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jph

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Hi there,

got my G5 1.8 GHz DP with Formac Gallery 1900 ADC, ATI 9600, 1 gig extra (3rd party, but reliable, from DSP - quality vendor in Germany) about 2 weeks ago.
I experienced occasional crashes (screen freeze, mouse arrow movable, hard restart required) just like so many other users (the crashes appeared even before the extra RAM was added).
Ran Apple Hardware test - nothing detected.
Repaired permission - problem remains.
Now I wanted to reinstall OS X (came with 10.3.4 out of the box, I upgraded via software update to 10.3.5) - and I noticed that upon restart the usual grey screen appears with the usual spinning circle, but then the screen goes black and the display gets in sleep mode, while the Mac apparently is still running. regardless of what I do (hitting space bar, moving mouse, pressing mouse button etc.) it doesn´t wake up. When I do a hard restart it keeps hanging at exactly the same point unless I remove the disc. As a result I wouldn´t be able to do a system reinstallation at all - which worries me quite a bit.

Any suggestion would be very wellcome!

Thanks in advance

jph
 

Horrortaxi

macrumors 68020
Jul 6, 2003
2,240
0
Los Angeles
Not quite an on-topic answer but it might fix your problem. Create a new user account and transfer your documents, etc (but not preferences) to it. I can almost guarantee that the problems that lead you to try to reinstall the OS will be gone. It's almost never necessary to reinstall the OS.
 

jsw

Moderator emeritus
Mar 16, 2004
22,910
44
Andover, MA
If Horrortaxi's suggestion doesn't work, call Apple support - this is exactly the sort of thing they should help with. New system, nothing added but RAM (which, by the way, they will tell you to remove and then run without for a month, so, since the problem occurred before it was installed, you might want to remove the RAM before calling and not mention it).

But, obviously, try the above suggestion first. However, even if it works, I'd at least call to see if you can get a replacement set of CDs - maybe yours have problems.
 

jph

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Thanks for your suggestions,

however, Horrortaxi's idea did not work, same effect.
Unfortunately apple has no 24/7 phone support here in Germany but I'll call them tomorrow.
I'm not sure if it has something to do with the formac screen (not waking up) or the Mac itself (not awakening the display during reboot). I'll try my old 17" crt tomorrow, that should clarify things a bit.

The funny thing is: I cannot reboot from the G5 install disc 1 - as described; and the same thing happens when I use the original panther installation disc from the OS X 10.3 retail package!
However, starting the apple hardware test CD (with holding 'c') is no problem at all...
 
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