&I should also eliminate software as an issue.

I would definitely NOT do an erase and install. I think that should be for disasters (I have never done one). I would back up as much as possible first (always a good idea before software changes).

Yes I have plenty of room, after all it was a fresh install.

I have received Mac Tool Pro 4.6.1 the latest and run that with a detailed hardware & file test. Again the FireWire and Ethernet are greyed out in the tests but all other hardware checks OK. I noticed that boot up time was what should be expected from a DVD start up ie shorter than the nearly 6 mins I have been experiencing.

I guess it maybe something to do with the FW failure. The system maybe trying unsuccessfully to connect to any potential external FW devices. Just a guess though.

Are there direct FW and Ethernet probes that I can use to get some sort of real test, not just the absence of one?

My 1.5 terabyte drive with both USB & FW should be arriving next week so I'll do another backup and A&I to see what happens. After that I guess I am off to service! Not looking forward to that.

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