After Hard System Freeze, Login Screen is Pinstriped and Unresponsive

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After Hard System Freeze, Login Screen is Pinstriped and Unresponsive

I had a hard freeze on Sunday on my G5/2x2 PowerMac running 10.5.6. I could move the mouse, but nothing else on the system responded. The dock wouldn't even unhide. I couldn't force quit anything. So, I shut down the system using the button on the Mac. When I tried to start the Mac, I got to the login screen, but it had a pinstripe and then froze on the screen with the Apple, but no login screen. I tried booting with the shift key. Same. Then, I tried booting from the internal back-up drive and a got a pinstriped screen with a question marked folder, then the same freeze. The same happened when I attached a firewire boot drive and tried to boot holding cmd-opt-shift-del. Same result. Any ideas? Thanks.

PowerMac G5/2x2, a MacBook C2D/2.0, iPhone 3GS, 1st & 5th gen iPods, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Jun 24, 2009 9:30 PM

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Answer 1

Neil2 Author

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Jun 25, 2009 3:52 PM in response to Neil2

I wanted to try to boot from the system install disc, but I don't know how to open the drive tray in order to insert the disc.

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Answer 2

nerowolfe

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13,090 points

Jun 25, 2009 4:06 PM in response to Neil2

Neil2 wrote:
I wanted to try to boot from the system install disc, but I don't know how to open the drive tray in order to insert the disc.

Doesn't the tray open key work?
You may have suffered a logic or motherboard failure, or perhaps a partial power supply failure.
Be sure all non-essential peripherals are unplugged and try doing a PRAM reset.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379

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Answer 3

Neil2 Author

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Jun 25, 2009 6:26 PM in response to nerowolfe

I pulled my PCI card and unplugged the second internal hard drive and tried to restart. I still get stuck on the grey screen with the Apple logo. The Mac made hardly any noise. If I recall correctly, it used to make a lot of noise on startup. I didn't think of the power supply, but maybe you are right.

I also tried to zap the PRAM, but the screen stayed black the whole time (more than two minutes) until I released the keys. Could the problem be the battery? I don't think I've changed it in years.

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Answer 4

Neil2 Author

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Jun 26, 2009 4:10 PM in response to Neil2

In my original post I said that, after the hard freeze, I restarted my Mac and got to the login screen. I did NOT get to the login. I meant to say that I got to the grey screen with the Apple logo. I don't know if that makes any difference in diagnosing the problem. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

EDIT: Also, when I tried to zap the PRAM, the system never chimed. As I said, the screen stayed black the whole time and I held the keys for more than two minutes, which is way longer than it should take based on my experience from back in the 1990's. I don't remember having to do it since I switched to Mac o/s X.

Message was edited by: Neil2

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Answer 5

Neil2 Author

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Jun 27, 2009 4:38 PM in response to Neil2

UPDATE: I bought a new half AA battery to replace the old one. I still have the same problem. I have the positive terminal facing the front of the Mac. Does anybody remember the proper orientation? I installed it that way because it looked like there was a spring loaded terminal in the back.

If the battery isn't the problem, I can only hope that it's the power supply.

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Answer 6

Neil2 Author

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Sep 2, 2010 10:09 AM in response to Neil2

It turns out that my video card went bad. Apple replaced it for around $200 and the computer worked fine for another year. When the video went out again, I bought a new iMac.

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