My Mac will not boot. Please help.

[Big 3rd]

Originally Posted by psrock

what does single user mode (command-s) say at the very end? if you can type, run fsck (type fsck -fy) as somebody recommended, then try to get ahold of DiskWarrior, and run it on your computer. You can try booting to the OS disk and opening disk utility and running "repair disk." If not, bring it in to an apple store, retailer, or wherever, and they should be able to run disk warrior on it. It doesnt sound like a hardware issue, and I see this problem about 15 times a day (I work in an apple repair shop) 99/100 times it can be fixed with fsck or DiskWarrior. The next thing to try is backing up your hard drive (if you dont already.) You can access it by booting into target mode (hold T when restarting) and plugging a firewire cable between your computer and another. If you have the OS on one of your external drives, you can boot to this drive too, by plugging it in (firewire only) and holding option when restarting. Back it up, then reinstall the OS (meaning erase the entire hard drive and then clone your backup back onto your internal hard drive. This should only take a few hours. Good luck! and keep us posted.


It's probably just some random corrupt file. It happens all the time.

First of all, I want to thank everyone for your tenacious help. I really appreciate it.

Secondly, I need everyone to know that I CAN NOT DO or TYPE ANYTHING at all...even IF the single/verbose mode prompt comes up. I have absolutely no functionality at all, even putting in the original install disk...nothing happens...nothing loads. So all suggests have to take in these accounts.

[Big 3rd]

Originally Posted by FFTT

I just forwarded this thread to my Mac expert friend and she's pretty sure you may have a bad video card.

If you have another video card to try that would help, but you may just want to try re-seating the card.

There's a known issue with the Radeon 9800 Pro card.

The Video card fan does not have enough guts to properly cool
the GPU heat sink, so stuff overheats and crystalizes and that's probably why your fans
are running, attempting to cool it down.

I hope that's all it is...I'd take that anyday over my motherboard.

[yumdrum]

Originally Posted by Big 3rd

I hope that's all it is...I'd take that anyday over my motherboard.

For sure. I'm in the process of looking for a logic board for my old mirrord faced G4 that just crapped out on me. I get the dreaded four beeps every time I go to boot. Good Luck

Anyone have an old G4 board with part number 630-4256 lemme know.

[ETM Dude]

Originally Posted by Big 3rd

Sorry dude, no, the only sound I'm getting is the one "Duhhhn" sound. Nothing else. The tech support at Apple said the same thing.

I wasn't getting any audible beeps at all... the light would flash three times in a row then stop, then repeat. According to apple the amount of flashes indicate different problems. Is you light flashing at all when you turn it on?

[Big 3rd]

Originally Posted by ETM Dude

I wasn't getting any audible beeps at all... the light would flash three times in a row then stop, then repeat. According to apple the amount of flashes indicate different problems. Is you light flashing at all when you turn it on?

Nope. Only if I open the clear plastic service door.

[Barbary Ape]

This happened to my dual G5 a couple of months back almost exactly as you have encountered. I took it to the Mac genius bar and they told that either the logic board is screwed or the power supply is malfunctioning they were charging me $750 for the parts and repair since my apple care has already expired. I just didn't bother $750 is just way too much for a dual G5 I could spend a bit more and just get myself a newer G5.

Then my friend suggested that I change the ram and luckily my PC uses the same ram specs as my G5 so I took them all out of the PC for the time being and replaced all the ones in the G5 and guess what it worked!! it was just bad ram all along.

Not only that my powerbook had the same problem a few weeks back did the same thing replaced the ram and there you go it worked again! something about Macs that they just tend to mess up the stock Samsung ram once in a while. I'm not advising you to go out there and buy new ram immediately but if you have access to replacements it might be worth a try.

[Big 3rd]

Originally Posted by Barbary Ape

This happened to my dual G5 a couple of months back almost exactly as you have encountered. I took it to the Mac genius bar and they told that either the logic board is screwed or the power supply is malfunctioning they were charging me $750 for the parts and repair since my apple care has already expired. I just didn't bother $750 is just way too much for a dual G5 I could spend a bit more and just get myself a newer G5.

Then my friend suggested that I change the ram and luckily my PC uses the same ram specs as my G5 so I took them all out of the PC for the time being and replaced all the ones in the G5 and guess what it worked!! it was just bad ram all along.

Not only that my powerbook had the same problem a few weeks back did the same thing replaced the ram and there you go it worked again! something about Macs that they just tend to mess up the stock Samsung ram once in a while. I'm not advising you to go out there and buy new ram immediately but if you have access to replacements it might be worth a try.

Yeah, I spent about a lot of dough for some good ram...so I'm hoping it's the stock ram and not the expensive stuff. I'm probably asking for too much now especially since it could be the motherboard. Anyway, thanks man.

[FFTT]

When trying to trouble shoot your system, you want to take it down to as basic as
possible.

Make sure the RAM is properly seated, same thing with the video card.

You can also try using just one drive if you have more than one installed.

