Help!! Mac wont boot

[mattwatson1979]

I have a G4 Sawtooth 466. I was running OS 10.3.7 perfectly well and then one day I got a kernal panic. I rebooted and my Mac hung on the grey apple screen. From here on my Mac would not boot up.

I reinstalled from the 10.3.0 Disk and managed to get into the OS, I assumed everything was well so ran windows update. I had a few hours running 10.3.9 and started installing iLife 05 when "boom" kernal panic... restart... hangs on grey apple...

I thought, 10.3.9 must have issues, ill stick to good old 10.3.0 - so i did... it worked, i started listening to some iTunes and "boom" kernal panic... grey appple hanging....

Tryed os utils, says everythings fine... sometimes wont load from the install disk now.. i get a black screen! I have the original install disks so i thought id try OS 9.1

Installed 9.1 restarted, hangs on boot screen...

ran norton disk doctor for OS 9... says everythings fine!!!

so, i cant get it past the boot screen on any OS now! on 9.1 it does a single beep just before it loads extensions... (some times it shows the little bomb too)

ive tried PRAM, NVRAM, Safe Boot, Boot with no extentions, just about all the keybord short cuts and no luck, it can load OSX once and OS9 never!

All my ram is ok, my HD has no bad sectors, tommorrow im going to try installing a new HD just to be sure, and also try installing from an iBook attached via firewire... but does anyone have any clues at all?

just incase it helps:

466 processor
1.25 RAM
Superdrive upgrade
80 GB HDD
9.1.0 and 10.3.0 disks

Quick note... i had a D-Link 122 running, i know these cause problems so i have not reinstalled this since the crashes started, this is all LAN work.

Any help appreciated... i dont want to lose this mac, its well loved!

Matt Watson

 

[Nermal]

Have you tried resetting the PMU? There's a little button on the logic board near the battery. Unplug the computer, press the button ONCE, then try booting up again.

 

[mattwatson1979]

PMU reset - no luck

I have now reset the PMU - no luck, still hangs...

I tried removing the battery too.... still hangs...

Thanks for the tip, but so far im not having much luck.

Matt

 

[jeremy.king]

Try reseating all RAM, upgrade cards, etc. Something may have shaken loose. Otherwise I got nothing you haven't already tried.

And never run WINDOWS update on your beloved mac

 

[Sun Baked]

Unplug the current HD, and see if it boots fine from the CD.

If it does, then you know that you fragged something on the startup drive.

Data should still be there, but you got something seriously screwed up with initial bootstrap portion of the boot process that will take the machine down every time until you manually give it a new boot drive.

Edit: Since you know this by running the disk utilities on CD, booting from a 2nd drive is probably the way around the problem.

 

[mattwatson1979]

Checked RAM - No luck

All RAM seated correctly...

I think the WINDOWS update may of done it actually!! LOL Sorry, spent the weekend trying to sort out my girlfriends PC, think it got stuck in my brain!... Tryed selling her the idea of a mac, went to demo it and this problem started! This mac is costing swichers!

Currnetly running my work Lap Top running windows too, so its not like i can show anything. As I say, ill borrow my brothers iBook tommorrow and try to use that as a tool to fix it.

Plus he has the original 20 GB HDD, so ill try plugging that in and making sure its not the HDD thats died!

Its at these times i wish I hadnt ripped all my CD's and got rid of my CD player!

Possible things I could of done to kill my mac...

Used my D-Link 122
Installed Mac Media Centre Alpha
Updated to 10.3.8

Thats about it...

Well, at least ill have a cool looking PC case if this thing is dead... and nice apple monitor spare.... time for an iBook if thats the case!

Right... checking again..

RAM seated...
HDD plugged in properly...
Blown out dust!!! lots of that!
reset PMU
plulled out battery and put it back again...
used keyboard commands and the winner says.......

nope hangs about 1/8 into the OS 9 status bar on boot, with 1 beep!

Anymore for anymore?

Thanks for the help anyways

 

[mattwatson1979]

HDD problem!

Thanks Sun Baked... I think that may be the problem!

I will be getting a 20 GB HD tommorrow, so lets see if i can fix it with that!

Do you know of anyway of reparing the boot section? ive formatted the disk dones in my mission to get an OS on there, wouldnt this of done it?

If i get the 20 GB disk as a boot disk will the 80 GB one be usable for date (keeping iPhoto and iTunes stuff on?)

Chears for this anyways... ill keep trying

Matt

 

[Sun Baked]

If you've formatted the drive, and cannot install an OS on it... it could very well be the drive.

Usually file system/catalog problems can be worked around by other methods.