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key combos to get it to boot up

Having trouble booting up my old G5. If I'm lucky, I can hold down the 'C' while pushing the power button and it may or may not boot after several tries. Using tiger 10.5 (?) Can't remember the exact version because it isn't booting up anymore. Last time it did there was no keyboard/mouse recognition. Is there any key combo to try other than the 'C'?

Posted on Apr 1, 2012 9:19 AM

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Posted on Apr 1, 2012 11:44 AM

Here are a few


c -- boots from an optical disk like a gray system install/restore disk or a full retail install disk


shift -- boots into "Safe Mode" with most extensions turn off. SM also does some disk checking, so can take a while before you get a desktop.


option -- opens the Startup manager where all bootable volumes appear as icons. This also takes a while to come up


t -- boots into FireWire Target disk mode where, if you are connected to another FireWire-equipped Mac. allows the otehr Mac to see yo uG5 hard drive as a mounted external drive.


x -- boots to an available OSX volume (more useful on older PowerMacs hat can boot either OS9 or OSX from different partitions)


NOTE 1: these are lower case letters. Don't use the COMMAND or CONTROl keys to modify them


NOTE 2: Some of these may not work from a non-Apple keyboard.

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Question marked as Best reply

Apr 1, 2012 11:44 AM in response to novanut

Here are a few


c -- boots from an optical disk like a gray system install/restore disk or a full retail install disk


shift -- boots into "Safe Mode" with most extensions turn off. SM also does some disk checking, so can take a while before you get a desktop.


option -- opens the Startup manager where all bootable volumes appear as icons. This also takes a while to come up


t -- boots into FireWire Target disk mode where, if you are connected to another FireWire-equipped Mac. allows the otehr Mac to see yo uG5 hard drive as a mounted external drive.


x -- boots to an available OSX volume (more useful on older PowerMacs hat can boot either OS9 or OSX from different partitions)


NOTE 1: these are lower case letters. Don't use the COMMAND or CONTROl keys to modify them


NOTE 2: Some of these may not work from a non-Apple keyboard.

Apr 1, 2012 3:10 PM in response to novanut

Does it boot to Single User Mode, CMD+s keys at bootup, if so try...


/sbin/fsck -fy


Repeat until it shows no errors fixed.


(Space between fsck AND -fy important).


Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck...


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


We might get clues with verbose mode...


http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1492

Apr 1, 2012 3:11 PM in response to novanut

Resetting the Logic Board


Resetting the logic board can resolve many system problems. Whenever you have a

unit that fails to power up, you should follow this procedure

before replacing any modules.

1 Unplug the computer.

2 Press the Power On button on the front of the unit.

3 Open the side access panel.

4 Remove the battery from the logic board.

5 Wait at least 10 minutes before replacing the battery.

6 Make sure the battery is installed in the correct +/-

direction.

7 Reassemble the computer and test the unit.


 Cheers, Tom 😉

Apr 1, 2012 6:05 PM in response to BDAqua

Just tried the safe boot, shift/cmd/s which provided the chime but when it finally booted I had no mouse/keyboard control. Left the room for a few minutes and the fans were racing. Had to power it down holding the power button. I live on an island so there are many possible boats who could use this for an anchor.

Apr 1, 2012 6:50 PM in response to BDAqua

Don't ask me how but I tried again to boot in the safe mode, this time without holding anything down except the shift. It came up to the password screen. Ran disk utility on permissions and it said it fixed them. Then ran verify disk and it says it's verifying but no blue advancement bar shows up. Clicked on repair disk and it says 'repairing disk failed with error. could not umount disk. Not sure what else I can try before I put it back to work. I use it for video production.


Also curious as to why the fan speeds up and slows down often, especially when I'm working on a project. Is it just because it's a dual core and old and tired (like me)?

Apr 2, 2012 4:53 AM in response to BDAqua

I should mention that there are two HD's. One contains Tiger, the other Leopard. Last night when it decided to work it booted to Leopard. Bouyed with the success, I then tried to boot to Tiger. It didn't like my choice and locked up. Spent the rest of the night looking for my mall. And why should my email be of importance since this forum seems to work perfectly well for problem solving?

May 12, 2012 11:20 AM in response to BDAqua

BD,

Sorry to bother you once again but once I get the computer to boot up the keyboard and mouse won't function. Tried plugging the mouse into the front panal but no luck. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated since I have a large project ahead of me that will, hopefully, make enough to buy another and really use this one as a boat anchor.


Thanks again.

John

key combos to get it to boot up

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