G4 eMac Desktop Disappearance !

BDAqua

I cannot thank you enough for trying to straighten me out.

I fear hours and hours of reading about my above query have made me sound far savvier than I really am 😟 - believe me, this is far from the truth, though obviously I'm learning. I'd welcome further hand-holding whilst I try to eliminate things and most importantly save everything on the eMac.

The black Mac OS X Tiger DVD is original to the machine - it says it's version 10.4 from 2005

You've suggested it doesn't understand 'Advanced Format's 4096 Byte Sectors': sorry, don't know what this means and don't know how it's limiting/affecting me?

You appreciate that I've been attempting to turn the Touro into a Tiger OS X boot drive to start eMac from and try to get to desktop that way?

This seemed safer than erasing/reinstalling OS over the one already on the eMac and then updating it to 10.4.11. I'm trying not to lose anything during this test phase.

To remove everything from the machine I'll need help with this please - never 'cloned' before. I do have a copy of Carbon Copy Cloner or perhaps I can do Target Disk to the Touro Mobile Mk3 USB ?

BDAqua - "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..."

What am I trying to achieve by doing this ?

You should also know I have no stand-alone drives or other equipment, whether USB or Firewire plugged into eMac - just a keyboard. There is no WiFi card and I've not downloaded any software that may have precipitated this 'loss of desktop' event.

I note your directory item structures post System Preferences but I don't know what I'm looking for within the files ?

I can only use computer in 'safe' mode and even then the screen is occasionally throwing up a black and white striped Venetian blind in front of the desktop, though this does clear. I'm very worried about turning eMac off in case I can get nothing back !

On the basis of what we know, am I losing the internal drive ?

A thousand thankyou's........I shall report back.

macludite

BDAqua - thanks for explaining further.

Will try cloning tomorrow.

What I've done today:

Disk and permissions verified and repaired in 'safe' mode. HD passed. When screen goes to sleep it flashes white, doesn't switch to screensaver.

Restart> Option key> OS X install DVD> disk utility from install DVD> select whole mac HD> verify disk permissions - 10 permissions need repair> permission repair - 20 permissions need repairing> verify disk> volume passed verification. Quit disk utility and restart using mac HD 10.4.11> blue screen only - won't boot to personal desktop.

Hard shutdown. Power up using 'shift' key to boot into 'safe' mode> login> enter p/w> personal desktop available.

BDAqua

Check the System Preferences>Other Row, for 3rd party Pref Panes. - only clear dock application.

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

/private/var/run/StartupItems - cannot find !

/Library/StartupItems - NO file inside folder

/System/Library/StartupItems - 16 files in folder but nothing new this year

/System/Library/LaunchDaemons - 34 .plists inside folder but nothing new this year

/Library/LaunchDaemons - NO file inside folder

So that's where we are right now.......more as I have it and thanks so much once again.

macludite

BDAqua - As requested, update on today's efforts 🙂

So, as I'm sure you've spotted I proposed using a Touro USB external drive for cloning eMac HD to.
Read all Carbon Copy Cloner material only to realise that I may/may not be able to accomplish a full copy to the Touro because Emac is a powerpc.

Specifically, I might end up with everything copied to the Touro, but I'd not be able to use it to boot/test the eMac because powerpc's won't boot from a USB drive. Oh well.

Undeterred I ignored the warning and cloned anyway.......what other choice did I have ?

The success is that The Touro has worked as a repository and as far as I know, all eMac contents is copied to it. True to form, you cannot go system preferences> startup disk> select external drive> boot because the USB drive doesn't show up.

Without this ability I cannot boot from OS X Tiger on external HD [unless it's a Firewire one] and try to get to personal desktop !

Furthermore, if my problem is a video graphics card these are not changeable on the eMac so it may be dead anyway ?

What should I do next oh wise counsel ?

macludite

BDAqua - thank you for sticking with this 🙂

Holding 'alt' key at startup only shows mac HD; there's no other choice.

I put Tiger OS X DVD into eMac drive and it showed up on blue startup screen so I re-did disk utility.

verified disk= PASSED> verified disk permissions= 10 repairs necessary> repair disk permissions= 21 repairs.

Needed to quit out of Installer and restart eMac. This time USB drive shows up in choices pane> select Touro> red exclamation mark and "cannot install Mac OS X on this volume. Mac OS X cannot startup from this volume". Only choice is restart/shift and back to 'safe' mode !

Annoyingly I unpacked a NOS LaCie d2 Quadra which has the necessary Firewire 400 interface that the powerpc needs to allow the external drive to be bootable........but it won't show on the desktop, so I assume for some reason it's failed. I'm not the original owner so warranty claim won't be easy - hence use of TOURO Mobile USB.

1. Have I saved everything on the eMac to the Touro even though the external drive can't boot test the eMac for further analysis ?

2. Vertical screen edges are losing a little colour and it's intermittently throwing up a Venetian blind effect; Dare I risk an erase and reinstall of Tiger OS on the eMac in the expectation that this is what the computer needs ?

Any pointers over our next move are enormously appreciated.......a thousand thankyou's once again.

macludite

BDAqua,

The screen faults are very intermittent so might they mean a slowly failing something; like a video card ?

I haven't found if I can change a card separately; much internet info suggests it's integral to the mother board - the eMac is a CRT monitor as you know and they're so reliable I don't believe the screen itself is failing: this is almost unheard of these days ?

I'll try USB boot again tomorrow.

For peace of mind; Have I saved everything on the eMac to the Touro even though the external drive can't boot test the eMac for further analysis ?

Appreciate the screen maladies sound bad (though they may not be) - if this was your problem what would you be doing now; migrate everything to another machine ?

Thank you.

BDAqua - thank you so much for your support once again.

My eMac screen is getting worse (on occasion just black, then Venetian blind on restart, then a few sleep/wake-up cycles before being usable), so I've taken your advice and started looking for a cheap eMac replacement. A few 'spares or repairs' but not much to get me out of this problem and certainly not at my current spec. Hope to have secured something later today, so I'll report back.

Agree that they're great Mac's so no qualms about replacing it in any way though I note my need for a powerpc because of my software.

I suppose I can only upgrade as far as OS X 10.5.8 and to that end I was looking at iMac g5's though I'm getting the feeling they're not as robust/reliable as the eMac judging by the lack of usable machines and all the 'spares or repairs' out there ?

Didn't try the macworld USB boot - seems a little pointless given the screen difficulty and the fact that I can't just change a video card.

More as I have it.....thank you.

macludite

BDAqua - thankyou for the insight.

I've read the links you've provided and with the luxury of time, this is clearly my next move; again it appears that I'll be looking for a quite specific beast because Rosetta was abandonned later on. I didn't know any of this was possible.

Sadly, I don't have the luxury of time; my screen is now very hit and miss as to how long it will remain useable before reversion to the Venetian blind.

Couldn't believe I was bid-sniped on a NOS 1.25ghz eMac yesterday 😟

However, luck has smiled and I'm collecting a working 1.42ghz eMac (same as current) at the end of the week - it gives me breathing space to research the best IntelMac for my requirements.

I'll just need to copy existing hd acrosss to new machine; shouldn't be any conflicts then ?

Do I accomplish this with Target Disk Mode ?

Thank you so much for your continued interest and education.

macludite