Mac hangs at boot. Please help.

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Marceloc1972 Author

Level 1

13 points

Mac hangs at boot. Please help.

Hello,

I have been using an iMac (Mid 2007) for almost a year without any problem. Two weeks ago i star having this problem. I was using the Mac when i notice that it was very slow and that the keychain don't work (with Mail or System preferences for example) so i reboot, then it hangs at boot and constantly keep rebooting.

For solving the problem i try to check and repair the disk but the disk utility didnt find any problem. So i decide to check and repair the permissions, there were a lot of bad permissions, and i repair them but when i reboot i hangs and keep rebooting like before.

Before the problem i had made a backup of my system with SuperDuper! so i restore that backup to the drive and i could boot, and all works great for 2 days, then the same problem happens again. I had tried to restore the backup to differents partitions and drives, to check out a hardware problem, but the problem happens again with differents partitions and drives. This problem had happens 7 times in two weeks.

The only thing that i remember that change in my system two weeks ago is that i install Intego VirusBarrier X5, before that i was using Norton AntiVirus 11.

I would appreciate a lot any help that you could give me. I am really lost with this problem.

Thanks,

Marcelo 🙂

iMac (Mid 2007), Mac OS X (10.5.5)

Posted on Nov 14, 2008 3:53 AM

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Answer 1

dwb

Level 7

32,920 points

Nov 14, 2008 5:27 AM in response to Marceloc1972

If you just dragged Norton Anti-Virus application from the trash you didn't fully remove the application. There's lots more to be removed. The CD has an uninstaller program you must use. You may find this site useful. At least until you've resolved your problems you might want to consider removing Intego's anti-virus program. It too should have an uninstaller.

My opinion of both companies is very low. They both use scare tactics to coerce users to buy and use their programs. At present there are no Mac malware in the wild - the sole exception being a trojan horse. Avoiding **** sites and ignoring their attempts to get you to download programs to view their wares should keep you safe from that little critter.

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Answer 2

Marceloc1972 Author

Level 1

13 points

Nov 14, 2008 5:47 AM in response to dwb

Thank you a lot. I had uninstalled Norton Antivirus with the uninstaller. I think that i am going to uninstall Intego VirusBarrier X5 and use the Mac for a few days to see if the problem repeats. But i am not sure think that the problem is caused by VirusBarrier.

Thanks,

Marcelo 🙂

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Answer 3

Marceloc1972 Author

Level 1

13 points

Nov 14, 2008 5:56 AM in response to Marceloc1972

Maybe the problem is that i turn on the option in Intego VirusBarrier X5 that scan compressed files. I just read in one forum that someone have experiences crashes related with VirusBarrier scanning compresed files.

Anybody that use VirusBarrier use it with this feature on?

Thanks,

Marcelo:)

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Answer 4

dwb

Level 7

32,920 points

Nov 14, 2008 5:58 AM in response to Marceloc1972

It may not be but since anti-virus software is always in the background working, getting it out of the way will be helpful in figuring out what the issue is if it turns out not to be the problem.

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Answer 5

Marceloc1972 Author

Level 1

13 points

Nov 14, 2008 6:06 AM in response to dwb

Yes, you are right, i will try that.

Thanks a lot,

Marcelo 🙂

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Answer 6

Dec 2, 2008 10:28 AM in response to Marceloc1972

I had this exact same problem recently. I had a problem with Mail, and kept getting error messages saying "Could not contact the spell checker." I tried restarting the computer to solve the problem, and now the computer hangs at the grey Apple logo screen with the spinning indicator below. I have not installed any new software on the machine except for an automatic software update that I got this morning. It seems like the only possibility here is that the software update did something bad.

For the record, I'm using a PowerPC-based PowerBookG4 running Mac OS 10.5.

Any suggestions?

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Answer 7

Marceloc1972 Author

Level 1

13 points

Aug 13, 2010 5:48 AM in response to Marceloc1972

Thanks,

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