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Powercut during update = Kernal panic

L

ldirs

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 24, 2009
10
0
Hello,

Basically I've got a mac mini that was switched off during an update and now won't boot. It's fairly recent intel mac mini running leopard. I've tried all the basic things i can think off, booting with the install cd, Resting the PMU, Flashed the PRAM, even tried booting in single-user and verbose mode, but no luck. when you turn it on it chimes and boots as far a the screen with an apple logo. Then some text fills the screen partially obscured by a message telling you to restart. Part of the text reads 'Kernel Panic'. I've managed to get all my useful data off by booting in target disc mode. So now i'm just trying kick some life back into it, and i'm out of ideas. Can anybody point me in the right direction?

Cheers for any help
 
ldirs said:
Hello,

Basically I've got a mac mini that was switched off during an update and now won't boot. It's fairly recent intel mac mini running leopard. I've tried all the basic things i can think off, booting with the install cd, Resting the PMU, Flashed the PRAM, even tried booting in single-user and verbose mode, but no luck. when you turn it on it chimes and boots as far a the screen with an apple logo. Then some text fills the screen partially obscured by a message telling you to restart. Part of the text reads 'Kernel Panic'. I've managed to get all my useful data off by booting in target disc mode. So now i'm just trying kick some life back into it, and i'm out of ideas. Can anybody point me in the right direction?

Cheers for any help
Click to expand...

If you got everything off, might as well just reinstall OS X. Just boot from the disk, follow directions, pick erase and install (or other options if you like them better) and enjoy your clean install :)
 
Ah, i wish it was that easy. It won't even boot from the disc.
 
ldirs said:
Ah, i wish it was that easy. It won't even boot from the disc.
Click to expand...

How are you booting from it? Try to do it both via the alt button (holding it after chime until boot options appear) and by pressing c after the chime and holding it for as long as it takes to start booting.

Does it go into KP if you try booting from the disk also?
 
I would take it to an Apple Store and see if the Genius Bar can get it reinstalled. It sounds like the HD's driver or Partition table got corrupted.

TEG
 
What happens when you turn the computer on? Get the startup chime? Grey Apple screen with or without the spinning gear before the kernel panic? When exactly do you get the kernel panic?
 
ah ok i hadn't tried it holding the 'alt' key, only the 'c' key. but still no luck. it just spits out the leopard dvd (silly question; is the leopard dvd what i should be booting from?) and only gives me the choice to boot from the HD. then goes straight to KP
 
On a normal start up, i just get a chime, grey screen, then an apple logo, immediately followed the the error message, no spinning gears or anything.
 
ldirs said:
ah ok i hadn't tried it holding the 'alt' key, only the 'c' key. but still no luck. it just spits out the leopard dvd (silly question; is the leopard dvd what i should be booting from?) and only gives me the choice to boot from the HD. then goes straight to KP
Click to expand...

Hmm... do you have any other Macs available to you? I would just like you to check if other macs recognize the disk.

And no, don't go to Apple Store yet. Unless its some hardware issue, its 10x faster to fix it yourself.
 
ldirs said:
ah ok i hadn't tried it holding the 'alt' key, only the 'c' key. but still no luck. it just spits out the leopard dvd (silly question; is the leopard dvd what i should be booting from?) and only gives me the choice to boot from the HD. then goes straight to KP
Click to expand...

Reset SMC (disconnect everything from the back of the computer, press and hold the power button for 5 sec, release and connect everything back)

Boot holding the ALT/OPTION key and see if the SuperDrive will read the disc.

Files on HDD are obviously corrupted/incomplete so a reinstall will be required.
 
InkMaster said:
Hmm... do you have any other Macs available to you? I would just like you to check if other macs recognize the disk.

And no, don't go to Apple Store yet. Unless its some hardware issue, its 10x faster to fix it yourself.
Click to expand...

