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Power Mac G5, wierd screen artifacts, won't fully boot

Hello,


I have a Power Mac G5 connected to a 24" Mac LCD. I believe the OSX version it 10.5.x (whatever the most upgraded version was that the G5 allowed). It was working just fine for some time. One morning when reaching the login, the screen had wierd screen artifacts (see attached photo). Upon logging in, the mahcine will reach the desktop, but would endlessly spin the pinwheel, and is otherwise unresponsive. Another oddity is that on that desktop at the bottom of the display, some other unexpected screen artifacts exist (see other attached photo).


Note that the Apple logo prior to the login screen displays perfectly without any problems.


Upon restarting many times, sometimes the machine won't even navigate away from the login screen, and sometimes it does as described above. But never any further than described above.


Are the on-screen graphical oddities a sign of something?


Rob

User uploaded file

User uploaded file

PowerMac, Mac OS X (10.5)

Posted on Dec 16, 2013 2:50 PM

Reply
10 replies

Dec 18, 2013 12:07 PM in response to robertmazur

1) Try a safe boot.

Shutdown your machine. Hold down the shift key. Poweron. Wait awhile; wait awhile while you harddrive

is being checked.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1455


2) Another way to correct filesystem problems is into single use mode.

This page will tell you how to get into single user mode.

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


Basically, you hold down the command + s key then powering on your machine. The command key

has a little apple symbol on the lower left. It is between the alt/option key and the space bar.

Jan 2, 2014 5:35 PM in response to rccharles

Hi. Thank you for the reply folks. I'm still stuck. Here is the results of a few things I have tried. My condition has now changed a bit.


When I try to start the system normally, the system just shuts down after the gray apple logo screen. This now happens consistently, opposed to just intermittently before.


When I try to start with the Shift key pressed, the system again just shuts down after the gray apple logo screen.


When I try to start with cmd+c to launch install disc I get the on-screen image attached to this message (similar artifacts as at the beginning of my problem).

User uploaded file


If I start the system in single user mode with cmd+s, I then run

/sbin/mount -uw /

I get in return:

HFS: Removed 1 orphaned unlinked files or directories

I re-run the same command and just get the shell prompt back.


Then I run:

/sbin/fsck -fy

I get in return:

...

...

** Checking Catalog File.

Invalid record count

(4, 18881)

** Volume check failed.

/dev/rdisk0s3 (hfs) EXITED WITH SIGNAL 8


Is this issue leaning towards a bad HDD?


Thank you,

Rob

Jan 2, 2014 5:50 PM in response to robertmazur

I have more evidence to add, if I start the system in verbose mode with CMD+v, the system shuts down after showing :


<some intro lines I didn't capture>

syncing disks...killing all processes


continuing

done

CPU halted

USBF: 38.360 OHCI driver: OHCIRootHubPortPower bit not sticking (0). Retrying.

USBF: 38.372 OHCI driver: OHCIRootHubPortPower bit not sticking (0). Retrying.

USBF: 38.376 OHCI driver: OHCIRootHubPortPower bit not sticking (0). Retrying.

<many more of these lines....>


All the lines of the of this message vary only in the 38.360 piece, like 38.372, 38.376, etc.


Is this information of use?

Rob

Jan 27, 2014 1:24 PM in response to rccharles

Thanks to everyone for your replies and help. Here is my current siutation on this topic...


To see if my hdd is in fact munged up (either physically, or data-wise), I stuck a new hdd into the box and attempted a new install. The machine recognized the install disc, did all sorts of seeking and reading for 60-90sec while the apple logo was displayed, and then went to this screen.

User uploaded file


And that was it. Seems to me this reveals a problem with something other than the hdd. My logical options seems to now be:

- start replacing pieces of hardware inside, starting with the graphics card. This could get spendy on a now-outdated box (despite it being cool)

- be happy my hdd is likely ok, connect it via an external USB interface to my laptop, get the data off, and move on without the machine


I'm leaning towards #2. The only thing I am wanting off that hdd is a bunch of iMovie content where I used a mini dv camcorder as a source (about 12-15 tapes worth). Any other advice out there?


Thank you,

Rob

Power Mac G5, wierd screen artifacts, won't fully boot

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