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Desktop will not load, stuck on blue screen -- please help!

As I can see, many other Mac users have encountered the same problem that I now have: the dreaded ‘blue screen of death’. About a week ago, any internet browser that I tried to open (Safari, Firefox) would freeze after loading its home page, and tell me that the application was not responding. After force quitting and restarting each program a couple of times, with no positive response, I decided to restart my computer to see if that would do the trick. Upon booting up, it then started the same sequence that it is still doing now: first a grey screen will briefly show, then a white screen with the apple logo and a turning dial beneath it, followed by a blue screen which will show a window that says “Starting Mac OS X” with a progress bar beneath it, which will fill to various points (sometimes only 1/8 of the way, while other times it fills completely), but it always leads me to the same screen – solid blue with a black arrow that will occasionally be replaced with a turning dial, only to go back to the arrow again. I am using a PowerBook G4 with the Tiger version of OS X. No applications were running whenever I first decided to restart my computer, and to my knowledge, all software and security patches were up to date and fully installed.

I’ve researched and tried every possible option that I’ve come across, listed below with the results they yielded (if any):

 Holding the Command/Option/P/R keys upon startup (screen stays blank, and the computer continues to ‘chime’ until I release the keys. I have allowed it to chime a couple of times before I stop holding the keys, but it always leads me back to the same blue screen)
 Holding the Shift key upon startup (leads me to a screen that has an icon of my hard drive and two arrows. Clicking the left arrow does nothing, the hard drive icon does not respond to being clicked, and the right arrow starts the loading process which again ends with the blue screen)
 With the first OS X Installation disc that came with my computer inserted into the disc drive, holding the C key (nothing happens; sequence as normal)
 With the first OS X Installation disc that came with my computer inserted into the disc drive, holding the Option key (same results as holding shift key with no disc)
 With the first OS X Installation disc that came with my computer inserted into the disc drive, holding Option/Command/Shift/Delete (a grey screen appears with the icon of a folder, a question mark briefly flashes before being replaced by the two-toned blue face Mac logo. After continuing to hold the keys with this folder and face on the screen, I get no response, so release the keys and the computer continues to enter the white screen-blue screen sequence)
 Holding the Command/Option/O/F keys upon startup (a white screen appears, and following advice I have seen on other forums a type ‘reset-nvram’, then return, then ‘reset-all’, then return. The computer reboots and the sequence continues as usual. I have also tried holding the Command/Option/P/R to reset the PRAM immediately after leaving the white Open Firmware screen, allow the chime to sound a couple of times as before, but still I get no results)
 While on the blue screen, pressing the Command/Shift/Q keys (alas, I am the only user on the computer, so I cannot try to remedy my problem by signing into another account. From the screen the appears, I can either shut down, restart, or put my computer to sleep, or enter my password which leads me back to the same blue screen again)

I apologize in advance if I’ve included a lot of extraneous information, but I just wanted to cover the options I’ve already explored so as not to waste your time if you had any of these in mind. I’m going to post this on a few different forums just to make sure I have all my bases covered, but anything you have to offer in the way of suggestions would be greatly appreciated. If you could post your advice in layman’s terms that would be even more helpful; I’ll probably need exact, step-by-step instructions if required to start my computer in ‘safe mode’ or anything else an average user would not be familiar with. I know this is a lot to ask, so I thank you in advance for taking the time to read through this and offer any solutions that you may have.

Posted on Sep 13, 2008 8:48 PM

Best reply

BDAqua

Level 10

239,987 points

Posted on Sep 13, 2008 10:22 PM

Hi amnicolekidman, and a warm welcome to the forums! 🙂

Although you don't specify your Mac, it sounds like you have real HW problems, likely the HD.

Tough without a Tiger Disk, but try fsck...

To use fsck, you must run it from the command line. Unlike using your mouse to open an application to do something, you'll need to type a text command at the prompt (#) to tell fsck what to do. The Terminal application (/Applications/Utilities) and single-user mode are two examples of command-line interfaces in which you can type such commands. To use fsck:
1. Start up your computer in single-user mode to reach the command line. Hold CMD+s keys down at bootup. Note: If necessary, perform a forced restart as described in the Emergency Troubleshooting Handbook that came with your computer. On desktop computers, you can do this by pressing the reset/interrupt button (if there is one) or holding down the power button for several seconds. On portable computers, simultaneously press the Command-Control-power keys. If your portable computer doesn't restart with this method, you may need to reset the Power Manager.
2. At the command-line prompt, type /sbin/fsck -fy
3. Press Return. fsck will go through five "phases" and then return information about your disk's use and fragmentation. Once it finishes, it'll display this message if no issue is found: ** The volume (name ofvolume) appears to be OK  If fsck found issues and has altered, repaired, or fixed anything, it will display this message:  *** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED ***   Important: If this message appears, repeat the fsck command you typed in step 2 until fsck tells you that your volume appears to be OK (first-pass repairs may uncover additional issues, so this is a normal thing to do).
4. When fsck reports that your volume is OK, type reboot at the prompt and then press Return.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214

