10.5.3 Made My Computer Not Work

Try safe boot first >> Hold the shift button when booting up. The bootup might take longer than usual, but let it run.

Aloha eligus,

I'm a fairly young Mac user (just switched in August 2006 😀), but I think I have a possible solution for you. First, a question. After you successfully log in, what do you see? You wrote that "nothing happens" but later reference invoking Searchlight. That part is confusing to me. Do you have a menubar and dock? What about desktop icons? On to my possible solution.

One thing you can do is perform an Archive and Install using your Leopard DVD. In that way, you've effectively rolled back to Mac OS X 10.5.0 - then you can go to the download section of apple.com, download the combo updater for 10.5.2 and you're back to where you were prior to the 10.5.3 update.

What's nice about Archive and Install is that your data is preserved. In other words, you basically perform a clean install, but with your previous data backed up to a separate, archive, folder. You will have to reinstall all of the apps, however. That's a small price to pay for a little piece of mind.

I had to use the Archive and Install method to install Leopard initially. I was using Clear Dock (which required the installation of APE - APplication Enhancer) and the APE install is what caused the blue screen issue. Once I performed the Archive and Install, everything was good. I simply copied over what I needed from the archive folder (it was named something like Previous System Folder), then deleted it once I was done. This may seem a bit drastic, but I know it works. If you decide to take this route, check back in and let us know your progress.

HawaiiMacAddict

Aloha Ice-Cube,

Thanks for the safe boot suggestion. I had seen that referenced, but had forgotten about it. It wouldn't have helped during my upgrade to 10.5.0, but it is definitely something eligus can try that is by no means as drastic as an Archive and Install.

HawaiiMacAddict

Try pressing the f7 key. You may have the "phantom monitor" problem with your laptop screen as the second screen...

eligus said:

Hello Macrumors. I'm having a serious issue and wanted to know if any of you guys could help me figure out the solution to this...anyways. I installed 10.5.3 and now my macbook pro won't work. I'm running on an Intel, Macbook Pro, 3 GB RAM. The standard Mac OS X wallpaper loads, and it allows me to log-in, and nothing else happens. When I press (+ Spacebar) the finder spotlight appears and I can search things, but nothing displays when I click. I'm really concerned, because I don't have time machine set-up. I haven't installed any hacks on my computer as I've been hearing caused problems for other people. Please help me out, if there's anything obvious I'm missing let me know.

Click to expand...

Try starting up from your install disk and running disk utility over your HD.