Blue Screen – tried everything – need help please!

[satl]

I cannot startup my computer. It gets stuck on a blue screen with a movable mouse pointer. It will startup successfully in safe mode by holding down shift at startup.

I haven’t downloading anything recent that I can think of, or made any recent updates that would have caused this. It just seemed to happen out of nowhere. My Mac has been down for 5 days now trying to fix this. I have spent hours searching the forums. This is my first post for help.

Computer details:
Mac Pro
2 x 3 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
8GB Ram
Leopard

So far, here’s what I’ve done:

I reset the PRAM by holding down Command-Option-P-R at startup. It did the double boot thing.

I tried holding down Command-Option-O-F at starup to reset the firmware, but it would never boot the Mac into Open Firmware.

I have 2 x 2GB Ram, plus 4 x 1GB Ram, and I’ve tried switching them around, only using some of them, etc… it’s not the Ram that’s causing the problem.

I unplugged all external devices and hard drives.

I took the panel off the Mac Pro and pulled out all my drive bay slots, leaving only my main drive with the OS in.

I created a second login, and disabled automatic login, but it never gets to the screen to let me choose, unless I startup in safe mode.

I did a clean install with my OS X disk on my main drive, erasing and installing fresh and new. Still sticks at the blue screen.

I did a fresh erase and install using my OS X disk on an external drive connected via firewire and booted from it, still sticks on blue screen.

I can safe boot into both, either my external, or internal drive, each with a fresh install of OS X.

I downloaded Combo/Software Updates, even updated to the new 10.5.7 combo. Still sticks at blue screen.

I pulled up Disk Utility in safe mode and repaired disk permissions, still sticks at blue screen.

Here is what the Console is showing happening during startup. There are a bunch of errors at the end, I don’t know what they mean, or how to fix them. I tried Google searching it with no luck:

4:39:54 PM com.apple.launchctl.System[2] launchctl: Please convert the following to launchd: /etc/mach_init.d/dashboardadvisoryd.plist
4:39:54 PM com.apple.launchd[1] (org.cups.cupsd) Unknown key: SHAuthorizationRight
4:39:54 PM com.apple.launchd[1] (org.ntp.ntpd) Unknown key: SHAuthorizationRight
4:39:54 PM com.apple.launchd[1] (org.x.privileged_startx) Unknown key for boolean: EnableTransactions
4:40:03 PM org.ntp.ntpd[18] Error : nodename nor servname provided, or not known
4:40:14 PM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.UserEventAgent-LoginWindow[99]) Exited: Terminated
4:40:14 PM com.apple.launchd[89] (com.apple.AirPortBaseStationAgent) Unknown key for boolean: EnableTransactions
4:40:14 PM com.apple.launchd[89] (org.x.startx) Unknown key for boolean: EnableTransactions
4:40:15 PM com.apple.ATSServer[116] FODBCheck: New annex file created
4:40:22 PM [0x0-0xb00b].com.apple.finder[121] Thu May 14 16:40:22 shane-womers-mac-pro.local Finder[121] <Error>: Failed to create window context device
4:40:22 PM [0x0-0xb00b].com.apple.finder[121] Thu May 14 16:40:22 shane-womers-mac-pro.local Finder[121] <Error>: CGWindowContextCreate: failed to create context delegate.
4:40:22 PM [0x0-0xb00b].com.apple.finder[121] Thu May 14 16:40:22 shane-womers-mac-pro.local Finder[121] <Error>: Failed to create window context device
4:40:22 PM [0x0-0xb00b].com.apple.finder[121] Thu May 14 16:40:22 shane-womers-mac-pro.local Finder[121] <Error>: CGWindowContextCreate: failed to create context delegate.
4:40:22 PM [0x0-0xb00b].com.apple.finder[121] Thu May 14 16:40:22 shane-womers-mac-pro.local Finder[121] <Error>: Failed to create window context device
4:40:22 PM [0x0-0xb00b].com.apple.finder[121] Thu May 14 16:40:22 shane-womers-mac-pro.local Finder[121] <Error>: CGWindowContextCreate: failed to create context delegate.

