HELP! Big Leopard Installation Problem: Blue Screen, Spinning B-balls, etc.

[Wayfarer]

I'm having a HUGE problem installing Leopard here on my iMac G5. (I regret not having an external HD to back up on.) I am typing this from my graphite iMac G3. Please hear me out; any kind of help will be much appreciated.

At first did an "Upgrade" to Leopard last night. The installation was a breeze and it was successfully installed. HOWEVER, we I rebooted I got the blue screen like many other people. (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1195031&tstart=0) So I waited, waited and waited, but it didn't go away. So I crossed my fingers and decided to do an Archive & Install from the DVD. People have suggested this, so I had hoped everything would work out.

After waiting for Leopard to install a second time with Archive & Install, my login screen appeared. I logged into my username and the intro video and setup assistant came up. After the process was finished I was taken to my desktop... but it only showed my dock (with all my previous apps, but the Downloads stack icon had a question mark icon) and menubar... (Which was gray opaque and not transparent, no date and time, and non-responsive. ) Spotlight appeared to be indexing, finder wouldn't launch, and all I got was a CONSTANT spinning beach ball whenever I tried to do anything. So I went to bed and let spotlight finish indexing. When I woke up a few hours later, spotlight finished indexing, but the spinning beach ball is still there on the desktop! I did launch some apps like Safari and System Preferences, but I still got the beach ball and constantly restarted. Nothing seems to work at all!

As much as I've been anticipating Leopard, this is very disappointing. Any help much appreciated...

 

[Coolnat2004]

I'm having the same problems. I can't figure out how to fix it. I might have to run up to the genius bar and see if they can figure it out.

 

[Wayfarer]

Most stuff is still unrepsonsive, but I'm now able to use Safari and other apps. Here's a breakdown of my problems I found so have:

• -Finder will NOT launch!!! It's unresponsive every time. This is not good. I can't see my files unless I use the "open" dialog in another application.
• -Can NOT log-out!
• -Right clicking on dock causes endless spinning beach ball and locks up my mac
• -No date and time
• -Software update doesn't give me correct updates
• -Some system prefs cause endless spinning beach ball
• -Menu bar is opaque, not transparent
• -Spaces, front row won't launch
• -Stacks, dashboard, and most apps work fine
• -Spotlight works, and FAST!

I am relieved to see that all of my files of intact, but all in all, there's not much I can do with these constant spinning beach balls here and there and NO finder. I'll keep everyone posted.

Help anyone?

 

[MacsAttack]

Once you have Leopard installed, Spotlight does a reindes. This can take some time and has a big hit on performance until it is done.

 

[MarkW19]

I got the blue screen problem on reboot a few times as well.

What I did was backup my entire system to my external HD (using SuperDuper), then erase and install on my normal HD, then transferring all the files back across from the external HD during setup.

 

[Wayfarer]

Once you have Leopard installed, Spotlight does a reindes. This can take some time and has a big hit on performance until it is done.

I said I already reindexed spotlight and it works fine. That's not causing the problem.

I got the blue screen problem on reboot a few times as well.

What I did was backup my entire system to my external HD (using SuperDuper), then erase and install on my normal HD, then transferring all the files back across from the external HD during setup.

This blue screen problem isn't an issue for me anymore as well. It's the non-responsiveness that's killing me...

And I don't have an external HD to back up my files and do a clean install. What can one do?

 

[MarkW19]

OK scrap that, I still have the blue screen problem!

I just restarted my Mac for the first time, and I now get the blue screen with nothing but a black arrow on it, and no HD activity.

I guess it must be something that moved over from my old system that Leopard doesn't like!

Anyone any ideas?

 

[Wayfarer]

I got the blue screen problem too, but I fixed it with an archive and install. THEN I got welcome screen to load but my then by finder disappeared and beach balls popped up everywhere. BUT NOW... someone had a mentioned my same problem in another thread and a SOLUTION! Whoo hoo!!

M


https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=4397333

Much thanks to Mac Rumor's member Chupa Chupa! One quick fix, NOW EVERYTHING WORKS PERFECTLY!


Anyone else who has an unresponsive finder, I highly advise you to check out the fix above. :

 

[MarkW19]

I got the blue screen problem too, but I fixed it with an archive and install. THEN I got welcome screen to load but my then by finder disappeared and beach balls popped up everywhere. BUT NOW... someone had a mentioned my same problem in another thread and a SOLUTION! Whoo hoo!!

M


https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=4397333

Much thanks to Mac Rumor's member Chupa Chupa! One quick fix, NOW EVERYTHING WORKS PERFECTLY!


Anyone else who has an unresponsive finder, I highly advise you to check out the fix above. :

But, if I'm getting the blue screen problem at login, will I need to do an archive/install on the same disk first, before doing that fix?

 

[Wayfarer]

But, if I'm getting the blue screen problem at login, will I need to do an archive/install on the same disk first, before doing that fix?

Yes, archive/install again, reboot, login into your username, get the welcome screen... and you might be ready to go.

HOWEVER, if your finder won't launch, wait for spotlight to reindex, then use the fix above. Everything should start working again.

 

[THX1139]

Next time do a fresh install

I can't understand why people run the risk of messing up their computers by not doing a fresh install. Are you lazy? So, you don't have an external drive to back everything up? They don't cost that much money these days and it's foolish to go without. Just cut back on Starbucks for a month or so and buy a backup drive! Instead, you stay up half the night freaking out that Leopard broke your computer. If you would have did a total backup to a firewire drive, you would have been able to startup from that or used it to restore your main computer if the install goes south. Better yet, backup your total system and do a FRESH install of the OS and your applications. That's what I do whenever a new OS is released. Sure it takes a lot longer, but it's worth it in the long run. Gives me the chance to clean out old files and get a fresh start. Once I'm done installing fresh copies, I slowly move my old files back and then archive the new installation once I'm happy with it.

 

[Sijmen]

I make backups regularly. As I don't have an external disk drive for Time Machine yet, I'm using rsync with another Linux box.

But I still wanted to try an upgrade. If the upgrade doesn't work out, what have you got to lose? A fresh install can be done if the upgrade fails. (Which is what I had to do.)