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Can't boot after 10.8.3 update

My MacPro has worked fine since I upgraded from 10.6.8 to 10.8.1. However, I have not had any success with 10.8.2 or 10.8.3 updates. After installing the update, the computer statrts to boot but stops at the grey screen with the Apple in the center. It does not show the rotating circular image to indicate any activity, just the Apple. It does not matter how long I wait, the boot does not complete. When I boot from 10.8.1 everything works fine again.


Hardware Overview:


Model Name: Mac Pro

Model Identifier: MacPro3,1

Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Xeon

Processor Speed: 2.8 GHz

Number of Processors: 2

Total Number of Cores: 8

L2 Cache (per Processor): 12 MB

Memory: 10 GB

Bus Speed: 1.6 GHz

Boot ROM Version: MP31.006C.B05

SMC Version (system): 1.25f4

Serial Number (system): Not Available


NVIDIA GeForce GT 120:


Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce GT 120

Type: GPU

Bus: PCIe

Slot: Slot-1

PCIe Lane Width: x16

VRAM (Total): 512 MB

Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)

Device ID: 0x0640

Revision ID: 0x00a1

ROM Revision: 3386


Any ideas about what would prevent the Mountain Lion updates from booting?

Mac Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3), NVIDIA GeForce GT 120

Posted on Apr 20, 2013 1:18 PM

Reply
6 replies

Apr 20, 2013 1:21 PM in response to budda_42

Problems on the hard drive would be my guess. Here's the less invasive solution:


Reinstalling Lion/Mountain Lion Without Erasing the Drive


Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.


Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.


When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.


Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Continue button.


Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.


This will install 10.8.3 so no update will be required afterwards.

Apr 25, 2013 10:13 AM in response to Kappy

Thank you for the suggestions. After reading your post I checked for disk errors and file permission errors and found none. The SMART status is verified. I also checked SMART status using disk warrior and did a surface scan that found no errors. Next, I erased the partition and had the erase write zeroes as it erased. Then I did a clean install and had exactly the same problem.


Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Can't boot after 10.8.3 update

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