The proverbial bosoms have been elevated

redneon · May 17, 2006

I'm really hoping someone can help me because I don't want my brand new 20" Intel iMac to be the worst purchase I ever made. I wanted to switch to Macs but I'm not being filled with confidence at the minute.

I got my iMac last week and yesterday it completely crashed with a message saying I had to switch it off with the power button and back on again. "Fair enough", I thought, "there's bound to be teething problems with the new Macs".

Today, however, it completely crashed with no message, everything just stopped working. So, I switched it off at the power and back on again and now I can't click on any of the names or buttons on the login screen! I've tried it with two mice to no avail. I've even left the machine switched off at the wall for half an hour and tried it again but I've had no joy.

I know there's teething problems with the Intel Macs and everything but this is getting stupid. I've even been getting repetetive crashing of Safari (but only in my account, in my girlfriend's account it's fine). I'm wondering if we've got a faulty unit.

Please help. I really don't want to restore the machine back to it's original state.

LastLine · May 17, 2006

Have you tried a different USB port?

drlunanerd · May 17, 2006

redneon said:
Please help. I really don't want to restore the machine back to it's original state.

I think that'd be your best bet. I always wipe the drive and install software myself when I get new computers - PCs and Macs.

What you could do is backup the data in your account, login to your GF's and then delete your account. Create a new one for yourself and then see if you can login OK to that. Might just be corrupted files in your account.

mad jew · May 17, 2006

Okay, try booting into Safe Mode and then removing your Login Items (through System Preferences) to get it booting normally.

As for Safari, find a file named com.apple.Safari.plist in the Preferences folder within your Home folder, and drag it to the Desktop whilst Safari is closed, then reopen Safari.

Good luck.

redneon · May 17, 2006

Here's a new development. I've realised that if I click on my login name as soon as it appears it works! But then it freezes. Whereas if I wait a couple of seconds after the login screen appears it freezes. So, at some point soon after the login screen is displayed something is causing it to freeze.

I'm booting it up into safe mode now to see if I can sort it out.

dpaanlka · May 17, 2006

That is the weirdesd threat title I have seen in a very long time.

EDIT: So I went to edit my mispelling of the word "thread" and ended up replacing the "t" at the end of "weirdest" with a d. And now I'm leaving it that way because it cracks me up. It's way too late. Sorry that this post has nothing to do with the topic. My two cents? Try resetting the PRAM battery by holding down command+option+p+r while restarting.

EDIT #2: Wait, does zapping the PRAM even apply to Intel Macs?

jive · May 17, 2006

DId you do that Security Upgrade last week? Or few days ago?

That f*cked me over completely. I had to reboot from teh startup disc - it didn't wipe my HD and it only took an hour or so.

There are a few threads about this.

redneon · May 17, 2006

dpaanlka said:
That is the weirdest threat title I have seen in a very long time.

Threat title? It effectively translates as "things have gone tits up", how's that a threat?

Good news! I can log in in safe mode but now I'm not sure what to do... There's obviously something being run after the login screen is displayed that I want to stop from running, maybe?

jive said:
DId you do that Security Upgrade last week? Or few days ago?

My computer was completely up to date as of yesterday so, maybe. Both crashes did happen after I updated yesterday, one last night and the "cruncher" this morning.

mad jew · May 17, 2006

Go to System Preferences, and in the Accounts section, navigate to Login Items. Remove them all.

dpaanlka · May 17, 2006

redneon said:
Threat title? It effectively translates as "things have gone tits up", how's that a threat?

Read the edits at the bottom of my original post. Was a typo. Oh yeah, and since you can log into Safe Mode, forget the whole PRAM battery thing.

redneon · May 17, 2006

mad jew said:
Go to System Preferences, and in the Accounts section, navigate to Login Items. Remove them all.

But don't login items happen when you're actually in the process of logging in? I can't even get to that point. I'll try it, though.

mad jew · May 17, 2006

Yeah, but you logged in okay with Safe Mode, right?

redneon · May 17, 2006

mad jew said:
Yeah, but you logged in okay with Safe Mode, right?

No that's not what I mean. The problem is occuring BEFORE I log in. I can't even click on my name TO log in. The login items are only run once you're actually in the process of logging in.

I did try it, though. I logged in in Safe Mode and removed the startup items from mine and my girlfriend's accounts but when I restarted in normal mode I still couldn't click on my name to log in.

redneon · May 17, 2006

dpaanlka said:
Oh yeah, and since you can log into Safe Mode, forget the whole PRAM battery thing.

What PRAM battery thing? Was that the problem caused by the security update?

EDIT: Forget that, I just read your comments

mad jew · May 17, 2006

Okay, PRAM resetting does apply to Intel machines, but I'm not sure that's the issue at hand.

What sort of peripherals do you have plugged in? The fact the mouse works in Safe Boot is pretty promising IMO. Just to get a bit of background information, can you move the cursor at the Login Screen? Do you have third party RAM installed?

If it comes to a reinstall of the OS, I'd try doing an Archive & Install which means you shouldn't lose anything and it should all be easily recovered.

redneon · May 17, 2006

It's ok, I've sorted it out. In fact, I'm posting this from Safari in my account.

All I did was boot from the OS X Install disc and run Disk Utility's Repair and Repair Permissions. Repair picked up "Volume Header needs minor repair" and fixed it and Repair Permissions restored some permissions. So I'm guessing it was either of those that caused the problem.

Should I be worried that there was a fault on my hard drive only a few days after I received the iMac?

Thanks for your help, guys.

mad jew · May 17, 2006

Good work. I wouldn't be worried about the permissions but it does seem weird that your hard drive already has had a volume header problem. Did you move it or jolt it while it was on? Anyway, the good news is that it's fixed and shouldn't be a problem anymore. It's not usually a sign of upcoming failure and repairing it (as you cleverly did) is good enough.

redneon · May 17, 2006

Did it actually repair the problem or just tell the computer to ignore it? I remember back in the old 386 days I had a problem with my PC and a program basically saw that there was a bad sector and told the computer never to use that sector, thereby getting around the problem but not fixing it.

EDIT: I didn't jolt it but I was installing Adobe Photoshop when it crashed so I reckon it was probably writing to a disk header when it crashed.

mad jew · May 17, 2006

It actually repaired the problem. It wasn't a corrupt sector on the hard drive which is what is probably what your old PC had. There's a 99% chance you won't have to worry about it again.

FWIW, I have two Macs and have only ever needed to repair the disk once, on the iBook which gets moved around a lot.

The proverbial bosoms have been elevated

macrumors member

macrumors 65816

macrumors 68000

Moderator emeritus

macrumors member

macrumors 601

macrumors 6502a

macrumors member

Moderator emeritus

macrumors 601

macrumors member

Moderator emeritus

macrumors member

macrumors member

Moderator emeritus

macrumors member

Moderator emeritus

macrumors member

Moderator emeritus

Our Staff