Then Safe Boot , (holding Shift key down at bootup), off the HD & use Disk Utility from there to Repair Permissions, reboot once more.

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32 replies

BDAqua

Level 10

239,987 points

Sep 15, 2008 2:52 PM in response to iamnicolekidman

which may present a problem considering it hasn't acknowledged the discs in any of our previous experiments.

OOw, yeah... do you have another Mac around?

Then how will I format it into the Extended (Journaled) file system? Will I need to purchase additional install discs for this?

No... once we overcome OUR problwm...

1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc that came with your computer, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
*Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*
3. Click the Erase tab.
4. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
5. Select your Mac OS X volume.
6. Highlight the drive, select Erase Tab, then Format type... MacOS Extended Journalled, select the Security Options button, choose Zero Out Data, Erase... after completion hopefully you'll be able to install.

And will any external hard drive that I buy work for this purpose, or is there some kind in particular that I need to look for?

Just stay away from ones with a one buuton "Touch" feature on the front, and no USB2 only drives, here's some ggod ones...

http://eshop.macsales.com/specials/XLR8YourMac.cfm

Having never worked with an external drive before, I'm totally oblivious to how they work, so I apologize if these questions may seem obvious to you.

Made me laugh... wouldn't it be quite humorous if we only could help with things you already kew about! 🙂

While I was waiting for your response, I was also looking into enabling myself as a "root user" to try and access some of my files that way, but due to the numerous, bold-lettered warnings accompanying every piece of advice I found on the subject I thought it best to ask you about it first.

No worry, we have bigger problems than somebody hacking into your Mac right now... I'd try it!

so I was wondering if there was a way that I could use this "root user" method to transfer everything onto an appropriately sized storage device (possibly even directly to my desktop computer?)

Very good idea, don't think we'd even need Root for that, just highlight a folder you can't get into, do a Get info, look for Priviliges and unlock the lock & change to owner to YOU!

Lastly, now that I'm back 'in', should I even bother trying to run Disk Utility First Aid, or just wait to mess with that until I'm sure that all my data is safe?

No, I'd try to copy your stuff to a USB Pen Drive or something.

PS. You're doing absolutely wonderful on this, considering everything! 🙂

Sep 18, 2008 6:47 PM in response to iamnicolekidman

Hello again! I'm sorry that I've been absent for the past couple of days; I've been busy attending to the other parts of my life that don't operate in binary code. 🙂

Anyways, I've managed to accomplish the following since my last update: bought a portable hard drive, connected it to my G4 via its FireWire port, formatted it into Extended (Journaled) mode, then dragged and dropped everything worth saving onto the drive. This was mostly just pictures, text documents, music, and others of the like, and everything seemed to transfer smoothly. By the way, your advice to use "Get Info" was the greatest! I might need some help knowing exactly what options to choose whenever I want to assign the folders I changed back to my old account, as I eventually hope to delete this one and go back to using the one I was before, but I'll address that whenever we get to it.

But this brings to mind my first question of the evening... if I were to drag and drop the icon for an application such as GarageBand, Microsoft Word, Photoshop, etc. to my external hard drive, would I be able to run that program off of the hard drive? Or would I need the initial installer for each program in order to run them again?

In the case that I have to wipe out my entire system in order to get it to operate, it wouldn't be the end of the world if I couldn't run the applications without their respective installers; I still have the original program discs for everything I downloaded from CDs, and I can easily re-obtain everything I got from the internet. Still, it would be quite a nuisance, and if I could simply do it by the way I described it could certainly save me a lot of time.

So now onto attempting to repair the HD... I jumped ahead a little bit and opened up Disc Utility, selected the volume +Macintosh HD+ under the subset +74.5 FUJITSU MH *+, and went ahead and chose "Repair Permissions". A long list of errors scrolled by, followed by a message that the permissions repair was complete. Oddly enough, the option to just "Repair" the hard drive is greyed out, and hence I cannot choose it. Hmm.

