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Noob needs help. Super desperate !!!!

S

Sundevil84

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 2, 2010
11
0
I bought a refurbished emac as a backup computer. It is running a brand new install of Leopard. I started it up it ran fine for a day. Then I did an update check and updated iTunes, leopard, and the other normal stuff. Upon rebooting it now goes to the grey apple screen and has a progress wheel that just keeps spinning. I can not do a soft boot, but when I check the progress of a soft boot (hold shift+command+V) it gives me a screen full of code and says a bunch of stuff about the AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.

What does this mean?

I do not have the OS disks, so is there anything I can do to bypass this or fix it w/o the disks?

I’m a noob, so any help will be greatly appreciated.
 
Do you have any kind of backup? Time Machine? A clone?

Not likely you can do anything without the restore discs

You can either contact Apple for replacement restore discs (likely Tiger)
Or you can purchase a retail version of Leopard (eBay?)
 
I have no back up. I just recieved the computer last Thursday, and I did the update Sunday night. That was when the problem started.
 
If you can get it booted, I would run the Combo updater for Leopard (10.5.8?) and see if it replaces the bad file.

AppleJack used to help on Tiger with bad caches and such (haven't used it since I moved to Leopard) and runs from single user mode.
 
ADent said:
If you can get it booted, I would run the Combo updater for Leopard (10.5.8?) and see if it replaces the bad file.

AppleJack used to help on Tiger with bad caches and such (haven't used it since I moved to Leopard) and runs from single user mode.
Click to expand...

How would I go about doing this?
 
I read the previous post wrong. I did not realize that you said "If you CAN get it booted". I was running the update right before this problem started. I think that is what caused this in the first place.
 
comes late but never buy a mac without system discs included , you see what happens if you dont have them .... and it doesnt matter if its a new one or a old one
so best and cheapest option is to get some a retail version of tiger ,its cheaper then leopard and as a backup computer you dont really need leopard
ok i personally prefer tiger anyway looks more authentic then leopard on a older mac , and leopard was only meant to be a stopgap until they had snow leopard ready anyway
 
I can get into single user mode and run /sbin/fsck -fy and it comes back with

The volume macintosh HD appears to be OK

Which means that it's okay. But when I type reboot enter it gets stuck on grey screen. I have thought of two possible problems.

1) I need more ram (I only have 256), but it worked fine for a day before it crashed.

2) I have a bad power supply, hence all the cpupowermanagement text.

Could either of these be the culprit?

Any help would be greatly apprecaited. I am so desperate.
 
MACDAWG- I understand that leopard needs 512, I think this is the problem too, but why did it run with only 256 for a while? This makes me question if this is the "main" problem.

DEWGUY99- I do get the grey screen,but it never resolves. I tried zapping the nvram and pram,but it did not make a difference.

Thanks for the help. I am open to any advice.
 
Sundevil84 said:
MACDAWG- I understand that leopard needs 512, I think this is the problem too, but why did it run with only 256 for a while? This makes me question if this is the "main" problem.
Click to expand...

I would guess it is unstable at 256 at best and is hit/miss
I don't think you will resolve this until you go to 512 at least
 
Other than getting/borrowing a Leopard install disc and reinstalling the OS (assuming it's FUBAR) I can't think of anything else to try that you haven't already tried.

How long have you left it on the gray screen? Many times after OS updates the startup will take longer than normal, combine this with your only having 256 MB and it could be a while.
 
Okay, I added 512MB of ram and the problem is still happening. It seemed like it took longer to get the winding wheel up but it happened eventually after about a minute.

I also tried to do the diskutil repairPermisions / but it came back and and said it couldnt do the task in single user mode.
 
There are two slots for ram. Does one already had the 256. Does it matter which one I put it in?
 
UPDATE!!

I let the unit sit over night. When I woke up I opened the bottom and switched the RAM (mostly to make sure that they were sitting in correctly).
I turned it the computer on and it fired up and went to the home screen right away without a problem. So I'm guessing the RAM was the issue and it just wasnt sitting right. I feel like a huge idiot. Thank you all for the help. The last few days were a mini crash course in Apple repair. I learned a lot and hope to help anybody I can with their computer in the future (Although I am the geniuse who had the RAM in wrong).

Thankyou so much!
 
Glad to hear that you got it going. One thing you could have done IF you had the discs was to run the Apple Hardware Test and that probably would have told you about the RAM. I don't know if they'll do it in your case, but if you contact Apple they might send you a replacement set of disc for the cost of shipping. They would be whatever was the default OS at the time the eMac was manufactured, so I think they would be Tiger OS X 10.4 or earlier but would be useful in situations like this. Glad to hear that you're going to pay the advice forward. I look at it this way, there's always someone somewhere that knows less than you do and can learn from your experiences and knowledge.
 
MacHamster68 said:
comes late but never buy a mac without system discs included , you see what happens if you dont have them .... and it doesnt matter if its a new one or a old one
Click to expand...

If it doesn't come with them make sure you have some on hand. Too bad leopard is soo expensive now..... :(
 
raysfan81 said:
If it doesn't come with them make sure you have some on hand. Too bad leopard is soo expensive now..... :(
Click to expand...
yes leopard is damn expensive,
i allways ask myself why apple doesn't do a upgrade version,
like for example
microsoft does for windows 7 , the windows 7 upgrade version you get for less then what a used osx panther disc cost and the home edition retail for windows 7 cost less then most tiger discs
and that is disappointing , especially as there would be many who would like to upgrade legally , means by buying a leopard disc for their older mac , not that i would part with my tiger ,as i tried leopard before and find it too flashy , but thats my opinion , but i know there a thousands out there who would like to upgrade to leopard , but they dont buy the leopard retail disc ,because it would cost more then they have payed for their older mac
 
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