If you have a hard drive going bad or a bad hard drive controller this can also cause numerous headaches.

The beeps you hear when you have the clear plastic side panel removed are just telling you the system is not properly cooling with the panel removed.

Try to be systematic when you try this stuff, so you can hopefully pinpoint the problem.

[poncival]

Have you tried a different keyboard and mouse? I had a similar situation on a dual 2.5 a couple years ago which would not boot, black screen forever, occasional gray apple screen with no "about to boot now" spinning cursor just like you described. Turned out to be a bad Kensington Expert Mouse. I put the original mouse on and it worked fine. I plugged the expert mouse into another G5 that was working fine and couldn't get it to boot at all....

The fact that you can't type anything makes me suspicious, even though you can apparently get it to boot into verbose mode, so that means the keyboard might be working but maybe once the mouse tries to "boot" the keyboard goes down. Does the caps/lock light come on when you press caps/lock?

Also when I was reading your original post and I read the part about "I have 2 23" monitors" I thought to myself "bad video card" so I am glad to see other people mentioning the same thing. Good luck!

[Big 3rd]

Originally Posted by poncival

Have you tried a different keyboard and mouse? I had a similar situation on a dual 2.5 a couple years ago which would not boot, black screen forever, occasional gray apple screen with no "about to boot now" spinning cursor just like you described. Turned out to be a bad Kensington Expert Mouse. I put the original mouse on and it worked fine. I plugged the expert mouse into another G5 that was working fine and couldn't get it to boot at all....

The fact that you can't type anything makes me suspicious, even though you can apparently get it to boot into verbose mode, so that means the keyboard might be working but maybe once the mouse tries to "boot" the keyboard goes down. Does the caps/lock light come on when you press caps/lock?

Also when I was reading your original post and I read the part about "I have 2 23" monitors" I thought to myself "bad video card" so I am glad to see other people mentioning the same thing. Good luck!

Definitely possible. Like I said, I'd rather it be that than a motherboard. But the only thing that kinda makes me think otherwise is that it switched off immediately twice as I had just powered it on...as if someone pulled the cord. Now, it only did it twice and hasn't done it since...but that is pretty suspicious.

But yeah, now that I think about it...there were several times where only the main monitor would light up...with the other one blacked out. But nothing is consistent, which makes me think otherwise.

[netrom]

Originally Posted by John Suitcase

Has it been acting erratically lately?

You might look at the motherboard, if you can access it, and see if any caps look blown. I had a similar issue on my G5 iMac, with a cap being the culprit.

Same happened to my Macbook. Delivered it to Apple (still warranty), and they changed the motherboard.

[Big 3rd]

Yep fellas, took it to Apple...gave them the info of what I did to the machine and the symptoms...they did a couple of things, basically the same things I did...and did a loose diagnosis of the LOGIC BOARD. F*CK!!

So now I have to come out of $700-$900 bucks.

[Barbary Ape]

Originally Posted by Big 3rd

Yep fellas, took it to Apple...gave them the info of what I did to the machine and the symptoms...they did a couple of things, basically the same things I did...and did a loose diagnosis of the LOGIC BOARD. F*CK!!

So now I have to come out of $700-$900 bucks.

You don't have to buy your new logic board from apple when that happened to me I tried searching online and you can pretty much find one for you specific Dual G5 something at around $350-450 just make sure that the board your buying is compatible to the serial number of your machine and then just ask apple if they could install it for you and for how much.

[FFTT]

Unless they told you specifically that it's the logic board, I'd still make them check the video card.

Also some of those units have a known issue recall and you may get off a whole lot easier once the real bench technician gives it the once over.

If it were an early G5 iMac with the bad capacitors, I'd understand that it needs a board,
but the towers are pretty tough.

[docbop]

I'd check the sites that sell used Apple gear, they might have a logic board. Better yet you might be able to get a bare bone Mac like yours and then transfer everything over.

[Dor]

The G5 imacs had known logic board issues. Apple had automatically extended the warranties on them to 3 years. Not sure about the towers.

D

[14thetrouble]

Just to second the video card notes - I had a very similar prob with my dual 2 G5 - it did turn out to be a bad video card - once replaced all is well.

good luck

[badlogicboards]

Originally Posted by yumdrum

For sure. I'm in the process of looking for a logic board for my old mirrord faced G4 that just crapped out on me. I get the dreaded four beeps every time I go to boot. Good Luck

Anyone have an old G4 board with part number 630-4256 lemme know.

I found a great company that can actually repair the logic board in the machine instead of having to buy a new and unknown board

Computer Repair Services

The last job they did for me was $300 and it is still working a year later!

[clonewar]

Originally Posted by badlogicboards

I found a great company that can actually repair the logic board in the machine instead of having to buy a new and unknown board

Computer Repair Services

The last job they did for me was $300 and it is still working a year later!

Hmm... your username is badlogicboards and your only post is to bump a long dead thread to advertise for a company that services logic boards?