G5 10.4.11 hangs when starting up

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Level 1

16 points

G5 10.4.11 hangs when starting up

Have a G5 that had started hanging when starting up, and then wouldn't start at all. Read about replacing the battery which I did, and it worked OK for a couple of months, but now it is hanging again. It starts OK in safe mode. I have repaired permissions using disk first aid, but I have not repaired disk using disk first because I don't have a startup disk.

So, I have two questions:

1. I made a boot disk on a thumb drive for one of my other computers, but now I can't remember how to do that. Anybody have a link?

2. If I am able to run disk first aid repair, but that doesn't solve the problem, does anybody have other ideas.

FYI, I would prefer to not update software further. The only thing that I use this computer for is MYOB Accounting software, and if I update further, it won't run, and I will have to buy a very expensive update so I am hoping I won't have to do that.

Thanks!

Posted on Nov 27, 2015 3:44 PM

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Answer 1

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BDAqua

Level 10

239,225 points

Nov 28, 2015 10:34 AM in response to mbh54

Hi, a G5 may not boot from a USB drive.

Safe Boot should Repair the drive, it is much similar to this...

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).

http://www.westwind.com/reference/os-x/commandline/single-user.html

You could also boot into Safe Mode & check the System Log...

Open console in Applications>Utilities, check the system log for the date/time of the last problem & the Startup right after that for clues.

Click on the top line we want, Shift plus click on the bottom line we want, CMD+c to copy, then paste the text in a reply with CMD+v

A few dozen lines should be about right, hundreds or thousands won't likely be readable.

Have you blown the dust out lately, especially the Video Card & PSU?

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Answer 2

mbh54 Author

Level 1

16 points

Nov 28, 2015 10:17 PM in response to BDAqua

Thanks so much for the suggestion. So far, when I boot in safe mode, the "Repair Disk" option isn't available - only verify, and it says there are no problems on the disk. Will try single user on Monday (it is my work computer), and check System Log.

I did blow the dust out when I replaced the battery, so I don't think that is the problem, but I will check and see - it has only been a couple of months.

Appreciate your help.

Mary

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

239,225 points

Nov 29, 2015 11:44 AM in response to mbh54

My notes on the Safe Boot working wilst regular boot does not...

One way to test is to Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, Test for problem in Safe Mode...

PS. Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive & trash/rebuild cache files

Reboot, test again.

If it only does it in Regular Boot, then it could be some hardware problem like Video card, (Quartz is turned off in Safe Mode), or Airport, or some USB or Firewire device, or 3rd party add-on, Check System Preferences>Accounts (Users & Groups in later OSX versions)>Login Items window to see if it or something relevant is listed. Or an errant process eating up RAM.

Check the System Preferences>Other Row, for 3rd party Pref Panes.

Also look in these if they exist, some are invisible...

/private/var/run/StartupItems

/Library/StartupItems

/System/Library/StartupItems

/System/Library/LaunchDaemons

/Library/LaunchDaemons

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