Kernel Panic - can't start in Safe Mode or from OS Install disc

Question

Kernel Panic - can't start in Safe Mode or from OS Install disc

Can anyone help me ?,

Here's what happens :

1. I press the power button to switch on
2. The usual grey screen with the apple logo appears but after a few seconds it is replaced by a darker grey/black screen with a message in the centre saying something like 'you need to restart your computer, press restart or press and hold the power button for a few seconds' in several languages(I believe that this is indicates a Kernel Panic)
3. Powering down as per the instruction just results in the same message appearing when I switch on again......

I've looked at numerous suggested solutions, here and elsewhere - the problem is that they all start with either:
...start your machine in Safe Mode...
Or
...start your machine from the OS disc...
and I have been unable to do either (the same panic screen just reappears each time)

I've also tried starting in Single User Mode and typing mount uw / (step 1 of another suggested solution) - again it simply hangs after returning a few lines of text...

I have a G4 iMac with superdrive and have recently installed OSX 10.4

Any suggestions you can offer would be gratefully received!

iMac G4, Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Posted on Oct 9, 2006 2:56 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Barry Hemphill

Level 8

40,456 points

Oct 9, 2006 4:42 AM in response to going round in circles

Hello going:

Welcome to Apple discussions.

One suggestion - if you have third party memory installed, remove it and see if the problem goes away. If it does not and you cannot start from the software install DVD, you will need to take your computer to either an Apple store or to an Apple certified repair facility for diagnosis. Kernel panics may be caused by either hardware or software, but if you cannot start from your install DVD, no further "repair" operations would be possible.

Barry

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Answer 2

Oct 9, 2006 5:35 AM in response to Barry Hemphill

Thanks for your response Barry, much appreciated. I've no 3rd party memory installed so sadly it looks as if a trip to a repair facility may be my only remaining option.

I suspect that the problem may have been triggered by a recent OS upgrade and an almost full start-up disc but without being able to start the machine there seems to be little I can do about either.

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Answer 3

Oct 11, 2006 6:36 AM in response to going round in circles

I had the same thing happen to me. If all of your stuff is backedup then what I did was hook my bad iMac up to one that I had in the office via terminal mode When I did that the mac that would not start showed up as a hard drive that was not recinized on the computer that did work and then I was able to reformat the drive and do a clean instal.

I would only do this if you have all of your critical files backed up.

John

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Answer 4

Dec 23, 2006 12:54 PM in response to John White10

I have sent this little note to lots of people having the kernal panic problem....I had it bad on my G4 and experienced some of the same probs described in this thread. I noticed my keyboard was pretty dirty....tried to find out about cleaning it but it seemed dumb to do that when a new keyboard is only $29. I bought one and began using it....bingo, no more kernal panic problems.

RC

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