 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
Mac Forum / General / Portable Macs / December 2005Panther booting to frozen screen again
Am having this problem again and was wondering whether anyone has any ideas yet on what I can do to cure it. When it starts, the whole screen is frozen with the mouse pointer in the top left hand corner. I don't think that at any stage during the start process does the system let me move the pointer. It was letting me command-option-press-power-off-button but now it wont even accept that command and I have to simply push the power off button for five seconds to get the unit to turn off. PB, 1 GHz, 512, Fully updated software. Tried Command Option PR and letting it bong four times which eventually worked last time but this time it doesn't. Is there anything in Command Option O F which I can enter which might assist? Slightly curiously, the PB starts to the frozen desktop whereas the connected external monitor only gets as far as the wallpaper. And there is still at least something working even if it is only the power to the USB ports as it does charge an iPod when you plug it in, start iTunes and report that the iPod is fully updated when the battery is charged (there aren't any other changes to the music library so there isn't anything to actually update) (I have the Panther install disc but never figured out how to boot off it and run Disc repair from that disc) On 21/12/05 4:39, in article kOmdnfZG1N7YGDTeRVn-ow@rcn.net, "news.rcn.com" <news.rnc.com> wrote: > (I have the Panther install disc but never figured out how to boot off it > and run Disc repair from that disc) Normally you hold down 'C' (or is it Command-C) when you power on, which will make it look in the CD/DVD drive for a bootable disc before looking at the hard disk. Apparently you can run Disk Utility from the installer's Installer menu, but I don't have a Panther install disc to hand to verify this. (Nor do I want to run it!) Cheers, Chris > On 21/12/05 4:39, in article kOmdnfZG1N7YGDTeRVn-ow@rcn.net, "news.rcn.com" > <news.rnc.com> wrote: I'd try an external mouse, the fact the plugging in an iPod fires up iTunes etc suggests to me everything is running fine but the trackpad is a bit up the spout. An external monitor would only bring up the wallpaper as the PB supports spanning, so the only thing you get when you first connect a monitor is just a wallpaper picture. Nothing else. Try also some keyboard commands, with it started up to the desktop, hitting apple-n should bring up a new window, tab should take you through the files, apple-o should open up a selected folder, somebody else hopefully will be along in a minute to give you the direct keyboard shortcuts to the Applications folder, then you can use the arrow keys to scroll to an application, and Apple-o to fire it up. Then you know the machine is running fine but the trackpad is kapput. > > (I have the Panther install disc but never figured out how to boot off it > > and run Disc repair from that disc) > > Normally you hold down 'C' (or is it Command-C) when you power on, which > will make it look in the CD/DVD drive for a bootable disc before looking at > the hard disk. Just C, alt would make it look for any bootable drives. > Apparently you can run Disk Utility from the installer's Installer menu, but > I don't have a Panther install disc to hand to verify this. (Nor do I want > to run it!) Ah go on! It is quite safe.  SignatureJon B real email to usenet at jonbradbury dot com On 21/12/05 4:59, in article 1h7xizm.vrnjp314m09dkN%black.hole@jonbradbury.com, "Jon B" <black.hole@jonbradbury.com> wrote: >> Apparently you can run Disk Utility from the installer's Installer menu, but >> I don't have a Panther install disc to hand to verify this. (Nor do I want >> to run it!) >> > Ah go on! It is quite safe. Cluck cluck cluck! I'm a chicken. Cheers, Chris I am really not sure what my response is to your message: You were right of course: Plugging in an external mouse resulted in my being able to use the computer, which is baffling as I had an external mouse and keyboard plugged in before and THAT didn't work. But I was able to run disk repair from the Panther install disc and that didn't seem to repair anything much. (a few minor files). The question now is what was causing the problem and when will it manifest itself again and how can I obviate it? Or do you think it was exclusively caused by a dodgy internal trackpad? With the PCs, there is some way of booting off a floppy and checking the hard drive. Can the hard drive manufacturer be identified on an Apple and if so is there any way of using a manufacturer's disk checking utility yet? Or do I have to take the drive out and use a 2.5 to 3.5 adapter to put it in a PC and check it from there by booting off the floppy? Interestingly it doesn't like an Apple optical mouse and wont power it up. But I only had that because someone gave it to me: I have grown so used to using a right hand mouse button that I