I'm assuming that this alone won't fix the problem at hand, but I must admit I'm wary to try the method you've suggested multiple times in which I insert Installation Disc 1 and then restart the computer while holding down the C button. Despite the fact that this hasn't worked before, I'm a little bit nervous to leave the safe, happy place that I find myself in now; in case you don't remember, I'm currently logged into a new account I created after setting up the computer as though the it was being used for the first time. It was a gamble to even get this far, and I'm obviously afraid that I won't be able to get back to this point again. Is there anything I can do to try and troubleshoot without logging out of this account?

You've already done so much to help me get over the biggest hurdle in this whole mess, recovering my data, and hopefully we don't have much farther to go. As always, thanks for your help and support. 🙂

BDAqua

Level 10

239,987 points

Sep 18, 2008 7:03 PM in response to iamnicolekidman

But this brings to mind my first question of the evening... if I were to drag and drop the icon for an application such as GarageBand, Microsoft Word, Photoshop, etc. to my external hard drive, would I be able to run that program off of the hard drive? Or would I need the initial installer for each program in order to run them again?

A few of them would work, but many have oher needed files stored many different places, (Library is a big one).

Oddly enough, the option to just "Repair" the hard drive is greyed out, and hence I cannot choose it. Hmm.

You can't repair the Drive/disk you booted are from.

Still, it would be quite a nuisance, and if I could simply do it by the way I described it could certainly save me a lot of time.

If you could now get carbon copy cloner to make an exact copy of your old HD to the New one...

http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html

Then boot off the external drive by holding the Option key at reboot, we'd likely solve all your problems... besides, you'd really have a complete backup. 🙂

Sep 18, 2008 7:40 PM in response to BDAqua

All right; I've downloaded Carbon Copy onto my Mac, selected my new external drive as the Target Disc, and chosen to "Back up everything" without erasing the target volume. To avoid creating duplicate files, I do plan on manually deleting everything I've already put on the external HD before cloning the internal HD in its entirety, but for safety's sake I want to save that until after I address this issue: the CCC program is giving me following message: "The target volume will not boot PowerPC Macs. PowerPC Macs can only boot from a hard drive that is partitioned with the Apple Partition Map format." Now how exactly do I do that?

And assuming we are able to so...

BDAqua wrote:
Then boot off the external drive by holding the Option key at reboot, we'd likely solve all your problems...

Are you suggesting that I boot off the external drive so I can go in and run Disk Utility to attempt to repair my internal HD? Or will I always just have to boot from my external drive whenever I start up my computer from now on?

BDAqua

Level 10

239,987 points

Sep 18, 2008 9:55 PM in response to iamnicolekidman

but for safety's sake I want to save that until after I address this issue:

But the following will erase everthing you have on there!!!

PowerPC Macs can only boot from a hard drive that is partitioned with the Apple Partition Map format." Now how exactly do I do that?

1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc that came with your computer, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.
3. Click the Erase tab.
4. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
5. Select your Mac OS X volume, then chose MacOS Extended Journalled.
6. Click Erase & look for Options. choose Zero 1 pass."

Check what Format it is now in Disk Utility, highlight thr drive, click the info button above, if it says MS/DOS or FAT32, then much of what you copied may be no good at all.

vAre you suggesting that I boot off the external drive so I can go in and run Disk Utility to attempt to repair my internal HD? Or will I always just have to boot from my external drive whenever I start up my computer from now on?

Yes or many other options, but let's figure out what format drive you have, if it is MacOS Extended, then make a New Folder on there called OldBU, then move everything you copied to that folder, this is so Cloning will work and not overwrite what you have already.

Sep 19, 2008 8:37 AM in response to BDAqua

BDAqua wrote:

Check what Format it is now in Disk Utility, highlight thr drive, click the info button above, if it says MS/DOS or FAT32, then much of what you copied may be no good at all.

Now there are four entries in the list on the left side of the Disk Utility Window: as before, +74.5 GB FUJITSU MH *+, followed by +Macintosh HD+, and now there is +149.1 GB DMI+, and underneath that is the name I have given my external drive (I thought Hardy the Hard Drive would be appropriate 🙂 ). While +Hardy the Hard Drive+ is highlighted and the Erase tab in pulled up, it shows that the volume format is in Mac OS Extended (Journaled), which I formatted myself before copying everything onto the external HD yesterday. However, when +149.1 GB DMI+ is highlighted, it shows that the volume format is the MS-DOS File System. Was I supposed to have changed this before copying my files, as well?

