The update completely screwed up my computer! Now it won't start-up - it only goes into Terminal then shuts down. After three tries Techtool Pro opens in e-disk mode to repair the problem (which it can't find a solution). Great Apple - thanks !

All of my diagnostics report all of the disks are fine. They all boot in Safe Mode but not in normal mode once the update has been applied.

That means you have third-party software that is incompatible. You'll need to figure out what it is and uninstall it.

It could be related to a driver for some hardware, or it could just be standard crapware.

Lesultan wrote:

Thanks Barney, but I erased the disk and took out all of the others, so how do you think third-party software or some unknown driver could be responsible ?

I had deduced that it may be some rogue software but with an empty disk that is impossible.

Thanks again

If it boots into safe mode, then it is something non-native that is causing the crashes. Safe Mode disables all non-native startup items and kernel extensions.

The kernel panic seems to be pointing to USB, do you have any devices connected via USB besides maybe a Keyboard or Mouse? If so have you tried to boot with nothing connected?

Likely the eltima kext.

Okay, since it will boot in to safe mode, and you think it might be software related there are several folders you can make a copy to the desktop of and remove the files within. These are folders that contain startup items.

/Library/Caches

/Library/LaunchAgents

/Library/LaunchDaemons

/Library/StartupItems

~/Library/Caches

~/Library/LaunchAgents

~/Library/Cookies <--- Since you are there anyway

Also go in to System Preferences>Users & Groups unlock if locked and click Login Items then remove all

Reboot normally and see if the problem persists.

~ denotes home

to get in to the home folder Library if you are running Lion or Mountain Lion you need to click Go then while holding the Option Key click Library

Lesultan wrote:

Again, Thanks Barney - Eltima software makes Foxl, a download assistant, which I have installed. I'm uninstalling it now to see if that works.

The com.eltima.eveusb.kext could not possibly have been installed along with the OS, which raises the question of how you installed the OS on the erased drive.

Earlier you said you "Booted in Target Mode and then downloaded and ran the installer from my laptop." Since there is no way for that to install the Eltima software, you must have done something to install it after running the OS X installer, unless you mean something other than using the Mountain Lion restore feature for the download.

If uninstalling the Eltima software doesn't solve your problem, first make sure you are using an uninstaller that removes the kext file & if you are sure that it did, please explain exactly how you reinstalled the OS & anything else you put on the erased drive. You may have done something that will cause you more problems, but without knowing all the details of what you did, it will be very tedious for us to try to help you.

Lesultan wrote:

The clean HD with the new OS still gives me these problems (I've already explained this - which is making it a bit tedious for me to ask for help if people don't read what's already been explained)

We have read what you said but the fact remains that if the Mac will boot into safe mode but not otherwise, then your "clean HD" isn't as clean as you think.

The most obvious conclusion from this is that either 1) you somehow managed to install third party software (like the com.eltima.eveusb kernel extension) on this HD or 2) using Target Mode to install the OS on a Mac different from the host one (the laptop) is for some reason not installing everything it should.

If you are absolutely certain that there is no third party software on this HD & that it is the one you are starting up from, then the second possibility above seems the most likely one. That in turn leads to asking why you chose this method instead of using the OS X Recovery feature to reinstall the OS on the Mac Pro.

Obviously, you can't boot from the Recovery partition if you have already completely erased the HD so in the future try to avoid doing that until you try that. However, if you still have a drive that you installed Mountain Lion on in the normal way (that is by downloading & installing Mountain Lion from the App Store from the Mac Pro), you may still be able to choose its Recovery partition at startup time & do the reinstall from that.

By "same problem" do you mean that your Mac is still booting to the same panic report shown in your screenshot?

Yes....simmilar thing appeared on my screen*&^%$#@#$% was not able to fix this problem !

Had to go back to my Carbon Copy 10.8.4 backup ...😠