Yeah i've got a MacBook and an old G4, do you mean checking the hd by removing it and trying in another machine?
 
ldirs said:
Yeah i've got a MacBook and an old G4, do you mean checking the hd by removing it and trying in another machine?
Click to expand...

Well you're not getting any icons/erros corresponding to your HDD so looks like your HDD is safe. I think he was pointing towards your Leopard DVD. It might be scratched or something which is why the SuperDrive keeps ejecting it.
 
Humm, My MacBook boots fine from the disc so i guess it can't be that.
 
ldirs said:
Humm, My MacBook boots fine from the disc so i guess it can't be that.
Click to expand...

OK then it's isolated to that one computer. Did you try to do a SMC reset? Power outtage might have did some wacky things to the power management of the computer. Do that and try booting from the disc holding down the ALT/OPTION key
 
Ah cheers for your help guys, After talking to my brother (who the mac came from) it sounds like he was having trouble with the super drive before all this kernal panic stuff. So i guess this would explane not being able to boot from the install disc. Dose anybody know if you can boot from a USB stick or fire wire drive, and if so how would i go about make them bootable.

Cheers again
 
I'm not sure, i'll give it a try when i get home. but how would i get it recognize it as bootable instlaition. or would i have to Partition the HDD and put a fresh intall on it then try and target that?
 
ldirs said:
I'm not sure, i'll give it a try when i get home. but how would i get it recognize it as bootable instlaition. or would i have to Partition the HDD and put a fresh intall on it then try and target that?
Click to expand...

Put your MacBook (?) into Target Disk Mode and insert the DVD. Your Mac Mini will then be able to see the MacBook's HDD and Optical Drive. You will be able to do a reinstall over FireWire. The install times might take a bit longer than usual, but at least you'll be able to fix the problem.
 
ldirs said:
Ah cheers for your help guys, After talking to my brother (who the mac came from) it sounds like he was having trouble with the super drive before all this kernal panic stuff. So i guess this would explane not being able to boot from the install disc. Dose anybody know if you can boot from a USB stick or fire wire drive, and if so how would i go about make them bootable.

Cheers again
Click to expand...

Yes, thats exactly why I was asking if you had another Mac available.

Find a USB or Firewire Hard drive etc - something at least 8 gigs so you can copy the install DVD on it it.

Take that Install DVD, put it into your other Mac, in Disk Utility click on the restore tab.

From the list on the right, drag the 'Mac OS X Installation" volume from under the disk to the 'source'.

Your hard drive (which you'll now erase, so before back up all your data from it) drag to the 'destination'. Click 'erase destination' and click restore.

After it copies over everything from the install dvd to your hard drive, boot up and press/hold the 'alt' till you get the list of options to boot from. Pick the new HD and boot from it. From there it will all proceed like it would from a regular disk.

f6jd
 
Thanks for all your help guys, i've managed to get it working! I didn't realize that you could also hijack another machines optical drive in target disc mode. For anyone whos interested all i had to do was as iLog.Genius says and put the install disk in my working mac and boot in in target disc mode (just held 't' at startup) the connect the machines via fire wire, then booted up the dead mac mini whilst holding 'Alt' which gives you the choice of where to boot from. The optical dive and the install disc from the other machine appears as a boot option, select it and away we go. It took ages, about 4hours to do a full install but now it works like a dream!

Thanks again
Tom
 
ldirs said:
Thanks for all your help guys, i've managed to get it working! I didn't realize that you could also hijack another machines optical drive in target disc mode. For anyone whos interested all i had to do was as iLog.Genius says and put the install disk in my working mac and boot in in target disc mode (just held 't' at startup) the connect the machines via fire wire, then booted up the dead mac mini whilst holding 'Alt' which gives you the choice of where to boot from. The optical dive and the install disc from the other machine appears as a boot option, select it and away we go. It took ages, about 4hours to do a full install but now it works like a dream!

Thanks again
Tom
Click to expand...

Glad to hear everything worked out fine :)
 
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