When +Hardy the Hard Drive+ is highlighted and I pull up the Info window, there is a entry that reads "File System: Mac OS Extended (Journaled)", which confirms that it is in the correct format. But when I pull up the Info window for +149.1 GB DMI+, there is no similar entry for File System anywhere in the entire window. I know that the hard drive came formatted in MS-DOS/FAT 32 mode so it could be compatible between both Windows and Mac, and how much exactly I did too change that, I don't know.

And just so I have a better idea of what I'm describing here, what exactly is the relationship of +Hardy the Hard Drive+ to +149.1 GB DMI+, or +Macintosh HD+ to +74.5 GB FUJITSU MH *+ ? Are the former partitions of the latter? Or volumes? Or images? I thought that this might be beneficial for me to know, not only for my own understanding, but so I can explain myself more clearly to you in the future.

BDAqua wrote:

1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc that came with your computer, then restart the computer while holding the C key.

Not again!!! Is there seriously no other way I can do this? It seems like I've already done most of the steps by accessing the Disk Utility the way I am now, and I can even see something similar to what is described in step 6. While +Hardy the Hard Drive+ is highlighted and the Erase tab is selected, there is a button that pulls up "Security Options" and allows me to choose from a list of options, one of which is entitled "Zero Out Data". Is this possibly the same thing?

And I also noticed that under Disk Utility, when +149.1 GB DMI+ is highlighted a Partition tab becomes available. Within that tab is an Options button which pulls of a list of partition schemes, one of which is 'Apple Partition Map'. It currently registers as being in 'Master Boot Record', but it seems like this might be our ticket to an easy change. Further instructions within this Partition tab tell me to select the disk I want to partition ( +149.1 GB DMI+, right?), choose a volume scheme (my options are current, and then 1-16 partitions), click each volume represented in the scheme (which is currently only Hardy ), and specify a volume name format and size. Then click 'Partition'. Can this do for me what I need?

And if for some reason this still isn't the answer, I have one last suggestion to throw out there. When searching for "Apple Partition Map" on the Mac website, this was one of the results that came back to me:

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/systemdiskutilities/volumeworks.html

In reference to how this might be relevant to us, it says "VolumeWorks’ Rebuild feature can convert the drive’s partition map between PDISK format for use with older PowerPC-based systems and GUID format for newer Intel-based Mac systems". Might this be what we want? If not, I give up, and Installation Disc 1 it is.

Hopefully I haven't confused you too much yet! 🙂

BDAqua

Level 10

239,987 points

Sep 19, 2008 11:35 AM in response to iamnicolekidman

However, when 149.1 GB DMI is highlighted, it shows that the volume format is the MS-DOS File System. Was I supposed to have changed this before copying my files, as well?

I take it you Partitioned this drive into two Partitions correct? Then yes, this should really be MacOS Extended.

Are the former partitions of the latter? Or volumes? Or images?

The whole Disk, (physical unit), is set to the left, Partitions on the same Disk will be inset a bit to the left underneath that...

Not again!!! Is there seriously no other way I can do this?

OOPS, no we can do it from the HD for the external.

But when I pull up the Info window for 149.1 GB DMI, there is no similar entry for File System anywhere in the entire window.

Highlight that one then click on the Info button up top.

How many Partitions do we have... that's not clear?

Might this be what we want?

No APM is what we want.

Sep 19, 2008 5:44 PM in response to BDAqua

BDAqua wrote:

How many Partitions do we have... that's not clear?

Currently, my external hard drive has only one partition, the volume I titled +Hardy the Hard Drive+, which currently holds all the music, photos, etc. I copied from my internal HD the other day.

Just out of curiosity, what would be the purpose in creating two separate partitions?

And thanks so much for the screenshot you posted; I have a much better grasp of what's going on now! 🙂 It also gave me the idea to post some of my own, just to give you a clearer understanding of what I'm looking at from my end...

Here is one of Disk Utility's Erase tab, with my external HD's only partition highlighted on the left:

And another shot of the Erase tab, this time with the whole external HD highlighted:

And lastly, a screenshot of the Partition tab for my external HD, after selecting 'Apple Partition Map' from Options but before actually choosing to partition the drive with the button on the bottom right. Since I have yet to do so I believe that it is still in the 'Master Boot Record' scheme, which was the option that was chosen whenever I opened the Options window for the first time.

I hope that this helps!

BDAqua

Level 10

239,987 points

Sep 19, 2008 6:10 PM in response to iamnicolekidman

Just out of curiosity, what would be the purpose in creating two separate partitions?

