Hello..I'm hoping someone out there can help or advise me.
I turned on my mac this morning to find it's normal loading screen of grey with the darker grey logo in centre..all normal at this stage. This was followed by a wipe from top to bottom making the background grey a little darker and in the centre the apple logo was replaced by what appeared to be a semi transparent power button symbol with the words. "You need to restart your computer. Hold down the Power button for several seconds or press the restart button"
I have tried this several times to no avail I have also zapped the P RAM again nothing. Can anyone out there help. I have a Mac Pro Quad Core Dual which is only a few months old and is up to date with its system software.
I could be so grateful of any assistance.
Warm regards
Sophia
Mac Pro Quad Core Dual,
Mac OS X (10.5.4),
2GB RAM
The cause is usually hardware, can be something as inocuous as a faulty USB device or cable. Until you resolve it I would boot from another hard drive and try various troubleshooting steps, boot in Safe Mode, repair your drive if you do get booted.
If you installed or added any hardware that would be the first place to look. It is as much art as science looking for that needle in the haystack. Those FAQs can help walk through things to try.
The cause is usually hardware, can be something as inocuous as a faulty USB device or cable. Until you resolve it I would boot from another hard drive and try various troubleshooting steps, boot in Safe Mode, repair your drive if you do get booted.
If you installed or added any hardware that would be the first place to look. It is as much art as science looking for that needle in the haystack. Those FAQs can help walk through things to try.
Hi there..thanks for your suggestions. I did have my LaCie drive plugged when I was using it yesterday but had unplugged it before I turned it on today. I wonder if that might have something to do with it too.
Kind regards
Sophia
I see a lot of people with problems with LaCie units. Cables, power adapter, even freaking out the Firewire ports (to reset FW ports, shutdown, unplug all cables and devices and power cord (or turn off UPS or surge protector) for a few minutes) and then connect just the minimum and restart.
It sounded like it might be a dual-drive unit? they require better power adapter and known issue for some units. Most of us have far more cables than we use so might look for a better cable. Early on, use to see recommendations for Isolator FW cables that prevent electrical problems, something Granite Digital specialized in.
I never really liked "hot plugging" FW, never daisy-chain. Using FW drives together with consumer electronics can cause cross-talk and noise on the cable, most cables lack the shielding necessary. USB has its own set of problems, from hubs (Apple monitor, keyboards, hubs) as well, or just a pinched or loose cable.
Hi there,
I have tried booting up the mac from the CD and have gone into Utilities and verified the disk. It didn't find any errors and also repaired disk permission where again it didn't find any problems.
I have also done a hardware test and again it has found nothing wrong wih the hardware. I have also unplugged everything and replugged the keyboard and mouse..nothing. Still the error keeps wiping down. I have even tried a different mac keyboard but again the same. Tried zapping the PRAM but doesn't even let me to that now.
When the error message comes up there isn't any other text in the background it's just the "Please restart the computer......." in a dark grey box in the centre of the screen and below it appears in the various languages.
Any other thoughts out there because I'm stuck !!!
Regards
Sophia
So from cold boot, you can't do the Command Option P R through 2-3 full reboot cycles (don't let up)?
Unplug everything and let it sit overnight without power cord or anything. That is the only way to rest the SMC system management controller on the 2008 model, the older model still had a reset button.
Also learned that the 2008 Macs can all boot AHT if the original OEM installer was used to install the system and the drive has not be completely reformatted and retail OS X used, just holding down "D" on startup. But you have to
Also, pull all your hard drives. Rule out that, which I have seen a hard drive cause panic on startup, which required disabling journaling and other repairs from Disk Utility and deleting caches, then repair, and finally do Safe Boot (shift key down on startup).
The only way to test RAM is with TechTool Deluxe or Pro; with Memtest or Rember; and to test some devices is to try using a differnent one, keyboard and mouse included if you have any.
Last hope: open case, look inside, take the two RAM Riser cards and pull out, check the DIMMs are fully seated.
If you have 3rd party memory, remove that (would need to before taking in probably).
Might want to put RAM back to way it shipped with 2 x 1GB and one DIMM on each Riser in slot one. Maybe that will wake this sleeping giant. Changing RAM config use to be one way to clear nvram in the distant past in the time of Arthur.
PS: it is "odd" to find a BTO 3.2GHz system, and only 2GB. For memory performance, Barefeats found a marked improvement with 8 DIMMs, and of course Mac Pro really needs memory to feed 8 cores and pro apps (2GB would be okay for web and email type use only).
Ok thanks I will try that.
I did order the mac from the Apple Store so not sure about the system software installation. I do hope it's nothing serious because I have only had it a few months and vistually unused hence why I still have 2GB of RAM on it. I am going to expand the memory to get better usuage out of it.
Do you know if Apple engineers visit the home for repairs. It's pretty heavy and quite difficult for me to take to an Apple Store myself.
BSD process name corresponding to current thread: kernel_task
Mac OS version:
9E17
Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 9.4.0: Mon Jun 9 19:30:53 PDT 2008; root:xnu-1228.5.20~1/RELEASE_I386
System model name: MacPro3,1 (Mac-F42C88C8)
What I would do is delete the two top level cache folders
/Library/Caches
/System/Library/Caches
And the file /System/Library/extension.mkext (about 10MB) which is a cache of your extension drivers being used.
Do another Safe Boot afterwards.
Ideal, boot from DVD after the above and run Disk Fist Aid and Diak Warrior.
No, I would neve do Archive Install.
Also, use Disk Utility to copy the drive to another drive with Restore.
Repair the new copy and permissions, go into Finder and on it also delete those three items.
Yes, that is excellent news... and I'm sure you're breathing easier now!
If you hold down "D" on startup, it should try to boot Apple Hardware Test even without the OEM DVD in. Might want to check into that next.
No, it looks like software, not hardware, but that the system on the disk drive - not unexpectedly from what it has been through - needs to have the dirt washed off and cleaned up.
Hi there.....I did everything you suggested yesterday. Looked like I was getting somewhere and booted it back up got to the password stage logged in and then ....it wiped down again...did everything again then seem to get in and looked like it was cured.
I booted it up this morning to find the error coming up as it was booting.
I gave up, erased and reinstalled the the hard drive. It seems to have completely got rid of it. Annoying thing I'm having to obviously reinstall all my software etc.
I bought a copy of Disk Warrior, version 4.0 it did say it was compatible with Leopard but it wouldn't boot up from the CD....just kept trying to reboot several times so gave up. I also tried boot the Warrior CD on my laptop which is running Tiger and it just a MacBook and again it wouldn't. I would have though it would have been ok on the laptop. I had a look on the Alsoft website where they are offering a free upgrade to 4.1. I was able to download it without a problem as it was a genuine version but when I went to install the new version it wouldn't recognise the CD I had in there and kept asking me for the original. Does that sound odd to you. I have to admit I rarely see CD's with a blue underside kind of makes me think I have bought a copy than an original. What do you think ? Any top tips how to get this Disk Warrior CD to work ?
Kind regards
Sophia