Odd start up screen on 24" iMac..

[Macshroomer]

OK, so I bought this 2.8 GHZ on refurb for my girlfriend over a year ago, 24 inch, 500GB, 2GB. It has always ran great, no issues, but it has also always given us a two part, black screen startup with what looks like startup info in code / line item form ( see attached ). It starts off looking normal, then goes to one short message in the center, then this one with the info being added in. After that, it goes to the regular start up sequence and is fine.

So now I want to sell it and want to get it figured out. I am putting Snow Leopard on it right now and might do a hardware test via the install DVD.

But while it is is doing that, I wanted to pass it by the tech crew and get some insight as to what this is.

Thanks in advance,

Shroo

 

[mikes63737]

If you could get a better picture of that screen, or write down that those lines say, you could probably get a better answer. It looks like a single-user mode to me, but I can't say for sure. I don't know why it would do that by itself though. Does it give you a 'root#' prompt?

Is this the first time you've wiped the drive and reinstalled the OS? If you've never tried that before, give it a try (assuming you've copied all your data over).

 

[Macshroomer]

If you could get a better picture of that screen, or write down that those lines say, you could probably get a better answer. It looks like a single-user mode to me, but I can't say for sure. I don't know why it would do that by itself though. Does it give you a 'root#' prompt?

Is this the first time you've wiped the drive and reinstalled the OS? If you've never tried that before, give it a try (assuming you've copied all your data over).

I just got done doing a repair disk off of the Snow Leopard disk. I was going to take some close ups after all the updates are done, it is still doing it. I'll do the photos uno momento...

 

[Macshroomer]

OK, here they are in order of shutdown and three start up screens:

 

[Macshroomer]

Fixed it, CMD +ALT +P+R, reset P-ram.

She's good to go!

 

[shadowbird423]

This is the verbose screen that lets extremely technical users to root out problems that prevent machines from starting up. I have never seen this on a real mac. Back when I used to have a Hackintosh, I would boot into verbose mode to root out driver troubles. It usually doesn't prevent machines from starting.

Edit: You were kernel panicking upon start up. Glad your fix was so easy!

 

[Macshroomer]

Yeah, I figured from what I was seeing it was a KP, not a hard one though as it never affected the performance. Nice and easy fix...