Mostly useful if say you wanted 2 different OSes to boot from, like Tiger on one, Leopard on another partition. 🙂

From the second pic, I would start over with the Whole Drive clicked on, erase it Mac OS Extended APM with OS9 drivers... I don't think I've ever seen the drive being MS-DOS and the only partition being MacOS!?

Might work though, I'll ask around if you don't want to/can't afford to erase it.

Sep 19, 2008 6:44 PM in response to BDAqua

BDAqua wrote:

Mostly useful if say you wanted 2 different OSes to boot from, like Tiger on one, Leopard on another partition. 🙂

My G4 is the only Mac I own and I don't plan on upgrading to Leopard anytime in the near future, so I don't foresee using it to backup two different versions of OS X. Is this the only reason I might need two partitions?

BDAqua wrote:

Might work though, I'll ask around if you don't want to/can't afford to erase it.

Well if I'm going to clone my internal HD, Carbon Copy (as you already know) needs me to change the partition to the AMP scheme, which would require wiping out everything I put on the external HD anyways. The only reason I might be hesitant to go ahead and do this is if my problems are being caused by a virus or corrupt file, which would then of course be transferred to my external drive by doing a complete backup. Is there any possibility that this might be the case?

BDAqua wrote:

From the second pic, I would start over with the Whole Drive clicked on, erase it Mac OS Extended APM with OS9 drivers...

If you're confident that this wouldn't be an issue, however, I will continue to work on creating a complete backup. As I understand it, you're saying that I would first need to format the whole drive into Extended (Journaled) via the Erase tab, and then change the drive's partition scheme to AMP with the OS 9 drivers via the Partition tab, right? Then with any luck, Carbon Copy should be ready to clone my internal HD.

BDAqua

Level 10

239,987 points

Sep 19, 2008 7:00 PM in response to iamnicolekidman

Is this the only reason I might need two partitions?

Not much other reasons for more partitions on OSX, unless you wanted 2 backups of Tiger!

Is there any possibility that this might be the case?

Not likely a Virus, but at the very worst well just be where we are now except with a backup! 🙂

I bet not though, I think it'll boot much better from the external.

As I understand it, you're saying that I would first need to format the whole drive into Extended (Journaled) via the Erase tab, and then change the drive's partition scheme to AMP with the OS 9 drivers via the Partition tab, right?

Right, but I think the one Partition after erasing the Whole drive will be APM.

Sep 19, 2008 7:23 PM in response to BDAqua

OK! I am currently waiting for Carbon Copy to finish cloning my HD, and will update you on how it went as soon it's done. Assuming everything goes smoothly, I should then restart my computer while holding down the alt/option key and choose to boot from my external drive, right?

And after doing this, should I choose to log in using my old account or the new one that I've been using?

BDAqua

Level 10

239,987 points

Sep 19, 2008 7:33 PM in response to iamnicolekidman

I should then restart my computer while holding down the alt/option key and choose to boot from my external drive, right?

Correct.

And after doing this, should I choose to log in using my old account or the new one that I've been using?

Myself, I'd try the old one, it just may require a restart, Option/alt, and choosing the new one! 🙂

Here's to good luck!

Sep 22, 2008 3:15 PM in response to iamnicolekidman

It took 49 hours, but my hard drive is finally cloned! It only took about 6 hours to get to the 90% point, but it slowed down significantly whenever it started copying my music folder. Regardless, I restarted the computer, chose to boot from the external drive, and tried logging into my old account. Now my computer is stuck on the blue screen with the wavy lines, with the arrow responsive and present but nothing else. I've left it this way for about 30 minutes already and am going to give it a little more time to see if anything happens, but to me this suggests that the problem might in fact be a corrupt or misplaced file. Do you suspect this as well?

If so, is there any way to go into the external drive using my PC to remove everything from it except the folders containing my music, documents, and photos, so that I at least know that those are safe? As before, +keeping a viable copy of those things is still my main priority+.

I'm going to give this another 15 minutes or so before restarting the computer and booting from the external drive again, this time trying to log in using the new account that I created, but what should I do when and if I gain re-entry to the desktop? Since we've now established that the problem is not solely my internal hard drive, what should be our next plan of action?

BDAqua

Level 10

239,987 points

Sep 22, 2008 4:16 PM in response to iamnicolekidman

Yes the internal disk is real bad then, likely the original account is messed up, power down and try booting from that other user... PC won't help unless you maybe had MacDrive® for it.

Desktop will not load, stuck on blue screen -- please help!