don't really need this. > I'd try an external mouse, the fact the plugging in an iPod fires up > iTunes etc suggests to me everything is running fine but the trackpad is [quoted text clipped - 28 lines] >> > Ah go on! It is quite safe. > I am really not sure what my response is to your message: You were right of > course: Plugging in an external mouse resulted in my being able to use the [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > itself again and how can I obviate it? Or do you think it was exclusively > caused by a dodgy internal trackpad? I'm not the guy who gave you the advice, but about the only way to diagnose a dodgy trackpad (most dodgy hardware, really) is to check the other stuff, and then if the problem doesn't go away, try swapping out the suspected hardware. If the problem then goes away (and better yet, shows up in another machine into which you install the suspect hardware), then you've probably just replaced a dodgy part. Unfortunately, that requires you to have spare hardware to do tests on, or for replacements to be cheap enough that you don't mind having an unused extra lying around in the case that the hardware isn't bad (well, I guess you could sell one or the other, and probably make about the same as you paid). As happens, I've got a Pismo case with trackpad, and a few other miscellaneous parts left over from eBaying my dead Pismo, in a closet. Drop me a line if you're interested. > With the PCs, there is some way of booting off a floppy and checking the > hard drive. Can the hard drive manufacturer be identified on an Apple and if > so is there any way of using a manufacturer's disk checking utility yet? [snip] OS X has a built-in disk utility application that will give you this information, and run some checks on the internal HD (better to have a backup first). There is a certain amount you can do with Disk Utility while running from the boot volume, but you can do more if you boot from another volume first. > >> > (I have the Panther install disc but never figured out how to boot off > >> > it [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > >> > > Just C, alt would make it look for any bootable drives. Mind, holding down alt makes it look for any bootable drive, presents you with a list of all bootable drives, and allows you to select one. So, you get to the same place (if you select the CD), but it takes longer. SignatureLater, John johajohn@indianahoosiers.edu 'indiana' is a 'nolnn' and 'hoosier' is a 'solkk'. Indiana doesn't solkk. > > I am really not sure what my response is to your message: You were right of > > course: Plugging in an external mouse resulted in my being able to use the [quoted text clipped - 23 lines] > miscellaneous parts left over from eBaying my dead Pismo, in a closet. > Drop me a line if you're interested. G3 Pismo bits probably won't fit a G4 powerbook though. > > With the PCs, there is some way of booting off a floppy and checking the > > hard drive. Can the hard drive manufacturer be identified on an Apple and if > > so is there any way of using a manufacturer's disk checking utility yet? Go into system profiler, check under ATA Devices and it will give you the HD model number, drop that into Google (maybe without the last letter) and it will usually the results will tell you the HD make. There should be something on the SMART status in there I think on a machine as recent as yours. Re the mouse you've been donated, it isn't uncommon for the Pro Mice wire to fray as it enters the mouse, so any a few years old are often knackered. If you are trying to eliminate a problem then you need known good parts. SignatureJon B real email to usenet at jonbradbury dot com > > > I am really not sure what my response is to your message: You were right > > > of [quoted text clipped - 30 lines] > > > > G3 Pismo bits probably won't fit a G4 powerbook though. lol no, they won't. I mixed up the model. Thanks for the corrections. SignatureLater, John johajohn@indianahoosiers.edu 'indiana' is a 'nolnn' and 'hoosier' is a 'solkk'. Indiana doesn't solkk. Actually I doubt that a drive utility tool would show much if the OS one shows the drive is OK but I suppose it would be worth the bother: When I do, will I be able to write any manufacturer's drive testing utility to a CD and use it on a Mac to start the computer and test the drive? (I also have a 700 MHz iBook which shows absolutely no hard drive whatsoever: I can boot off an install disc but if I try to install, it cant see a drive to which to install: It WOULD be worthwhile trying to see what is wrong with that drive if something can identify it if the manufacturer's utility will work on a Mac?) >> > I am really not sure what my response is to your message: You were >> > right of [quoted text clipped - 51 lines] > knackered. If you are trying to eliminate a problem then you need known > good parts. |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2008 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.