 

[angelwatt]

One common thing that kept popping up when trying to hunt down a solution was that people with similar Console messages couldn't open the System Preferences. It seemed a resolution for that was the delete the preference file for it. From safe mode maybe you can try to delete the preference file for Finder since the issues seem tied to it. Though, I'm not sure how well that will work considering you've done fresh installs. You've tried a lot of the good ideas that I usually recommend.

You said it happens even with a second user account. Have you tried a standard account for the second user? Not sure it would make a difference, but just trying to think outside of the box. I'll think it over some more.

 

[angelwatt]

I found this documentation for dealing with being stuck at the blue screen. It says for 10.3 and under, but you may be able to try some of the potential solutions they talk about.

Here's an article with another idea related to application enhancer.

 

[satl]

One common thing that kept popping up when trying to hunt down a solution was that people with similar Console messages couldn't open the System Preferences. It seemed a resolution for that was the delete the preference file for it. From safe mode maybe you can try to delete the preference file for Finder since the issues seem tied to it. Though, I'm not sure how well that will work considering you've done fresh installs. You've tried a lot of the good ideas that I usually recommend.

You said it happens even with a second user account. Have you tried a standard account for the second user? Not sure it would make a difference, but just trying to think outside of the box. I'll think it over some more.

Thanks for the suggestions.

What do you mean, a "standard" account for the 2nd user? What kind did I create?

Shane

 

[angelwatt]

What do you mean, a "standard" account for the 2nd user? What kind did I create?

Standard as opposed to administrative. The first account is always set as admin because you need at least one. From the Account option in System Preferences when you have a second account selected you'll see a check box for "Allow user to administer this computer." Unchecking this will make the user account a Standard account. Again, I don't know that this will get you any farther with your problem.

 

[satl]

I think I figured it out.

I started up in safe mode, then set my iChat to automatic login.

I shutdown, removed the video card, and started up the computer. I waited a few minutes.

Then, on another Mac connected to the same network here in the house, I logged into my iChat and sent myself a message to the broken computer.

With no screen to see what I was doing on my broken computer, I hoped for the best and pushed the iChat hot keys to bring it to the front, typed a reply, and hit enter.

Whhallllaaaa! My reply showed up on my other Mac! I can type back and forth to myself, so now I know it logged in without freezing up, without the video card in.

Does that mean for sure that my video card is the problem? Is it possible the video card slot on my motherboard is bad? Is there anymore testing I should do before buying another video card?

The one I have been using now, that seems to have gone bad, is a NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT.

Thanks, Shane

 

[angelwatt]

It almost sounds like you're seeing a second monitor with the blue screen. Do you ever use a dual monitor setup? I guess I could check it to see if you can move your mouse beyond the blue screen you can see. If so there are preferences to bring windows to the screen, though it may be hard to do if you can't see it going on. You could potentially trash the System Preferences plist file to see if it helps.

Glad you're making progress.

 

[satl]

It almost sounds like you're seeing a second monitor with the blue screen. Do you ever use a dual monitor setup? I guess I could check it to see if you can move your mouse beyond the blue screen you can see. If so there are preferences to bring windows to the screen, though it may be hard to do if you can't see it going on. You could potentially trash the System Preferences plist file to see if it helps.

Glad you're making progress.

The mouse cannot move beyond the screen. Thanks for the suggestion though!

Shane

 

[satl]

It was the video card. I received my order in the mail today, and my computer is up and flying again!

I ended up going with two Nvidia 8800 cards, to prepare for Snow Leopard with OpenCL implementation, which should take advantage of all CPU and GPU resources, for hopefully, some serious ProApps performance.

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/12/10/nvidia_pioneering_opencl_support_on_top_of_cuda.html

Shane